Monday, February 02, 2009

Book Promotion on the Web

J. Courtney Sullivan wrote an essay for The New York Times last month that is definitely worth reading. When I read it, I copied the url, wrote “Wow,” and saved it so I could share with you.

It’s about author websites and trailers that are becoming more and more professional. And, as you might guess, those websites are becoming hugely expensive.
AuthorBytes, a multimedia company started in 2003, has built sites for more than 200 clients, including Paul Krugman, Chris Bohjalian and Khaled Hosseini. They cost from $3,500 to $35,000 — with writers paying about 85 percent of the time. The staff of 20 even includes three employees whose entire job is updating.
Sullivan says some book videos are “laughably bad.” But calls others “impressive, full-scale productions.”
Naomi Klein’s nearly seven-minute companion film to “The Shock Doctrine,” directed by Alfonso CuarĂ³n with a full crew and shown at the 2007 Venice and Toronto International Film Festivals, has been downloaded more than a million times. “The film was a thing unto itself; it didn’t feel like an advertisement,” Klein said in a telephone interview. “But it was part of a viral phenomenon that made the book a best seller.”
Let’s face it, even $3,500 is a lot of money for most writers. Forget a production costing $35,000 -- unless you have a big-pocketed and generous publisher or you have a caviar promotion budget.

But it will cost you nothing to read Sullivan’s piece and click the links to see the websites and videos. It might give the rest of us ideas to adapt to our popcorn budgets.

17 comments:

  1. Hi Helen,
    I was lucky to have a friend with a professional production company to help me with my video trailer for Teaser, but I think in this market authors can make arrangements with companies to reduce costs. These include writing your own script to minimize siting. (Siting is extremely expensive) and casting actors yourself via Craigs List, local universities or community theater. Actors are like writers, they'll work for free.

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  2. Interesting article - now if I could only win the lottery!

    Jane Kennedy Sutton
    http://janekennedysutton.blogspot.com/

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  3. It pays to have friends, Jan! You're right that you can often find actors who will work for creds rather than money.

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  4. I'm looking for that lottery win, too, Jane. Haven't actually bought a lottery ticket in about ten years, but I'm still hopeful.

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  5. Will definitely check it out - ya never know when $3.5K will blow in thru the window & I can use that dough to parlay it into more - thanks for the lead.

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  6. Popcorn ideas are good, too!

    Amazing how much a video production company makes. Same with PR people. And editors.

    Dang, I am in the wrong business!

    L. Diane Wolfe
    www.circleoffriendsbooks.blogspot.com
    www.spunkonastick.net
    www.thecircleoffriends.net

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  7. It's amazing to see how the market for content development skills grows and grows. Sure, we put tools into the hands of amateurs, but after enduring hack efforts (no disrespect to amateurs intended), the value of development skills rises. With the spread of new digital ways to share information, I'm optimistic about new markets and new clients and exciting projects in the future.

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  8. Ahh, Marvin the movie star, you probably have contacts within the industry and could get a discount.

    Anyone new to Marvin, go to his website and watch the video:
    http://inspiritandtruths.blogspot.com/2009/02/i-made-big-time.html

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  9. Editors!

    Diane, you lumped editors in with the movie business? You're funny. And spunky, too.

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  10. Charlene, do you think in these hard economic times, authors might turn to lower-priced video producers? I sort of think that might happen, but word will get out among authors on listservs, etc., about who the quality companies are.

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  11. What! You mean nobody likes Windows Movie Maker anymore?

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  12. And I thought $475 for my last book trailer was outrageous! Thanks for the heads-up on the NY Times article, Helen. I may not try making my next trailer myself, after all.

    Jean
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9mVh6Z6GGg

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  13. Linda, you're not the first person I've heard mention Windows Movie Maker. I've never used it or seen it used. I understand it's supposed to be easy, is that right?

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  14. Jean, I may have already told you this, but in your video, I like the ominous music and I like the part where the words turn as they come on screen (it sets them apart from the words that are flat).

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  15. I'm about to revamp my website very soon, but I'm using suggestions from web experts so it will only cost my time.

    Morgan Mandel
    http://morganmandel.blogspot.com

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  16. Brent Sampson, the CEO of Outskirts Press, wrote an article in response to this NY Times, and it’s here: http://tinyurl.com/am8qu4



    Leah

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  17. Thanks for the link. I popped over and read the article. He brings up some really good points. Digital printing and authors willing to do it themselves are leading change in the publishing world.

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