Video killed the radio star…and created the book star

Seth Greenland, author of Shining City, recently contributed a piece to the L.A. Times addressing the explosion of author videos within the publishing industry. Greenland points out that:

“Once upon a time, an author published a book and left the selling to the experts in the marketing department…But that quaint notion has suddenly gone the way of Duran Duran. Now, because of recent developments in the world of publishing, writer and merchant are fusing into one.”

He also categorizes the types of author videos that have become popular in recent months. Essentially, these categories are 1) The elevator pitch, 2) The graphic montage and 3) The author field trip.

Having recently forayed into the world of video book promotion, we couldn’t agree more with Greenland. He argues that author videos are picking up the slack as book review sections become a thing of the past. In addition to the categories mentioned above, we’re also starting to see a new type of author video emerge onto the scene--the controlled interview.

Deviating from the pace of a book trailer, such interviews are more about letting the reader get to know an author in a roundabout, non-salesy way. Think "Inside the Actor's Studio" where the author or publicist controls the content. Not only is this a good fit for an author and publisher's site, but as publicists we love the idea of having footage of a client when trying to secure appearances on national, regional and even local television programs.

Titlepage.tv has done this really well and we've started down that road with Shelflife.tv.