YouTube is a website designed for sharing videos. It is one of the biggest, most popular sites in the world, and is eating up the audience that used to watch TV. Some stats:

• Hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute: 300
• Number of videos viewed on YouTube everyday: 4,950,000,000
• Number of unique visits to YouTube every month: 900,000,000

WHY USE YOUTUBE?

YouTube is a viable self-promotion and self-expression platform for all writers and should be considered. You can use it in a small way – you can film promotional talks or readings you do and store and share them there. Or you can use it in a bigger way and make and share videos regularly and aim for a larger audience.

Beyond the Viral Video

Because of the potential for broad exposure on YouTube there is a temptation to approach video production with the aim of going viral. However, the aim of an author or book publisher should not be to create one widely viewed video, but rather to produce many videos that, while not necessarily going viral, find an audience. Producing a viral video is largely a matter of luck. It’s impossible to know in advance precisely what is going to hit the zeitgeist in order to get shared by millions. Further, YouTube’s algorithm has changed over the years in order to disincentivize clickbait tactics. What this means is that, in order to promote books through YouTube, it is better to think of your task in terms of developing a YouTube channel rather than developing a viral video.

Book trailers on YouTube can get a lot of views, for instance the trailer for How to Hang a Witch from Random House has over 215k views, however producing high-quality book trailers on a weekly basis is beyond the capabilities of our imprint, and a series of book trailers for one book is unlikely to inspire people to subscribe. Further, book publishers might reconsider creating book trailers as their main focus because, unless the books are part of a series or from a narrowly defined imprint, a channel consisting of book trailers may be too eclectic and lead to crating a nebulous channel with little consistent appeal.

Authors and publishers creating a YouTube channel should decide on what sort of format will fit best given their interest or aims.

Some Tips

In order to discover what format might work best for your channel search YouTube for the channels that are on your topic. These need not be, perhaps should not be, channels produced by other book publishers or authors, but rather they should be the channels that are successful in your niche.

For example, when searching for Pagan channels online one finds that most everyone is vlogging but also that there is no major or big channel in the niche. Investing in a good camera and microphone, getting outside in some nice locations to shoot rather than sitting at a desk or in your living room, and editing videos to be a bit more like short documentaries rather than vlogs, could be a way to rise above the amateurs in the niche, gain an audience and get views.

Searching for history channels what one immediately finds are Ted Talks. An author or publisher attempting to build a YouTube channel for history books could emulate Ted Talks by find a space or stage where you can record a series of lectures from a stage. The key is to make sure the audio for these videos is excellent and to shoot the videos with more than one camera. Movement is essential for a successful Ted Talk.

If this is not possible one can use a static shot format in a more obvious vlogging environment like a front room. An author or publisher might set up a podium in front of a bookshelf and deliver lectures on history based on their books to the camera. However, audio quality is still vitally important, as is lighting and video quality. Again, investing in a some equipment including an HD camera could make a big difference. Also, if you are going to use a static shot for your lectures, edit in animations and graphics that illustrate key concepts from your books in order to make the videos visually interesting.

Overall, the trick to creating a successful YouTube channel is to find a format that fits with your imprint or area of expertise, a format that you can work within while maintaining a regular schedule, and an approach to video production that you enjoy.

THE BIGGEST LESSON – GETTING INTO THE ALGORITHM

To gain real exposure on YouTube, you want the YouTube algorithim to present your videos to as many people as possible in the “Up next” recommended videos panel.

The algorithm rewards:

• Views.
• Time spent watching.
• Regularity of content uploaded.
• Successive watching.

If viewers watch video after video on your channel YouTube will really reward you.

Many channels go out of their way to keep you glued and addicted to their content – including daily uploads and high production values.

We don’t have the resources to compete with these channels, and a lot of their tactics won’t be appropriate to us, but we should bear in mind the importance of attracting viewers to watch successive videos.

The idea is that if people love what you do they will want more of the same, so your content/brand needs to have clear purpose and identity. Ideally, if people liked one video, there should be another close by that will attract them.

To encourage successive viewing, the practice of grouping content thematically via playlists, and linking to videos at the end of videos (explained below) should be observed.

At the moment:

• 25% of our video views come from YouTube “suggested videos” within the site.
• 35% of video views come from people typing a query into the YouTube search engine.

We’re happy that our videos are visible and generating views from the algorithim. We continue to experiment with other formats to make ourselves more visible on YouTube, and to increase this number.

TRY THE HOW-TO FORMAT

YouTube is a giant search engine. People ask it questions when they want to find out how to do something, whether it’s how to wire a plug or how to get rid of their depression.

CONCLUSION

YouTube feels like a medium we, as a publisher, can’t afford not to be on. The great benefit is that once a video is up there, and it is being discovered, your PR is being done round the clock, while you sleep, as people from all over the world watch your videos. YouTube is so large, even with a modest offering, your content can be viewed for many many hours.

3 THINGS EVERY AUTHOR SHOULD CONSIDER WHEN SETTING UP THEIR YOUTUBE CHANNEL

The 3 premises of content marketing are these:

• You have to genuinely give in order to get. So rather than promoting yourself, you must think of ways to offer some of the best of yourself.
• You need to create a brand – a series of videos with a distinct creative and visual identity.
• You have to enjoy it! If it’s forced, or done out of obligation, it won’t work.

The first questions you can ask yourself are:

• Which type of video programme format fits with my expertise? Are you a presenter, an improviser, a behind-the-scenes person, an animator, etc?
• Which type of video programme format would I enjoy making?
• Can I commit to running a channel for 1-3 years to see the benefits?
• Can I invest in the production values of my channel?
• How much time can I realistically commit?

AT THE VERY LEAST FILM YOUR EVENTS!!

Even if creating a channel is not for you, at the very least you should film every event you do and create a library of them on YouTube. You will build up a great resource of promotional material which you can edit, transcribe, and share with anyone in the world at a click of a button.

MISC PRACTICAL TIPS FOR AUTHORS ON STARTING A YOUTUBE CHANNEL

• Always be sharing and linking to your videos.
• Re-purpose your videos. Make short extracts for sharing on social media.

• Don’t let the channel linger. Commit to it in the long term and keep on creating and uploading videos.
• Add the channel to your email signatures.
• ABS – Always Be Sharing (email, social media, etc. – within reason, of course).

USE CARDS AND DIRECT FOLLOWERS TO OTHER VIDEOS

Cards are live links that appear on top of your YouTube videos, directing the viewer to other videos of yours and other content of yours, and encouraging the viewer to subscribe to your channel. Used skillfully, especially on short videos, they can be used to “hook” your viewers into watching more content from you.

Read these articles to learn how to use cards.

A CHECK-SHEET FOR A YOUTUBE SKYPE INTERVIEW

If you plan to interview your authors online, it’s useful to bear these points in mind:

• Send the interviewer your Skype name ASAP so he can add you as a contact.
• Contact the interviewee in advance outlining the questions/shape of the chat.
• Be ready 15 minutes before call time, to make sure everything is set up.
• If possible, do not use your computer’s normal webcam, use a hd webcam – for better quality visuals.
• If possible use a better quality microphone than your computer’s. If you have iPhone earphones with a mic or equivalent use them.
• Use headphones for the conversation to prevent any possibility of anyone’s voice being recorded twice.
• Make sure you are as well-lit as possible.
• Give some thought to your background (e.g. nice picture on the wall, tidy house not messy etc.).
• Make sure your internet connection is secure and working before you connect.
• If you can use a wired internet connection use that as they are more reliable than wifi.
• Set aside an hour and a half to record the whole thing, even though the finished interview will be shorter.