One Million and Counting

Sometime last week the video trailer for my erotic pirate story Marooned passed the milestone of one million views at YouTube. It took almost two and a half years, so it hardly qualifies as viral video, but I still think it's pretty impressive, though occasionally I have to go into my account and clear out the porn spam from the comments section.



I wish I could say this translated into fabulous royalties, but it didn't. If only 1% of the viewers had bought the story, I'd be a happy camper. But at least I have bragging rights to over a million views at You Tube!

What do you think? Do video trailers sell books?

Linda / Lyndi

Marooned is available from Amber Heat by electronic download. Click here to read an excerpt.

Book Trailers

Today has been hectic as I get ready to leave tomorrow for EPICon2008 in Portland, Oregon. This is one of my favorite conferences, so I'm looking forward to it. On Saturday, I'll be presenting a workshop with Adrianna Dane called Author as Producer: How To Create Your Own Video Book Trailers on a Budget.

Aside from the seven video trailers I've created, my main claim to fame in speaking on this topic is the fact that my video for Marooned has been viewed over 174,000 times at YouTube. If only that would translate into more book sales. Ah, well.

My latest creation is a trailer for my Regency romance, Lady Elinor's Escape. I've embedded it below for your enjoyment. I hope to keep up my Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday blogging schedule this week, but it will be harder than usual since I'll be away from home. I'm taking the laptop with me, though, so we'll see. I'll try to take lots of pictures in Portland. I understand the flowers are starting to bloom there.

Feel free to comment on my trailer or on book trailers in general. Do you watch them? Have you ever bought a book after viewing one? Or is it just free entertainment? (Nothing wrong with that.) I'd really like to know.

Linda

YouTube and Me

I discovered YouTube last year when one of my author friends told me about a video book trailer she had done for one of her books. In an instant I was hooked and couldn't rest until I'd made some videos of my own. This is so way cool.

I was extremely impressed by how quickly the videos downloaded on the library computers, much faster than at home on my DSL line. I wouldn't even try doing it on a modem hookup. I had to once, and it took thirty minutes for a three-four minute video to download. That is completely uncool.

Many authors are doing video trailers for their books, or having the trailers made for them by companies like Circle of Seven. I did my own using the free Windows Movie Maker that came with my computer. It's a powerful program, but buggy at times. It can do some cool stuff though.

Here's a link to a book trailer by author Linnea Sinclair who writes great romantic space opera:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SiM1asLQ_w

One of my videos took off for some reason and has had an amazing (to me) 30,691 views! If only a fraction of them had bought it, I'd be happy. So much for the theory that books videos sell books!

I tried to embed it here. We'll see what happens.



Nope, didn't work, but you can find all my videos embedded at my website: http://www.lyndilamont.com/. Click on Extras then on the videos graphic.

I watched some of the library videos Ed gave us links to and loved Conan the Librarian. Just who we need to make sure the books get returned on time. :D

Linda