YouTube.com is in the news for the $1.65 billion Google is paying in
stock to buy the free video-sharing Web site as well as for its
effectiveness in some campaigns this past election. But at least
one author has found the site, one of the most popular on the Web
since its founding in February 2005, to be promising for promoting
books, too.
The author is Chris Epting, whose Led Zeppelin Crashed Here will
be published in the spring by Santa Monica Press. It's a guide to more
than 500 "rock and roll landmarks throughout North America," which
includes sites where some of the most famous rock album covers were
shot.
Months before the book's appearance, Epting has posted several videos
on YouTube relating to Led Zeppelin Crashed Here. Already the videos
have led, Epting said, to "many thousands of people" becoming aware of
the book and "reaching out with opinion and comments," including
suggestions of landmarks they want Epting not to miss.
Featuring classic rock soundtracks, the videos last between one and two
minutes and are more "a film that's an ad for a book" than a
commercial, as Epting put it. "They're a polite invitation to get
interested in the book. They're not screaming." (Check out some of the
videos on YouTube.)
Epting is posting about a video a week. Closer to publication date, he
will make the videos more interactive, perhaps adding a visual trivia
game, with the prize of a signed copy of Led Zeppelin Crashed Here. "It becomes almost a little TV series," he noted.
Epting, who has an ad background and put together the first video out
of a desire to "apply my marketing knowledge and discipline to books,"
makes the videos himself. The videos "don't take much time" to create,
and music is not a problem. "I have a pretty good royalty-free
library," he commented. He has used some of the many pictures and
videos he's taken on trips for his books.
The biggest challenge creating the videos is "coming up with something
visually compelling the represents the book properly," Epting said. "I
like to keep them simple and basic. To me there's something refreshing
about simple text and images."
In contrast to some book ads, which he characterized as "musty," the
videos "bring the books to life" and "allow people to live and breathe
them for a minute. It's one thing to tell people something about a book
but another thing to show them. Books are a form of entertainment so
why not give them the same royal treatment as movies and other media?"
The postings are free, and Epting categorizes the videos under
entertainment and music. He has links on his several Web sites to
YouTube and sends them to e-mail lists, too. He's also picked "key
radio stations and outlets who took and ran with them."
Epting has nothing but praise for YouTube, which is "fast becoming the
TV of the next generation," he said. "And it's so targeted." As with
the political videos that have garnered so much attention this election
season, videos of all kinds can have a viral life. YouTube users
regularly forward favorite videos. "You put something on YouTube and
literally the next minute, millions can see it," Epting said.
For those who've followed his book career, it's no surprise that Epting
is, as he puts it, "experimenting" with YouTube. Epting has created a
kind of book category of its own: the pop cultural landmark title. His titles
include The Ruby Slippers, Madonna's Bra, and Einstein's Brain: The
Locations of America's Pop Culture Artifacts, Roadside Baseball: A
Guide to Baseball Shrines Across America, James Dean Died Here: The
Location of America's Pop Culture Landmarks, Marilyn Monroe Dyed Here:
More Locations of America's Pop Culture Landmarks and Elvis Presley
Passed Here: Even More Locations of America's Pop Culture Landmarks.
To promote these titles, he's done a range of promotions, any
one of which would be remarkable for an author. He's become the
official spokesperson for Hampton Inns' Hidden Landmarks program and
promoted its Save-A-Landmark program. He is travel editor of the Chicken Soup for the Soul
magazine, specializing in "it-happened-here" stories. He took a spot in
the lineup of Major League Baseball's Radio Web site. He helped get two
of his titles to be the focus of annual Phi Beta Kappa Society
competitions. (For more details on these and other efforts, see our April 6, 2006 issue.)
Epting likes the response to his video work for Led Zeppelin Crashed Here
so much that he's making four spots for his baseball book and is
planning to expand the YouTube franchise to the rest of his book
franchise.--John Mutter