by Ellen Byron
As you’ve probably heard ad infinitum, it’s not enough to write a book these days; you have to do the lion’s share of marketing it too. I’ve stumbled through enough Canva graphics to graduate from rudimentary skills to being relatively decent at making them. But sometimes you need to reach beyond an assault of buzzy images to engage potential readers. You need to… make a video.
Gasp! Cue horror music and bloodcurdling scream.
With my background of writing for television, making videos should come easily to me. Riiiight. Did you hear that loud burst of laughter coming from me to wherever you are in the world? I’ve spent my entire career crafting words, not visuals. When I learned you could make basic videos for free on a website called Lumen5, the saleswoman in me took the plunge.
As with Canva, my early videos appear rudimentary. As opposed to Canva, they’ve pretty much stayed that way. I eventually–if reluctantly–ponied up for a Canva Pro account and now consider it money well spent. I should probably do the same for Lumen 5, except that considering how befuddled I already feel at the simplest tasks, I fear upgrading will only confuse me more. I don’t blame the website. Look how thoughtfully they lay out their instructions:
It’s all of these other ones that send me into a creative tailspin:
Those little I-don’t-know-what-they’re-calleds are the key to a great video–or in my particular case, one that isn’t abysmal.
Another reason my video skills remain at a beginner level is that I don’t make videos with the same frequency that I make graphic images, which I seem to create at the speed of that chocolate candy conveyor belt in the classic I Love Lucy episode. I produce one or two videos for each book launch, which means I’m constantly having to remind myself how to make them in the first place.
Despite this long list of caveats, there’s something so incredibly satisfying about watching my finished product, set to the free music Lumen 5 helpfully provides. Per the site’s recommendation, I even have my own YouTube channel, which makes it easier to share the video links. How cool is that?
I have no idea whether these little visual stories help move the merchandise, but the video I made to celebrate the launch of my most recent book, Murder in The Bayou Boneyard, has 648 views on Twitter, and those can’t all be from friends and family. Not that many people like me.
I’ll keep making book-launch videos, and I hope my skills will improve with each production. In the meantime, I hope you’ll get a kick out of my most recent opus:
Ellen Byron’s Cajun Country Mysteries won the Agatha award for Best Contemporary Novel and multiple Lefty awards for Best Humorous Mystery. Her new Catering Hall Mystery series, which she wrote as Maria DiRico, launched with Here Comes the Body, inspired by her real life. Ellen is an award-winning playwright, and TV writer of comedies like Wings, Just Shoot Me, and Fairly Odd Parents. She wrote more than two hundred articles for national magazines, but considers her most impressive credit working as a cater-waiter for Martha Stewart.
