Book Trailers

Senior Editor Brenda Urquhart: COS Spotlight

2011-11-22T08:00:00.000-08:00

Brenda Urquhart began working with COS in 2002, and has since completed over 150 book trailers. Highly creative, and an excellent collaborator, she loves her work and pays close attention to detail so as to convey the author's voice. Brenda creates character and story driven videos that capture the style and mood of each book.

We consider Brenda our “secret weapon”. Everything she does is brilliant and she is always evolving her craft, bringing a freshness to her projects both in creativity and visually. We have no idea where she gets her great ideas, but they never seem to run out.

Based out of Colorado Springs, CO. With over fifteen years in the entertainment business, she has amassed on-set experience in the production department on several feature films, documentaries, commercials and television projects.

Brenda has worked with numerous bestselling authors and with many of our high-level clients. She has many book videos that I love but I’ll leave you with three very different videos Brenda did that will give you an idea of just how creative and diverse she truly is!

Executive Administrative Assistant/Accounts Manager Renee Fecher: COS Spotlight

2011-11-15T08:00:00.000-08:00

Renee joined the COS team in 2008 as the assistant to the CEO and customer service support. She began working on publisher and VIP accounts in 2009 and in 2011 was promoted to Accounts Manager where she oversees COS accounts and projects.

Renee has done graphic design work for COS including billboards for Lori Foster, posters for Reader’s Entertainment, press kits, postcards for Catherine Anderson and magazine ads for top magazines in the U.S.

Renee’s family is everything to her. She teaches art and home schools her two teenage daughters. She helped establish a home school co-op in her community that now serves over 60 students. In addition to teaching home schooler’s, Renee serves as a youth counselor at her church.

Renee is an actress at heart, performing in community and church theatre since the age of 4. She also loves to direct and teaches drama workshops for youth and adults in her community. “Life is, after all, a stage!”

In her spare time, Renee loves to play softball, video games, spending time with her family, and of course…reading books!

Her new position as Accounts Manager makes Renee one of the most seen and heard faces of the company. She interacts with a majority of our clients and sees that they are always happy with their COS experience.

Production Partner Webb Pickersgill: COS Spotlight

2011-11-08T08:00:00.000-08:00

Webb is amazing! He is creative, professional, creative, fun to work with, creative and, oh! yeah, did I mention how creative he is?

Yes, we here at COS may be a little prejudice since Webb is one of our production partners and has done amazing book trailers for us, but other people think he’s amazing too! For example the fine folks who give out Emmy Awards. And those great people over at the Telly Awards. Did I mention the Empixx Awards? Well, let’s just say a lot of people find him to be above excellent! We happen to agree with them!

Webb started working with COS in 2005 and was brought to COS through Joe Gruberman. Webb’s video production is always top rate and he has an eye for what is beautiful, interesting and different.

Webb’s COS awards include a Telly for Devious by Lisa Jackson, EMPixx Award for Devious by Lisa Jackson (obviously this is a “must see” book trailer!), and an EMPixx Award for Found by Margaret Peterson.

Webb is an accomplished cinematographer, editor and director in Phoenix Arizona with credits in TV, commercial, feature film and short film. His projects have been seen on national TV, movie screens, and internet screens across the country and world. In addition to the Telly, Davey, and Communicator awards, he also was awarded with 2009 Arizona Filmmaker of the Year, as well as a 2009 Rocky Mountain EMMY award for cinematography. He loves creating something unique and beautiful for each client.

Production Partner Kyle Lake: COS Spotlight

2011-11-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

Kyle joined COS in 2005 working on a wonderful book trailer for one of our favorite people, Susan Squires. He went on to create book trailers for such famed authors as Christine Feehan and Karen Rose. His recent book trailer, You Belong To Me by Karen Rose won a Telly Award this year!

Kyle is one of the most versatile people on the planet. We’re sure of it. The entire planet! We couldn’t really survey the entire planet, but we did survey the COS office and we feel that’s pretty accurate.

We totally pilfered the information about Kyle’s background from his LinkedIn page (http://www.linkedin.com/in/kylemlake) so don’t tell on us! Lol

After forming the Prosper Media Group over 12 years ago, Kyle recognized the need for efficient, effective and economical media production that could be available online to anyone and a new company was started, Done In Sixty Seconds online video services.

Kyle possesses over 13 years of multimedia production & business management experience. He has worked with any variety of national clients on a wide scope of projects.

He has also taken on consulting projects with other developing businesses including Talon Winery & Vineyards as Director of Operations in 2005. He has written 3 feature length screenplays for film and currently heads the kNOwMORE Nonprofits coalition where he produced the projects first thirty minute broadcast television show.

Kyle received a Telly nod in 2002 while working with the New Jersey Network and was nominated for 3 ADDY awards in 2007. He was recognized by the Lexington Venture Club and Commerce Lexington in 2008, 2009 and 2010 for his work with Done In Sixty Seconds and received the Kentucky Enterprise Fund grant from the Kentucky Science & Technology Corporation.

While growing Prosper Media Group on a regional and national level, he has worked directly with clients such as, ESPN, NBC, CBS, US PRO Rodeo, iHigh, Host Communications, Miss USA, University of Kentucky, American Heart Association, Communication Workers of American, US Navy Seals, US Air Force, US Marines, National Kidney Foundation, Horse Racing Television and Osram Sylvania, Toyota, Acura… to name but a few.

See! Impressive! Just like we said!

We all enjoy working with Kyle and his amazing team!

Senior Editor/Production Partner Joe Gruberman: COS Spotlight

2011-10-25T08:00:00.000-07:00

Joe became a COS production partner in 2003 and has worked on over 100 book videos! Joe is the Head of Production for all Wiley Publishing book videos and works on many other COS projects.

Joe has done book videos for authors such as Christine Feehan, C.L. Wilson and Susan Squires. Joe also does script writing for COS!

He is an award-winning writer/producer whose projects have included four independent feature films and three television programs, as well as many shorts and commercial ads, several of which have been produced under his banner of Bronck's Park Productions. An accomplished director, videographer and editor, Joe launched a free educational series for indie filmmakers in 2004 and continues that series to this day under the sponsorship of IFP/Phoenix, where he serves as Education Director. Joe is also an American Red Cross volunteer, and is on the board of the Arizona Screenwriters' Association.

Chief Technology Officer/Senior Editor Jacob Henderson: COS Spotlight

2011-10-18T15:06:00.000-07:00

Jacob started with COS in 2002 with the very first book trailer, Dark Symphony. He produced all of the Behind the Scenes segments in the early years as well as working as part of the production crew.

Jacob has done a lot of hands-on work with special make-up as well as specializing in 3D modeling and animation. Recently, Jacob created a series of illustrations for National Geographic which will be used in a COS book video as well as used by NatGeo for posters and book covers!

In 2007 Jacob took over as web master for the COS website and in 2010 was promoted to Chief Technology Officer. In 2011 he attended Google I/O where he was trained to create Android apps and he is currently working on an app for COS’ Reader’s Entertainment site.

Jacob has been a production partner/editor since 2007 and does the majority of animation work for COS. He is an expert in video formatting and is responsible for archiving all COS projects, maintaining the database for COS and working on high level distribution of COS videos including all interactions with OverDrive, which includes over 7000 libraries.

Jacob lives in Northern California and works from the COS studio. His wife, Jen, often does voice over for COS. His daughter Kaylie often visits at the COS studio and often runs the office. She’s 3 years old, she runs pretty much everything.

Web Design and Technology Master Garrett Valdivia: COS Spotlight

2011-10-11T14:58:00.000-07:00

Garrett started working with COS in 2010. Garrett is the web master for Reader’s Entertainment, creates websites for our clients, works in our distribution department and does special projects for COS.

Garrett is a kind of Jack-of-all-trades and excels at everything he does. We swear we have not employed any mind control over him to work with us. At least, not that he knows.

He's one of those people who can think fast on his feet and always tries to find a solution no matter how difficult a problem may seem. No, he did not pay us to say that. It’s really true!

Garrett is our Google guru, project management system guru and SEO guru. Just call him, “Garrett the Guru” we’re sure he’ll answer to that.

He sets up COS players for our bookseller/librarian program and we often turn to him with internet questions. He works directly with our Chief of Technology, Jacob Henderson.

He grew up in Southern and Central California with an intense interest in creative media. During his school years, he learned graphic arts, music theory, and many things about film and video game production.
After graduating early, at the age of 16, he got a job at Soundtrax Studios as a Foley Artist and spent several months recording sound effects tracks for various theatrical films, including PoolHall Junkies.

Then moving to Central California, he became more interested in web design and web marketing. He spent several years making a living with these skills, focusing on learning and delivering bleeding edge technology with his websites and teaching people how to market their site so that it actually brought them the results that they wanted.

During this time, he also created and maintained Tech-Bites.com, a site filled with free video tutorials for the average computer user. He gained his marketing knowledge through a number of reputable marketers, made a large impact on 2007's 30 Day Challenge, and was a member of the private marketing group, The Immediate Edge. His web marketing class was offered through Yosemite High's Adult Education program and he and his partner were invited to speak at many business groups, including the Chamber of Commerce. He created and profited from many niche sites with the techniques he learned and taught.

Garrett continues to be one of COS’ greatest assets.

Creative Director and Consultant Isaac Woofter: COS Spotlight

2011-10-04T14:46:00.000-07:00

Isaac started working with COS in 2002 and became an investor in the company. His first job with COS was in a book trailer called The Gemini Keys, but he also starred in our first trailer to win a Telly Award, Mind Game, a novel by Christine Feehan.

Isaac invested a great deal of his time with the legal side of setting up the company, then the social side by attending meetings in New York with publishers and many book/reader conventions.

Isaac moved to New York in 2004 and continues to work with COS in a consultant capacity.

From Isaac:

Hello Everyone, I want to introduce myself for those I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting. My name is Isaac Hirotsu Woofter. The Hirotsu comes from my mother's maiden name, she is Japanese. I was born in New York, but lived in Boston, Ohio and Japan before doing most of my growing up in Northern California. My first language is Japanese and I still speak it conversationally.

I've played sports all my life and continue to do so. I am currently on three rec teams: a coed soccer team made up primarily of poets, a coed softball that plays across the nation and last but not least…I am the straight captain on my gay soccer team. This is not a typo and quite a fun story I can tell you about when we meet in person. When I lived in California I taught elementary school (Beginning Acting/Improv), coached T-Ball and Little League and worked as a Sushi Chef. Currently tend bar at a Restaurant/Bar called Henry’s (105th & Broadway). Stop by any time and I will buy you a drink.

In 2006 I graduated with a masters degree in acting from Columbia University. I have traveled and performed all over the world working with the great classic texts from Shakespeare and Moliere to today's new and exciting playwrights. Recently I appeared in a book about the use of the Mask as an actors tool. Soon I will be in a book/instructional DVD on how to play Commedia del Arte. I've starred, directed, written and produced many projects with Circle of Seven Productions since 2002.

I love brownie sundaes, whiffle ball, the Yankees and passionate people who can laugh at themselves. I love listening to Ella Fitzgerald in the morning and Nina Simone at night. My favorite color is crimson red.

COS Editor Mike Miller: In the Spotlight!

2011-09-27T14:38:00.000-07:00

Michael E. Miller is a senior editor, technical advisor and consultant for Circle of Seven Productions. Michael is one of the founding members of Circle of Seven Productions. He was the Director of Photography, Visual Effects Supervisor and Editor of the very first official Book Trailer – “Dark Symphony” for Christine Feehan. Since then, he has produced hundreds of trailers and teasers for COS and won several awards for his work.

Although Michael remains an integral part of COS, he started his own company - Digital Realm Productions, in 2007 so he could offer his visual effects services to others.

Michael holds a degree in electronics, specializing in video. He custom builds all of the workstations used in his studio. He is also a musician and has written scores for several of the trailers he has worked on.

Michael is a member of the International Academy of Visual Arts.

Mike has worked on some our top winning videos such as Hush, Hush, Zombies Vs. Unicorns, The Price, This World We Live In and many others. Mike has won more awards for book video editing than any other editor in the United States.

Chief Financial Officer Ed English: COS Spotlight

2011-09-20T14:33:00.000-07:00

Ed is probably best known for his participation in the RT Booklovers Convention where he represents COS at our official booth, runs videos during the event and is a favorite with many authors and readers due to his ability socialize. And, he’s a really great dancer!

Ed attended began working with COS in 2005 when he worked at an RT and then, later, started editing. He and CEO, Sheila Clover married in June of 2005 which explains the new name, Sheila Clover English.

Ed started doing the COS bookkeeping in 2008 and became the official Chief Financial Officer in 2009.

After obtaining his 4-year degree Ed went into network security. He worked on computer networking, security and administration for over 12 years, 4 as a manger. In college he worked behind the scenes with lighting and sound for stage productions. He also did some acting, which he pursued later in life, being on several regional television commercials.

Ed began working on Reader’s Entertainment Radio with his hit show Behind the Mask, a show about comics, graphic novels, manga and popular culture in 2010. The show has a following of 80,000. He attends ComicCons and enjoys his Thursday shows.

Editor, Account Manager and VP Victoria Fraasa: COS Spotlight

2011-09-13T09:00:00.000-07:00

Victoria jointed COS in 2004 with her debut book trailer Dead onthe Dance Floor by Heather Graham. Since then Victoria has worked on book videoprojects for bestselling authors such as Christine Feehan, Lisa Jackson andmany others.

Victoria has had an integral role at COS and moved up to becomethe Vice President of the company. She takes an active role as VP and is anAccount Manager dealing directly with publishers. Victoria attends manyconventions for COS including Book Expo America, RT Booklovers and many smallervenues.

The daughter of a Spaniard/Filipinofather and American mother, Victoria grew up in Miami, Florida. Aftergraduating from Florida State University she worked in New York City for thenext ten years in various film industry jobs including a camera woman for CNN,film stage manager, and producer of music videos and commercials. After yearsof successfully producing high end music videos and commercials, she turned herefforts to developing and directing short films. Her first short film "Breathless"was accepted in 1998 by the Independent Film Projects' Independent Feature FilmMarket. Her next film, "Maria of the Flowers" was awarded first placein "Collaboration…A Short Film Contest" held in Miami. The filmpremiered in London at the BBC British Short Film Festival and has beenaccepted at several Hispanic Festival across the United States. Victoria, withher cinematographer husband Steve Fraasa, is owner of Fraasa Films, Inc. whichproduces and directs infomercial's, commercials and short films for the bookindustry. Victoria is currently working in both Los Angeles and Florida as adirector.

Distribution Manager H. Wayne Miller: COS Spotlight

2011-09-06T11:38:00.000-07:00

We are pretty sure Wayne has always worked for COS even before there was a COS. He is like the anchor that keeps the company grounded and sure. Wayne started doing video distribution in 2005 back in the day when MySpace was the biggest social media site around. Remember those days? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

Then YouTube and Facebook hit the scene and the quiet land of COS-Video-Distribution took flight and has grown into the great online metropolis it is today. In 2005 Wayne uploaded videos to 10 sites and it was a big sales point to clients. Now, he has amassed a sizable collection of online distribution sites (350 and growing!) in which he oversees. He was, for the first two years, THE distribution department. Now, the distribution department is made of a staff of six, including Wayne.

Wayne is a successful musician.
Here he is playing at Gilley's in the 80's

Wayne has great passion for what he does. He takes personal interest in every video he uploads. He can tell you what sites are good for which genres and what sites are just plain crummy to use and why. Wayne works full time for COS.

A little-known fact about Wayne is that he looks suspiciously similar to the CEO of Circle of Seven, Sheila English. Could be they are related. At least that’s what her birth certificate says.

Google Buys Motorola: Are you making your Droid App yet?

2011-08-16T12:28:00.001-07:00

COS sent Chief of Technology Jacob Henderson to Google I/O this year to find out what’s on the horizon for Google and see how that might fit into what we do as a company.

Google TV has been updated and Reader’s Entertainment and News site looks beautiful on the big screen! Google’s strategy to reach every screen size is not surprising and their push to the Android app has been assertive. Droid apps work with Google TV and those using the Google app will be in for a big treat when the amount of interactivity is finally known.

The big news this week is Google’s purchase of Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion dollars. It’s a step closer to providing the whole experience, much like Apple does.

Shares of Motorola Mobility jumped 59 percent on Monday. No shock there.

Motorola Mobility focuses on smartphone and TV set-top boxes.

Obviously the Droid technology is already being used by other mobile platforms, but for Google to actually purchase hardware I wonder if it’s so much the mobile technology they are focused on or the box-top technology. With Google TV being of obvious importance to Google, having the box-top tv technology seems to make sense.

Google has always been one to keep strategy quiet until just the right time. Though books and book sales are probably not a main focus in all of this, at some point it will be a part of the mix. More platforms, more venues and more book sales. Apple and Amazon have got to be watching this and wondering, “What next?” If they aren’t, then Google has, in my opinion, already won.

The Revolving Door Of Video Distribution Sites

2011-06-08T08:53:00.000-07:00

Blog by S. English

By the time this blog posts there will be another video site that has gone bust and yet another new one that has been called the greatest video site of the year. It never fails. Even with our expansive database of video distribution sites we see the list grow then deflate and grow again at a rate fast enough to need a designated employee to always keep up on the list from week to week.

I loved Motionbox and I loved Clipser but they went the way of the Dodo so I turn to other sites like Mr. Wong or perhaps some Ning group sites appropriate to our client’s needs. It’s the way of video distribution, so you need to be flexible and you need to always be on the lookout for what’s new and what’s dying.

This is where the benefit of a distribution team comes in. With over 350 distribution sites in our database someone needs to be on the lookout for what’s working and what’s not. We go in and make notes and check back to see if a particular site is just lapsed for a while or if it actually died and needs to be removed from the database into archive. It’s a big job that has constant changes, but with vigilant team members on hand to let us know what works and what doesn’t we are able to keep our database on the rise.

Getting What You Pay For

2011-06-02T09:43:00.000-07:00

Blog by S. English

The best way to know what you’re going to get is to ask. Read any material made available to you that describes what service or product you are going to get and ask questions if something isn’t included.

If you pay for a video and you get the video and it is as described then it is up to you to take it and utilize it. If you also get distribution with your video be sure to search the web and make sure the video went up as promised. It’s not difficult to set up a Google Alert for your video so you don’t have to search the web for it if you prefer.

Sometimes I get requests from clients about changes to their video after it has been approved, turned in and distributed. If a book’s cover changes when it goes to paperback a client may want to update just the cover that shows at the end of the video. That is something that can be done for a nominal fee.

I think people don’t always realize that removing the video from archive can take hours. It may not require someone to babysit it as you pull it from archive into the editing bay, but it does take up a computer that cannot be utilized until the download is complete, so the editor cannot work until the process is over. Then it takes time to make the changes, re-render the video which means to compress it into a useable format and then get it to the client. This is what that “nominal fee” covers. It’s no where near the price of a video, but it gives the video new life if the client wants to resubmit it online to let people know the paperback is now out.

Sometimes we’re asked to change out the cover and add in new text, often by foreign publishers who have purchased the rights to the book. The takes a bit more time since all of the text has to be changed out. Even if the publisher sends us the translation sometimes the timing can change according to the language and the video rhythm must be adjusted. It’s never a slap-it-in-place kind of job. You want whoever is watching the video to have a quality experience with proper words matched up to the right visuals.

We have also had people come back and ask for screen captures to highlight on their website or in blogs. The same process applies as far as removing it from archive. There is a way to do a screen capture directly from the YouTube version, but the quality is usually not satisfactory for web site use. And, utilizing photos from a video for the author’s website may incur additional costs for additional licensing according to what the original license was.

Distribution is often misunderstood when it comes to getting what you paid for. If you pay for distribution of a video then you’re paying for a service and the reach of that service. It does not automatically include analytics or the ability to allow the client to pick and choose where it will go. Reporting and analytics are available but they are often labor intensive and someone has to be paid for the time it takes to monitor sites and create a report.

Distribution and video maintenance on distribution sites are not the same thing. We distribute a video to a platform such as YouTube or Myspace. As long as it appears there when it is first distributed it is considered launched and we have fulfilled our obligation. But, from time to time a site will remove a video. We don’t own those sites so it is up the site what can stay and what must go. There are a lot of reasons something may be rejected, and we may not be informed as to the reason for the rejection.

Unless specifically arranged or part of a higher level distribution package video maintenance ends upon distribution completion, within 48 hours of launch. Some higher level distribution will have 30 days of maintenance in which someone manually watches the progress of the video. If it is taken down someone puts it back up or replaces it with another site. This is labor intensive and a separate service from basic distribution.

No one works for free. Or at least they shouldn’t. Services that require someone to do something for any amount of time incurs a charge. It’s not that we are nickel and diming anyone. We can’t survive as a company by giving away our time and I doubt anyone expects that.

But, to always play it safe not matter what service or product you’re getting, be sure you get all of your questions answered prior to signing on the bottom line.

Flipped Off

2011-05-25T10:16:00.000-07:00

Blog by S. English

I’m a long-time supporter of the video recorder called FLIP. I own four of them. I use them when I travel, I use them for inner-communications at my company, I use them for book reviews, I even use them at my daughter’s soccer games. So, when I found out they will no longer be made I was saddened. The FLIP is an amazing quality product and I wonder what will replace it. I have the Kodak version that allows me to plug in a video recorder, but the video quality itself is nowhere near as good as my FLIP.

So we here at COS will use our FLIPs until they die and then we’ll move on to perhaps ipads! Hey! I can wish!

Google Video Closes, Long Live YouTube

2011-05-17T12:27:00.000-07:00

Blog by S. English

I’m not sure why anyone is surprised by the news that Google Video is closing and perhaps not everyone is surprised. Google acquired YouTube several years ago and there really was no need to have both.

Google has done an amazing job making YouTube such a success and a money maker. Putting all efforts into the positive cash flow of YouTube is a wise choice. And though we are always sad to see any of our platforms close we are very interested to see if our YouTube numbers will rise and what will happen to the SEO of our videos with this change.

To BEA or Not to BEA

2011-04-26T15:50:00.000-07:00

Blog by S. English

BEA is around the corner and yet I am still undecided as to whether or not I’ll attend this year. I’ve paid for my assistant and a colleague to go, but may not attend personally as I have in years past.

Part of the issue is money. New York City is expensive. Luckily I have a friend in the city who I can stay with, but then transportation is expensive, so there are budgetary issues.

Part of it is the cost of creating the materials to pass out at BEA. We create DVDs every year and have them distributed at the registration desks. Historically we’ve paid $500 for that distribution and the cost of making the DVDs are $500 so that’s been a really great deal. But, as of today I was told that the cost of distribution of our DVDs has not doubled, or even tripled, but it is five times more than what we’ve ever paid before. Five times. Not $500, but now it is $2500 and I’m told this only a month before BEA, long after I sent an email asking to secure the DVD distribution as I have done over the past 4 years.

I may go as I do each year to report for Reader’s Entertainment, but knowing that BEA is charging five time what it normally charges to a small business such as mine makes it a tough pill to swallow just to be there. I guess time will tell whether I go or not.

Reviewing ReelSEO’s Google TV Prep Blog

2010-11-22T08:36:00.000-08:00

Is it premature to start making recommendations on how to prepare for Google TV when the API isn’t even available yet? Perhaps, but we all know that those who are most prepared are often the first ones to get picked up and those who are the first often get the most out of any new offering like this.

Reading ReelSEO’s blog entitled – Optimizing Tips for Google TV – Is Your Content Ready for Google TV? Written by Christopher Rick I wonder if all the prep work in the world will really help someone with a small business like mine. The blog is very thorough without a doubt. And it is the best article I’ve seen written that condenses a lot of information in one place. But, I don’t know how helpful it will be to small businesses to compare themselves to Blip.TV or other video sites that are already “in the know” as to how things will work with Google TV. It’s nice to see what they are doing, but without their resources how will small businesses benefit?

The article really isn’t created to tell you what to do. Only Google can really do that. But, it is intelligent, organized and as complete as it can be without actually handing you the API and telling you “do this, but not that” which isn’t what ReelSEO says it can do.

It is a great article and anyone even remotely interested in preparing for Google TV now should check it out.

Reviewing ReelSEOs Twit Happens Series

2010-11-17T08:22:00.001-08:00

I’m a fan of ReelSEO and have been for a long time. Anyone doing anything with video should know about this site and its content.

When I saw the site is doing a series called “Twit Happens” I had to chuckle. The name is clever and I knew right away it was about Twitter.

It’s easier not to use Twitter as a venue for video in a more substantial way, but what are the legal risks to that? That’s just one of the things this series looks at in regard to Twitter.

I thought I knew a lot about Twitter, but this series points out things I haven’t thought about, or haven’t thought about in this way. The blog about legal issues with Twitter and video has a great video interview that I highly recommend to anyone using Twitter to post video to.

http://www.reelseo.com/twitter-video-evan-brown/

What are the consequences of ignoring copyright? What could happen to your brand? Can defamation come back on you as a lawsuit when tweet about someone in a negative way? Great advice and information in this series!

A Study in Book Video: Crazy Love

2010-11-15T10:34:00.000-08:00

We worked on a non-fiction book video for St. Martin’s Press called Crazy Love. It’s a first person, true account of domestic violence. The story is so moving, so incredible, I couldn’t put it down once I started to read it. That was early 2009.

So why, in late 2010 did we see a sudden and significant spike in views to this video?

Like many things in life, timing is everything. Opportunities don’t stop just because the book video has been out for over a year. That’s the great thing about the internet; you can keep things up there forever, working hard to sell your book.

This, though, was very special and meaningful. A site called TakePart did an article on domestic violence and while looking for appropriate multimedia for the piece they found the video for Crazy Love. The article did extremely well as did the video.

http://www.takepart.com/issues/domestic-violence/13816

This is a tough issue and one that is very personal for many people. It was great that the video was getting a lot of traffic, but it was equally, if not more, important that it was being used in such a significant way – to help others.

A Study in Book Video: Loser Queen

2010-11-10T11:15:00.000-08:00

This book video is absolutely one of the most unique. Not because it has some kind of special effects or motion graphics, but because the book wasn’t written before the video was created. And having something that unique has resulted in a wide use of the video on sites to debate the entire project of the book.

Loser/Queen is an experiment in fan interaction. The fans are helping to determine the outcome of the story and what happens to the main character. Very interesting way to write a book as a community. And that has caused a lot of interest in the blogosphere!

http://www.theresabook.com/2010/07/hodge-podge-loserqueen/

http://www.fresnoteens.org/2010/09/loserqueen.html

http://cameronlibrary.wikispaces.com/

http://mymediamusings.com/tag/choose-your-own-adventure/

It’s something about that visual enhancement that adds a little something more to a blog interaction and we’re thrilled to see so many bloggers utilize the video!

Website Redesign – How Important is it?

2010-11-08T10:19:00.000-08:00

This blog isn’t about stats or best practices. It’s my own personal journey into the realm of website redesign which I’m currently suffering through.

I am not a web designer. I hire web designers and I actively participate as much as I am able (hopefully without frustrating our very nice web team).

We are redesigning two sites and both are set to go live Jan. 1, 2011. First is the COS Productions website. I have to say that I am so excited about this redesign. Sometimes you come up with a natural evolution concept for your site that you know is perfect and this one is exactly that for me. We have spent so much time working on “How do people want to interact with us? And “What do people seem to want the most and how do they want it?” The entire site is shifting from “presentation”, meaning we give you our information in an organized fashion and you look through it until you find what you’re looking for, to this paradigm shift of “serving”. We want to have a website that feels good to the person visiting it. It lets them know we care about them and what their needs are.

Of course that means a lot of work. Most of it in content, some of it in multimedia.
We have hired someone who is a communications expert. She understands what we’re wanting to do with the changes and she will help us communicate that clearly with our visitors. Very excited about that too.

The other site we are working on is HUGE. We will be creating a new Reader’s Entertainment site that will be functional with mobile, online and television. That is a huge undertaking. We have to follow all the specs for Google TV network and mobile. That means we have to have three sites that function just a little differently according to how you land on the page.

We will also have new content that’s exciting and a lot more interaction on the site than ever before.

It feels overwhelming. I hate being technologically challenged when it comes to learning what I can or can’t do and why, but I love learning, so that evens out I guess.

There’s so much to consider now that online and portable and television are all accessible to our content. Or that our content is accessible to all of those different venues. But, we’re about to see a huge explosion of opportunities and I can’t wait!

A Study in Book Video: Zombies Vs. Unicorns

2010-11-03T08:38:00.000-07:00

The great thing about analytics is that you can tell when there’s something going on with your video and the figure out what “that” is.

We saw a spike in views from embeds on Vimeo and so we went to see what was going on. We did a video called Zombies Vs. Unicorns this year and it’s very cute.

With all the “Team Edward” and “Team Jacob” stuff going on in the YA sphere, it wasn’t overly surprising to see libraries and YA blogs utilizing the video to promote interaction and community.

http://friendswoodlibrary.blogspot.com/2010/09/what-side-are-you-on.html

Here is a site that we got a good number of views from the embed. Friendswood Library used the video and did a poll to find out if people were “Team Zombie” or “Team Unicorn”. Other sites did similar events and those who participated had a good time choosing their team!

http://28minuteslater.tumblr.com/post/1319313589

We also found that the bookmarking site, Tumblr had the video on several profiles. It was passed around a lot there. So, I guess if you have something zombie-themed you know where to go! Lol

http://www.daemonsbooks.com/2010/09/20/zombies-vs-unicorns-book-trailer/

This one was a HUGE hit with all kinds of blogs, social sites, booksellers and libraries.

We even found sites that sell zombie paraphernalia had taken the video and promoted the book for sale!!

http://www.buyzombie.com/2010/10/14/undead-news/zombies-vs-unicorns-trailer/

This video went viral throughout the blogosphere and you just have to appreciate the blogs it ended up on!

http://zedwordblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/trailer-tuesday-zombies-vs-unicorns.html

http://examiner.com/zombie-in-denver/new-zombies-versus-unicorns-book-with-trailer

http://www.horror-movies.ca//horror-news.php?id=18993

Vimeo Festival in Review

2010-11-01T11:03:00.000-07:00

It was fun, I learned a lot and now I am taking what I learned and making Vimeo a great place for people to find and utilize our video!

I have blogged about the event back when I was still in NY. But, now time has passed and I can give a review of how that information I learned while there has paid off.

First of all, I leaned a great deal. The festival was packed with a variety of sessions. Very classy and well organized as an event. I will certainly attend the next one.

I made some great contacts there and sometimes that’s the best pay off. I met a group of young filmmakers out of southern California doing some really interesting things and have offered them a production partner agreement. I met someone from Vimeo’s executive branch and got an opportunity to talk to him about our videos and was able to get our entire profile added to the “accepted professionals” list so that we won’t have to go through review or moderation and our videos won’t be flagged or removed due to copyright which is always a challenge since we work with a lot of famous companies and people.

I learned a great deal about TransMedia. So much so that I have written a contract that we will be utilizing with celebrities, agents and even stock companies such as Getty Images that outlines the way we use TransMedia, Cross Media and Incidental Media with book trailers. What I learned there was directly instrumental in my ability to create this document that my company now benefits from in a huge way.

I attended a session that talked about how to get the most out of Vimeo. It was a sort of Tips & Tricks session that I learned so much from! Now I can fully take advantage of the Vimeo analytics which rocks! Amazing analytics! And, I am doing more on Vimeo to interact with others and stimulate a more quality profile and experience there.

It’s always hard to say when attending an event like this is going to pay off. ROI for events are tricky. But, I have to say that I walked away meeting some great people, seeing some great video talent and learning a great deal!

Comic Con NY 2010, coming to a close.

2010-10-11T07:00:00.000-07:00

Comic Con NY 2010 Winds Down and COS Productions Walks Away Thrilled with the Con!

Over 10,000 people walked through NY Comic Con on Saturday and today is "Kids Day" where children 12 and under get in free. So, it's packed and things are still in full swing.

Major stops for COS today included the Del Rey booth where we were invited to stop by, the Graphic.ly booth, DC Comics booth and a quick stop to see Michael Uslan who we met a couple of weeks ago in Cincinnati.

The amount of video played at this Comic Con has been staggering. It's obviously a pull to audiences who seem attraced to video like it's a tractor beam. Many booths have video playing and it was great to see some our clients benefit from that opportunity.

Ed English, host of Behind the Mask

CEO Sheila English spoke at length to actor Christopher Judge of Stargate SG1 fame regarding some voice over work and the two will be talking after the con to nail down details. "Chris has an amazing voice!" says English. "We've seen an increase in trailers with voice over and having such a comanding voice in tandem to great acting will enhance those videos."

Of course there's always the fun aspect of the event such as celebrity sightings and meetings, hearing about new shows and movies and getting free books. The entire event was a blast and COS has been able to make some fantastic connections as well as promote the new Behind the Mask radio show.

CoS at NY Comic Con!

2010-10-10T13:00:00.000-07:00

Free books, celebrities, great costumes and games merge

in this years NY Comic Con and COS is there!

COS Productions is expanding into motion graphics and met with several publishers during Comic Con this year. Highlighting the new Behind The Mask radio show Sheila Clover English, COS CEO spent the day walking around NY Comic Con and meeting increible people.

"I saw Adrien Brody and Eric Bana and my friend Barbara Vey of Publisher's Weekly got to interview Stan Lee!" says English. "It's been very exciting!" In addition to spending time with Barbara Vey, Sheila ran into author Dianna Love at the Sherrilyn Kenyon booth where she received some amazing gifts given out to the press.

COS Productions recently released a book video for Anne Elizabeth's graphic novel, Pulse of Power which is one of many motion graphic book videos COS has created and will be creating in the future.

The future of comic motion graphics has incredible potential and COS continues to create relationships with publishers and distribuors of comics and graphic novels.

Circle of Seven Productions Takes to the Big Apple for the Vimeo Festival

2010-10-09T14:42:00.000-07:00

This weekend Vimeo, a top video community, opens up their first annual festival and awards show and COS is there to learn, share and have fun!

COS Productions CEO Sheila Clover English attended the festival which opened with a comedy skit about the state of the internet. The community of filmmakers and social media experts laughed, bonded and made new friends right away.

The first session was called Digi Boot Camp put on by a company called "Shooting People". They discussed everything from transmedia to social marketing with video, new platforms and venues.

Next up was a Tip & Tricks for Vimeo session where Sheila found some great tips on how to get more views and more quality views to the COS profile on Vimeo. She spoke with Vimeo execs about a potential contract with Vimeo and further discussions are slated for next week.

The final two sessions were informative, cutting edge and facinating. Digital Rights was discussed by the Vimeo attorney, the creator of "Creative Commons" and a cutting edge remix artist. The long and short of the discussion was that courts continue to try to control the re-utilization of material, but that the laws are so strict they have become un-enforceable.

The final session was on TransMedia which is, in the opinion of Ms. English, is the wave of the future for all entertainment industries, including books. Delivering an entertainment experience across platforms encourages participation and a more involved experince with audiences.

For those following on Twitter you can find out more by searching for #vimeofest.

Social Media in Review- eBaumsworld.com

2010-10-04T13:19:00.000-07:00

This site is hit or miss, but we distribute to it especially if we have something that is humorous in nature. Viral videos do well here and the community is pretty active. There’s not a lot of marketing/commercial material that I’ve found overrunning the site like some we have distributed to in the past.

They don’t post who their target audience of viewers is or any other analytics, but my best guess would be that this site has a very similar audience to Break.com; primarily male 18-34.

Given that, we get a lot of views on this site. The normal book video will get approximately 2000-3500 views per video. So it is a good site to use if you’re uploading book trailers.

Social Media Site in Review – Miro

2010-09-27T13:17:00.000-07:00

Miro was created through open source and a group of volunteers and it has remained stable for a few years now.

People can download the Miro player to their desktop computer and watch their programs like a TV if they like, or they can go to the site. You can create your own channel/profile, which is what we did and that is then offered up to the community and aggregated through Miro. We don’t get a lot of views through Miro, but we get steady views.

We RSS to Miro from Blip.tv, which isn’t that difficult to do. That way we get the videos on Blip and Miro at the same time, which saves time.

Tech support is not always reliable, but there’s a good-hearted group of people in the community that are willing to help each other.

Social Media in Review- Spike.com

2010-09-20T13:15:00.000-07:00

We have a contract with Spike which is very important to us. Spike, at one point, took our profile down as being too commercial in nature. But, we wrote a letter and sent it snail mail to their corporate office giving them reasons why we thought we should be allowed on Spike TV. I really thought I’d never hear back from them. We’d done this with other sites and had not been successful. But, one day my phone rang and it was someone from Spike TV corporate. They had reviewed our letter and were in agreement that we belonged there! Imagine my surprise!

They gave us special producer rights so that our videos would always be accepted there and we didn’t have to worry about the profile or any of our videos being rejected or deleted.

Spike TV has a great audience and the site is very well managed. The site is incredibly professional, entertaining and engaging. It brings in a lot of people who want entertainment and that means more eyes on our videos. Spike is, of course, tied to Spike TV so there’s that cross over audience for broadcast as well. Since this is the direction COS wants to go having the internet/broadcast tie-in is very appealing to us.

We get a decent number of views. Spike has a lot of different types of shows it offers online so we get a good variety of viewer types. I do find that if a book video has anything in it that is tied to a movie, television show, celebrity or current affairs it tends to do better.

Social Media in Review – Zoopy.com

2010-09-13T13:42:00.000-07:00

Zoopy (www.zoopy.com) is relatively new for us, but we’ve been very happy with the results. Like many sites that came before it, Zoopy wasn’t sure what to do with us. They deleted our profile, then we contacted them, and they put the profile back up. And we all lived happily ever after. Okay, that’s not really the end of the story.

Zoopy allows for 200mb upload limit which is double what most sites will allow. So our longer form videos and original shows are perfect for this site. We do send all of our videos to Zoopy and are considered “content providers” and professional producers.

I love the stability Zoopy seems to have. They have a sizable staff, have grown over the years, offer mobile and TV options for videos and the site is well done. This is definitely one to watch in the coming years as it seems to constantly evolve itself to stay current with audience needs and wants.

Social Media in Review- Veoh

2010-09-06T13:11:00.000-07:00

I’ve had a love/hate relationship with Veoh.

In the beginning I loved it. We even used Veoh players in our Reader’s Entertainment TV site (www.readersentertainment.tv). We could assign players, move the videos around at will within a player, it was amazing! I got to know the staff at Veoh and they were amazing too.

Then, things began to change. They got a lot of investment money and started re-working the site. I didn’t mind the additional advertising at all. They have to make a living and stay viable. But, some of the unique features, like the individual player channels changed into “groups” and we were not able to use the function as we did before. Okay, sometimes someone else’s progress doesn’t necessarily work best for you, but the problem I had with it was that they gave absolutely no warning about this change. Those of us using their service just woke up one day to find we had to change over to Blip or YouTube players.

Sometime last year the site stopped working all together. There were press articles about how Veoh had not used their investment money wisely and though I don’t know if that’s true I do know that the site no longer worked. So, for a while we just gave up on it.

Then, more recently, I noticed it was working again and that the site had been updated. I didn’t get any emails about it from Veoh, though I’ve had my videos with them since the started.

I like the new look and I’m hoping Veoh will survive. I don’t trust Veoh enough to use their players on our site again, at least not for a while. But, I noticed we have an ever-increasing number of video views coming from Veoh and that is a very nice surprise indeed!

Utilizing DIY and How-To Sites Like 5min and Howcast

2010-08-30T13:48:00.000-07:00

There are a lot of Do-It-Yourself and How-To sites available online. If you are looking to distribute your book video to those sites you need to know the criteria for them.

Not all book video will be accepted by those sites even if the video is non-fiction, author interview or a DIY book. The secret to getting your video accepted is to offer something of value, something that will teach the viewer how to do something from beginning to end. It can’t be suggestions, opinions or even a video on what your DIY book is about. It needs to be a full DIY session that gives the viewer a lesson.
If you have a book that you think would be perfect for this type of site, ask yourself what your book is teaching someone. If you can break it down into several things, choose one representative lesson and give it away in order to sell the idea of the book. Give a beginning and end to the lesson in which someone actually learns how to do something.

Book videos can easily present as a commercial if the selling points of the book are greater than the entertainment value of the video. Give away a lesson. That’s the price of getting onto one of these sites.

Seduction Wears Sapphires

2010-08-26T09:52:00.000-07:00

In the second book of The Jaded Gentlemen Series, author Renee Bernard takes readers into the life and heart of Ashe Blackwell. His life, his soul was left scarred by his captivity in the dungeons of India. His attempts to deaden the memories have lead to a life of every conceivable vice.

His grandfather, the family patriarch, has no idea of his past trauma. He is only aware of the hedonistic life his grandson leads. All he wants is for his grandson to become a mature gentleman and accept responsibility. He offers Ashe a wager, actually an ultimatum, to be a gentleman for one London season or see his inheritance disappear. Ashe has enough of his own wealth that the inheritance isn’t enough to make him accept the wager. When his grandfather informs him who will gain that inheritance if he doesn’t accept, Ashe takes on the wager without a second thought.

After smugly accepting, he then learns he will be chaperoned. Already outraged by this, he is then introduced to his chaperone, a seemingly quiet, rather plain American woman, Caroline Townsend. Not as quiet or plain as she first appears, Caroline is smart, worldly savvy, and has a few painful secrets in her own past.

Undaunted by her obnoxious first encounter with Ashe, she is determined to uphold her contract with his grandfather. Being subjected to English aristocracy, the protocol of a London season and nuisances of English society, Caroline finds she must tread very carefully. She also has no choice but to succeed, as failure would end any hope for her future.

The verbal bantering between the characters is indeed a highlight of this book. Caroline is a delight, particularly when being escorted into the inner sanctum of English society. Ashe is her equal and the two begin their attraction for each other while verbally “sword fighting”.

Using an American character freshly imported from the colonies sets a perfect stage for conversations and arguments not usually found in Victorian era romances.

The characters are fun, witty, and give no quarter. Seduction Wears Sapphires offers the reader good writing, rich historical detail, and a charming love story.

Social Media in Review- Vimeo

2010-08-23T10:55:00.000-07:00

Vimeo (www.vimeo.com), how do I love thee? LOL I do love this wonderful video upload site! It has everything. Great quality video, a way to socialize within the network and a way to promote your videos outside the network.

I have never had any problems with Vimeo. I will say that I pay for their “Vimeo Plus” membership so I can upload an unlimited number of videos and for a lot of other little “perks”. When Vimeo decided to do an awards program you had to pay $25 to submit, unless you had the membership and then it was only $5! Yep, f-i-v-e! Also, I’m able to upload via TubeMogul by using my Plus membership. Saves me a lot of time.

Vimeo has widgets you can use, good tech support and a customizable profile option.
How do book videos do on Vimeo? It’s not the best place for book videos. Perhaps if we were to do some advertising within the site it might build our audience and that’s something we are looking at for 2011.
We do get views and comments though. And we get a lot of visits to our actual profile page, so we’re getting a higher number of impressions per video.

This is a site I will continue to pay membership for. I feel the $60 a year I pay is money well spent.

Social or Advertising? How are you using your video?

2010-08-18T13:02:00.000-07:00

There are two ways to get video promotion for your book.

You can create a book video that is meant to be entertaining and place it on user-generated video upload sites such as YouTube or MySpace. From there you hope others will see it and then share it with friends, thus making it viral.
You can create a book video ad and pay for placement.

Your video is going to look different, perform differently and be viewed differently according to where you place the video.

Viral videos, those that are made and uploaded for free to social media sites have to have an element of entertainment to them. Social media sites are meant to be “social”, they are not meant to be advertisement platforms. The argument can be, and has been, made that all book video are ads. Keep in mind that all music videos are ads as well. Yet, it is easy to forget that and look at music videos as entertainment or art form. Book videos should have an element of entertainment to them if you want them to go viral.

How do you make an ad entertaining? First of all you want it to NOT look like a commercial. If you make it 15 or 30 seconds long it is going to look like and acts like a commercial. People on social media sites are becoming more and more savvy. They will look at that and know that you just can’t afford proper placement of your commercial so you’re trying to fool them into thinking it’s entertainment, or that you don’t care that you just tricked them into watching a commercial.
Like a music video, you need to have a story. People want to know what the story is. You can’t make general statements or claims such as, “This is the greatest story ever told” or “An epic love story unfolds within a mystery” and think that’s going to impress people. You can say those things in your video, but you had best follow it up with telling people what the story is actually about. Include exciting and/or appropriate elements such as music, narration or text, enticing visuals, etc. Make it worth the viewer’s time to watch it.

Viral videos = entertainment = appropriate to place on social media sites

Book video ads are meant to be more informative and factual. People know it is an ad. People know that ads try to sell you something. People are used to seeing ads. Your ad still should be exciting or enticing, but it is going to be brief. The briefer, the better. Most ads are 15 or 30 seconds long.

Book video ads are placed in areas where people know they are ads. You can pay for placement on sites like GoogleTV ads, YouTube, Viddler or anywhere that allows video ads. They can also play on television or out-of-home advertising. Book video ads should get to the point right away.

A book video ad should concentrate efforts toward a single message. The message can focus on who the author is, which is an advantage if the author is already well known. The message can focus on the storyline if the author is not well known, but the story has a good hook, or current, relative message.

Whether you decide to try a viral video or a book ad it is important to know the difference. It is important to realize that you can’t mix those medias and expect a successful campaign. You need to know what your goal is when you have a video created. Let that goal guide you in whether or not you’re going to go with a viral video or an ad.

Social Media in Review - Break.com

2010-08-16T15:00:00.000-07:00

Break (www.break.com) is a great site for comedy, sexy stuff, and anything you think guys would love. That’s right, Break is more of a guy site. According to Break.com’s own website they reach more men ages 18 to 34 than any other online video site.

So, not all book videos do well there, and of course there are women who go to the site, so we send all videos there. But, we do see an obvious increase in certain videos that tells us Break’s claim on the male market appears to be true.

We’ve had some problems with Break in the past. They’ve rejected some videos as too commercial and threatened to close our profile. But, we emailed them to plead our case that book trailers are video entertainment in their own right. Since then we’ve not had any problems uploading to Break, which we do via TubeMogul.

Going Beyond Making Book Video

2010-08-11T12:51:00.000-07:00

It’s hard to sell something creative when most creative is subjective. We did an online survey of our videos. We chose one video from each of our editors and created a survey at www.surveymonkey.com. If you ever want to do a survey of your readers or clients this is a very valuable service. We use surveys as one part of our quality improvement and assessment commitment.

It was interesting to see that so many people participated and there was such variety in their opinions. Something we discovered that was interesting was that many of our participants, which were made up of readers and booksellers, were most influenced by the genre of the video. Overall, each of the videos did well, but there were opinions that conflicted over music and visual elements. The video that had the worst marks was also the video that 80% of the participants voted the as the best video. It was almost as though they were harder on the video they thought was the best.

It made me wonder how this could happen. It all came down to the preference of the viewer. Not just the quality of the video, but genre of the video was most important overall. So, one can conclude that, if someone doesn’t like a video, it may have nothing at all to do with how the video looks or what the message is.

In 2003 when Borders Group put the first book trailer, Dark Symphony, up on their site, no one really knew how book trailers would eventually turn into a market of their own. Now that they seem almost commonplace; people see them less as a cool novelty and more as an expected entertainment or advertisement. With the newness wearing off people are becoming more critical and demanding of quality and clarity. Slideshows slapped together with text taking up the entire screen is not going to be acceptable anymore. More and more people are turning to professionally made content. Not only are authors and publishers turning to professionally made content, but so are distributors of online content.
The book trailer market has been established. With growing online demand for entertainment and news the book video market has solidified its place in most marketing campaigns. There was a shift in 2008 from just having a book video to maximizing the effectiveness of book video. Distribution and analytics are the name of the game now. If you aren’t a major player in those categories you aren’t looking toward the future of the market.

Distribution doesn’t just mean uploading to YouTube, MySpace and the like. That’s now expected. Back in early 2006 we were impressing people with our 10 distribution sites that went with each product. In 2010 we have well over 400 distribution sites and have branched out into genre-specific placement of video. You must realize that if everyone is uploading to the top 10 or 20 video share sites, then your video is now in competition with thousands of others. It’s not just competing with other book video, but with other online video entertainment. Either you need to grow your own YouTube-type sites somehow, or you need to start partnering with specialty sites that will take your video as content. You need to investigate online content provider companies that will send your content out to entertainment sites like SciFi Channel or Oxygen Network.

Analytics are key as well. What are analytics? Analytics is an analysis of how something did, in this case, online. Information like, who is watching the video, where they are from, how long did they watch the video, did they share it? Demographic and geographic information can be important for many reasons.

Knowing if your book is read more by men or women can help you determine how to develop the look of your website
Knowing that your video is very popular in a particular state or city can help you determine where to do a book signing or what booksellers you need to become more friendly with
Knowing what state or city your video is popular in can help determine where you should do media buys

There are more reasons why this information is important and a variety of ways to utilize the information for future campaigns.

Targeting your audience, localizing your target and being able to pinpoint your best chances for sales in a given area is going to make your marketing budget dollar work harder for you. After all, a book video isn’t designed to get hits on YouTube, it is designed to sell books. When you can do both, then you have an effective marketing tool worth investing in.

Setting Goals and Measurements for Video

2010-08-04T12:46:00.000-07:00

What does it mean to “go viral”?

It means that your video is being passed around beyond where you initially put it. It means that someone other than you, or the person who uploaded it for you, has picked it up and done something with it.

What are they doing with my video?!!

Primarily they are linking to it or embedding it into their own site or blog. Many blogs are creating material around book video and are enticing readers to their site with the video and then offering other things once you get there. Some are reader’s blogs, fan blogs and industry blogs. But there are people who are downloading it to their computer or their iPod/iPad so they can watch it again and again. Some are commenting on your video or rating it. Whether it is being passed around through email or via mobile phone once it is sent out by someone else it has gone viral.

How Do I Measure The Success Of My Video?

To answer the question I must ask one: What was the goal of the video? If you don’t know then you’ll never know how successful it was.

If your goal was to get as many views as possible you can just count views. You can use tags that are sexy, inflammatory, disturbing or popular. Create a description designed to bring people to the video.

If your goal is to generate sales how will you measure your videos ability to do that? Do you have a “buy” button next to the video on your site? Are you an associate of a bookseller that allows you to monitor the sales from those buy buttons? Are you at least getting the video to high reader-trafficked sites? You need to identify how you will measure this. Can you compare your sales from this book to the sales of your last book? That’s a tough one because the marketing department may be doing something new as well and then you’re not sure what upped those sales. Identify how you will measure this if this is the reason you’re using a book video.

If your goal is to create awareness of your book and/or name (brand) how will you measure the effectiveness of the video to help do that. This is a little easier to do. The number of views, comments, ranking and sharing of the video tell you that someone paid attention to the video. Engaging with the video is actually more important than simple views. No matter what, if someone watched your video they DID something in order to see it. It isn’t like television where you are able to interrupt something to show your advertisement. Someone WANTED to see your book video. But, when they go far enough to DO something to it for with it they are engaged and more likely to remember your name or the name of the book.
If your goal is show established readers that you have a new series this is a wonderful vehicle to do that with. It is easy to let them SEE what the new series is about. It is important, then, to not only be on social networks where you hope to find new readers, but to get on book-specific sites such as bookseller sites, book review sites and reader sites. Don’t waste your time putting your video on author sites. Yes, authors read. But, usually authors on author sites are interested in their own work. You need to get your video on reader sites. You can determine the success of your video by the number of reader-sites that take it and display it for you.

If your goal is to establish that you’re writing an entirely NEW genre then it is important to get on social sites in which that genre is popular and to get on reader sites to let people know about the change. If you are writing under a pen name then treat this video as though you are a new author. Get your name out to as many sites as possible, both social media sites and reader-specific sites. Blogs that allow video embedding are a great way to push that new genre as well. I see a lot of author missing this opportunity. Embed the video and talk a little bit about it. To determine if your video has been successful according to your established goals, take a look at the number of sites you got it onto. Review the number of hits and be sure to give extra credit points for reader-sites and bookseller sites.

The bottom line is to have a goal, make a plan and follow up to see the plan helped to achieve the goal.

Book Video and Copyright Infringement

2010-07-28T12:39:00.000-07:00

Book videos are being pulled and artists are yelling “copyright infringement” and rightly so. Whether you’re making a book video yourself or you’ve hired someone to make it for you if you use a picture, footage or music incorrectly or without permission you can be setting yourself and your publishing house up for a law suit. http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/409631-_Yiddish_Success_Sparks_Infringement_Lawsuit.php

As technology presents an easy way to do your own editing it seems easier to spend your time than your money by creating a video yourself. More and more small business video producers or “book marketers” are adding book video production to their list of services because it’s easy and it’s lucrative.

There’s nothing wrong with creating your own video. You just need to know how to make it, where to put it and a little something about the law. If you can do something yourself and save money it seems like the wise thing to do. But, like any industry there are reasons why professionals make good money at what they do. They know things you don’t. Take the time to learn those things, or be willing to suffer the consequences.

The first time I ever heard of a lawsuit regarding a book video was with VidLit’s "Yiddish With Dick and Jane". The publisher was accused of violating copyright for the old Fun With Dick and Jane series we all got to read as kids. The video received hundreds of thousands of views and was also named in the lawsuit. The producer wasn’t the one who originally caused the copyright problem, but the use of the material brought them into the fray.

I’ve seen authors use popular music in their book videos, or pictures of celebrities.

http://community.livejournal.com/steamfashion/2352175.html?page=2#comments

Not all licenses are created equal. So be sure you read the fine print when you take something that says “royalty free” for your book video. Sometimes there are caveats to being able to use a photo, footage or music.

Lori Foster Event- Handout on Social Media by Sheila Clover English of COS

2010-07-26T11:43:00.000-07:00

In this discussion we will review where to be and what to do to market yourself.

Where To Be
There are literally hundreds of sites you can be on.

Choose the best 3 to spend the majority of your online social time with

Identify your audience

Where are THEY going online?

Go there.
Make your top 3 someplace you LOVE to be, since you’ll be there a lot.

My “best 3” are- Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn with MySpace as a close tie with LinkedIn. Book specific site of choice is GoodReads, but I don’t go there consistently, so it’s not in my top 3.

Once you choose your top 3, give it 6 months and if you don’t see a return on your investment (time) try an alternate site.

What To Do
Be present there. Let people get to know you. People invest their time and attention in you and they feel more connected to you and to what you do.

Time management. Budget your time. Don’t let your social networking interfere with your book writing time. Or your family time.

Follow the four basic rules of social engagement:

Be on topic- Don’t interject your book marketing into a conversation NOT related to that. If you do that is called SPAM!!!!

Be consistent- Be present. Be present on a routine basis. NOT just when you have a book coming out.

Keep it real- Talk about things that you really have a passion for. Be honest in all that you do.

80/20 Rule- 80 percent of the time you are talking about things NOT related to marketing your book. Be sure to interact with others during this time too. Relationships require more than one person, so interact and care about others! 20 percent of the time you can find creative or direct ways to talk about your book. Don’t just make it an ad pitch, talk about the writing of the book, the research of the book, the storyline, the characters. 20% is actually a LOT. I would not hard sell a book in a social environment unless you have cultivated a community receptive to that.

Social Network Opportunities- Ads, games, groups, book clubs, blogging, networking, speaking engagements…

Yahoo- COS Social Media in Review

2010-07-19T11:41:00.000-07:00

Yahoo is not just a search engine, it has a great deal of other opportunities with groups, Flickr, Yahoo video-It’s On, and Yahoo Buzz. Though the average number of views isn’t as high as our YouTube channel, it is a strong search engine and we do get hits for every video.

Yahoo allows for easy bookmarking which we take full advantage of. We’ve been using Yahoo video since it began. We upload to Yahoo via TubeMogul, but we check on our Yahoo profile to see how the view numbers and engagement are and to keep the profile fresh and updated.

The Importance of Newsletters

2010-07-15T13:50:00.000-07:00

For the second year in a row COS Productions has won an Outstanding Achievement Award in Email Marketing. Primarily, we are consistent with our mailings, we have a consistent message, content our subscribers enjoy and we play by the rules of etiquette.

We always offer an easy opt-out option to our newsletters and we never add people without permission. We actually have two newsletters, which most people don’t realize. We have our normal newsletter that has book reviews, book trailers, interviews, industry news and other fun stuff and then we have a private email newsletter that only goes out to our established clients and that tells them what we’re doing that is new and may affect them. These people get a lot of free stuff or discounts from us and we share with them any new trend news.

Newsletters need to offer something of value, not just be a sales tool. That is part of the reason our newsletter stands out. If we have readers subscribe to our main newsletter and they are happy to hear about authors, books and related news they will share that with their friends and respond to that news. So our main newsletter is really for readers first. Then we have something for authors or aspiring authors second. You seldom see anything sales-like in that newsletter. But, we do refer to our other programs and sites where we entertain readers on a larger scale. So, in that way we are promoting our other sites. But, we are not selling anything.

Why not sell? Well, it’s like living by example. You want people to WANT what you
have. You don’t want to have to convince them, trick them or otherwise maneuver them into buying something from you. If you are passionate about what you do and you believe in what you’re selling, people will see that. You want to encourage them to be as excited as you are. That’s fun!

Our Established Client Newsletter is designed to be primarily a resource. We talk
about what we’re doing, what we plan on doing, what we’re doing for free and what trends we are following and why. We talk about the success of our clients. And, we remind people of our other sites and the opportunities there. At some point we will offer special deals or discounts, but the primary function of the newsletter is to be a resource.

Newsletters need to have news in them. They need to have articles. They need to have value to them. If they are just another sales pitch, the will get pitched to the round file that is SPAM. But, offer some tips & tricks, some valuable articles and education/opinion on relevant topics and your newsletter will flourish!

Viddler- COS Social Media in Review Series

2010-07-12T11:39:00.000-07:00

We started using Viddler in 2008 and I like the site a lot despite the fact that we only get a couple hundred views per video as a rule.

There are a lot of social opportunities with groups and friending, blogging as well as an API, RSS and the ability to send out to iTunes if you choose.

The site has been stable and I see it continuing to grow and offer new things on a regular basis. They seem to have a handle on how to monetize which is important for it to stay operational. They are in beta with HTML5 which makes me VERY happy since we get a LOT of views via mobile phones.
Surprisingly, the videos that have done best have been historical romance, chicklit and paranormal romance.

Social Media for the Thriller Genre

2010-07-10T07:00:00.000-07:00

Sheila Clover English, Barbara Vey, & Dianna Love.

Before you start your social media adventure you need to know four things. These things need to be written down so you can examine them as you create your campaign or plan.

Know your audience-
Identify a typical reader of your book and do a mock profile of them so you don’t lose sight of who you are trying to reach.

Remember that your audience, as it pertains to social media, doesn’t just want your book, they want an experience with you.

People are about their OWN stories!!!!

Know your goals-
Have set goals. Goals for how you will budget your time online. Goals for what you want to get out of being on social sites. Goals for your book, series or career. But have them, know them and work toward them daily.

If you don’t have goals going in, you can easily get swept away by the time suck that often occurs with social media.

If you don’t know how much time to spend there I recommend buying an egg timer, setting it for 20 minutes and timing yourself. You might budget more than that, or less, but be consistent and don’t get sucked in.

Know yourself-
Know your strengths and weaknesses. Match them up to the social sites to make sure you choose the right one for you.

If you are terrible about blogging, don’t blog. Twitter. Do something you feel you can be good at. And if you can, find something you actually enjoy doing.

Be passionate about things. People love to see others who are passionate about what they do. Be
positive. Snark can come back on you in a bad way if you’re not careful.

Know your resources-
Who is your go-to person for technology? Website stuff? Social media? Make friends. Exchange resources with people.

Know professionals who can help you, booksellers, librarians and communities. And that is where we’re going to segue into the actual topic of the session.

There are many blogs and sites that are specific for the thriller genre. Some of those are professional sites that charge a fee for services and some are free. Both have something to offer the thriller writer looking to promote their book.

Start with asking yourself what it is you want to promote? Is it your book, series or brand? What is your goal? Are you looking to cross promote to a sub-genre like romance or paranormal?

Set your goals and match them to your opportunities.

If you’re looking for sites that will get your book in front of thriller readers and other potential buyers such as booksellers or libraries you may need to look for a professional service. So we’ll look at those first and then move on to the free sites.

There are three businesses that I’m going to cover in this session. They are not the only game in town, but they are businesses I trust. Anytime you plan on hiring someone to do your marketing for you I strongly urge you to check their references and reputation.

BookReporter.com
Carol Fitzgerald owns the Book Reporter and this businesses has the respect of the industry. It has been around for years and the great thing about it is that it has genre-specific opportunities.
What I love about this site is it promotes itself to readers. It gives readers a reason to trust them and a reason to return. That means a lot of eyes on your promotion.

AuthorBuzz
M.J. Rose. If you don’t know her, you need to at least know of her. She is an amazing promoter and has put together one of the best promotions for books and authors there is online. You can have your book seen by librarians, book clubs and readers. You can do blog ads. This is a site I recommend you check out.

Circle of Seven Productions
If you’re going to do multimedia and social media check out www.cosproductions.com. This is the company that started the book trailer phenomenon and whether you like book trailers or not, the videos are seen by hundreds of booksellers and thousands of librarians as well as on social media sites, reader sites and genre-specific sites.

They have social media marketing package that includes book review, both traditional and video, blogging, press release, podcasts and distribution of the video and podcast to a wide variety of appropriate sites.

Barbara recommended Dan Blank of www.wegrowmedia.com as someone who does reliable marketing that has experience. She has worked with him personally.

Again, there are other professional services out there. You may want to check the Predators and Editors website to see if they have been reported with either good or bad reviews.

Now, for some free sites-

ITW Facebook
ITW MySpace
TracyReaderDad Blog - Blip player
InfernalDreams.net
Reader’s Entertainment Thriller site
ITW Twitter (social oomph)
Thriller/Mystery/Suspense Group - http://groups.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=groups.groupprofile&groupID=103678455
Whodunit Mystery/Suspense Group - http://groups.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=groups.groupprofile&groupID=100437006
Mysteries and Thrillers MySpace Group - http://groups.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=groups.groupprofile&groupID=103678455
Facebook ITW Debut authors site (NEW, first time authors only) - http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=31198744908&ref=search
Facebook group- "We love reading thriller & science fiction" - http://www.facebook.com/search/?init=srp&sfxp&q=suspense+books&o=69&c1=5&s=40#!/group.php?gid=140489859244
http://suspenseandcrime.gather.com/
PW Beyond Her Book

Be a guest blogger! Talk about something useful or unique and don’t forget to promote your book and website!

Know your audience
Know your goals
Know yourself
Know your resources

COS in NYC at ThrillerFest!

2010-07-09T08:00:00.000-07:00

ThrillerFest is underway and COS is there! Thursday CEO Sheila English, who is also the ITW Social Media Chair, met with clients, talked to thriller writers, did interviews and attended some great sessions.

New York Times bestselling author Lisa Scottoline did a great session on the mechanics of writing, pitching your book and being positive as you work on your book. She suggested working on your novel at least 20 minutes a day every day, if not more. Sheila caught up with her for a quick chat and a few laughs.

Sheila and production partner Christopher Hopper met up at the Borders store on Park Ave. to do some interviews for Tor/Forge which was exciting since it was the first time the two had met in person after working togther for over 5 years.

It's a fun-filled week in NYC for COS and we'll keep you posted on the great things happening at ThrillerFest and beyond!

Revver- COS Social Media in Review

2010-07-05T11:37:00.000-07:00

Revver has been around off and on for a few years. It used to be one of our most reliable sites, but over the last two years it became unstable. For a short time the site didn’t work at all, but recently it has started taking video uploads again.

Though it is listed on TubeMogul it has not been working correctly and any uploads we do have been directly to the site. It’s hit and miss whether or not the video actually uploads and displays.

We tried to reach out to the owners of the site and offer some assistance with some of their technical problems, but the phone number was discounted and we were never able to get anyone to return our email. They appear to have some kind of connection with the site – LiveVideo.com. That site has been problematic before as well and we have had a lot of problems with them. I don’t know if they are owned by the same people or not, but it is suspicious.
We don’t get a lot of views there anymore. I attribute this to the poor running of the site and lack of social opportunities.

I would love to see this site succeed. Our videos have done well there in the past and I’d love to see it thrive like it did in the beginning.

MetaCafe- COS Social Media in Review

2010-06-28T11:35:00.000-07:00

We joined MetaCafe in Feb. of 2006 when it was young. We have nearly 500 videos posted there with views ranging anywhere from 50 to 3000.

Those videos with interesting and catchy descriptions seem to get the most views.

We have subscribers to our MetaCafe channel which is important since those people will get a notification when we upload a video.

There seems to be a more mature audience for us here. We have several videos that have over 3000 with the majority of those being suspense/thriller genre.
This site isn’t as big as YouTube or MySpace, but it has proven to be reliable with a good number of viewers interested in book trailers.

They do play pre-roll commercials, which is fine, but a little annoying. You can’t blame them though, they do need to make money and the pre-rolls are brief. It hasn’t seemed to hamper our view numbers. MetaCafe has a panel that reviews the video and sometimes they will mark our video 13+ which is like PG13. That doesn’t seem to hurt the number either.

There are options for bookmarking but we seldom use them from that site. We upload via TubeMogul, but check the profile and video performance once a week from the Metacafe site.

Relationships at the Heart of Publishing Success: How to Forge Them and How to Benefit From Them

2010-06-21T12:08:00.000-07:00

Marketing your book is a matter of first, making friends and second, proving your value. When you combine the two you have a powerful arsenal in which to promote yourself.

The relationships you forge can foster your writing career. From support through the writing process to the connections made within the publishing industry, it’s the daily interactions that make any venture a success.

It is easier than ever before to get in contact with other writers as well as industry insiders. You don’t have to move to New York, just log on to the internet or attend writers conferences. Even conferences close to home are ripe with possibilities to connect with people that share the same interests and goals as you. To connect online, try for instance Facebook and Twitter. These websites provide group chats that will put you in contact with others in your field. When attending writing events, the main thing is to be open and say hello to every person you meet. These types of environments have jump-started the careers of many writers. Every person you meet offers something different and valuable to the writing community as should you. To determine what you can best offer others you need to play on your strengths. Do you want to be the critique buddy or BETA reader? A guru of your craft who provides insight as well as information? Perhaps you are the maven of Google who loves to search the web for titillating articles on the craft and business of writing. If that is the case, then posting links to save others time can be your value. Ideally you should aspire to play the roles of all of the above suggestions, it shows you are well rounded. Your connections with others needn’t be pure business either. Feel free to be at ease and joke, encourage or chat about life, it will endear you to your future friends, only watch what you say, it will make or break your reputation. Be willing to share your own knowledge and help others and they will be more receptive to your requests.

How much time should be devoted to networking is really dependant on personal circumstance like hours worked at a day job, family matters and writing time. The time spent writing should always exceed the time you spend networking. The number of sites you sign up for should be limited to a maximum of two, trying to keep up with any more could become quite a hassle. Hosting a blog should be another of your priorities. The blog will be the paramount asset of your career. Here you will be able to keep everyone up to date on your writing as well as share your thoughts on the industry and whatever else catches your fancy that is relevant to the theme of your blog. Later you can share information on any public or online appearances you make as well as book releases.

You’ve made friends, proved you’re an asset to the writing community and now you have a book coming out. How do you utilize your connections to promote your book? Blog tours are increasingly more popular than book signings. There are a plethora of blogs so limit yourself to the ones which are most likely to connect you with potential readers and that correlate best with your book. Optimally the blogs you tour will be high traffic and the host will know how best to promote your appearance on her site. Ask that your hosts include a link to your website or blog, a picture of the book and a link to a store where they can purchase the book.

A giveaway is another good avenue to take in order to grow an audience. Consider giving away bookmarks or totes that include the title of your book, your name as well as your website. This is a fun marketing strategy that garners you cheap advertisement and is also something useful to the recipient. A signed copy of your book can be the grand prize. On twitter you can qualify anyone to win your goodies by retweeting (or reposting) the information on their own account so that their friends can see your contest and participate. You can do something similar to this on Facebook as well. On your blog you might stipulate that anyone who follows you and posts an article on their own site about your blog is qualified to win.

A book trailer is an entertaining peek into the world of your characters, designed to entice the reader to want to find out more, thus going out to purchase the book. Post a link to the video you create on your blog and networking sites and ask others if they would include the video on the sidebar of their blog or website as well.

The success of a book ultimately comes down to creating relationships, from those you work with professionally to the people who buy your books. Eighty percent of all books are sold via word-of-mouth, thus your platform goal should be to reach as many as you can and make it easy and entertaining for them to spread the word. A professional website or blog, running contests and making a book trailer are all ways to appeal to your audience and make it fun for them to share information about your book with their friends. Be present in the online community and maintain your friendships and industry connections by balancing both the give and the take aspect of your relationships. A structured online platform where you not only take, but give back should be the heart of any marketing strategy.

~Lindsey Edwards

thewritewords-lindsey.blogspot.com

www.twitter.com/thoughtfulpen

Lindsey Edwards has written content for several web-based companies. She has published articles on the craft and business of writing through eHow, Writer’s Digest Guide to Literary Agents as well as her blog, The Write Words. She is currently working on a historical/fantasy romance series that she hopes to place with a publisher soon. She lives in Missouri with her husband and son.

COS Blog- BEA in Review- CEOs Debate on E-books

2010-06-16T11:13:00.000-07:00

Commentary by Sheila English

I didn’t get to make it to the CEO panel much to my regret, so like many others I waited for PW to send out their daily review of what was going on at BEA so I could find out what was said.

Of course e-books was a hot topic and the panel had a variety of opinions. The panel included ABA CEO Oren Teicher, Workman Group publisher Bob Miller, Authors Guild’s new president Scott Turow, ICM executive v-p Esther Newberg, Ingram CEO Skip Prichard, Penguin CEO David Shanks and FSG president Jonathan Galassi. That’s a lot of publishing leadership!

I found it interesting that some felt piracy was a big issue with ebooks, and I agree it is, but like someone on the panel pointed out, piracy happens when people scan in the printed pages too. If someone wants to pirate a book to sell it illegally they will. My own observation is that people can, if motivated, re-type an entire book. Yes, that would be time consuming, but let’s face it, if it is a top seller it is worth doing it, or so I would think a criminal would consider it worth it. And criminals are not worried about the quality of the final product. So piracy is going to live with or without ebooks.

Still, let’s not make it easy for the bad guys. I’m all of looking into the best way to make piracy difficult.

I love the quote in the PW magazine by Skip Prichard saying that ebooks “did not cause piracy” which is 100% correct!

Article resource: BEA Show Daily – Day 2 Publisher’s Weekly Wed. May 26, 2010

COS Social Media in Review – Blip

2010-06-14T07:41:00.000-07:00

Blip is one of the single most important online video sites COS utilizes. It is a powerhouse for getting your video to a variety of audiences.

Blip is part of the TubeMogul family, in which COS is a premiere client. We use Blip in many ways. First of all it is a wonderful venue and we see a good deal of views come from the Blip site itself. In addition, the site offers additional distribution opportunities, all of which we have applied. The Blip RSS feed also feeds other sites for us such as Blinx, which COS Productions has a contract with and a personalized channel.

The Blip players can be personalized which is great. We have several booksellers and specialty sites that use these and we are able to feed in the videos they want. Some want them all, some want only certain genres.

Interestingly, the top sites to use our Blip player feeds are iTunes, Odeo, Borders True Romance and Bubba’s Book Swap.

Blip won’t allow profiles that are commercial in nature and at one point they removed our entire profile saying the videos are all commercial. Once I called them and pointed out that we also supply webisodic content (The Lonesome Losers and Zombie Today) they agreed to put it back up, which they did immediately. I now have a contact in the tech department at Blip who says I can call him if that ever happens again. Lucky for me…he’s an avid reader!

• This series of articles reviews a variety of social media venues that Circle of Seven Productions and/or Reader’s Entertainment employees across the online universe.

7 Marketing Lessons You Can Learn From Nike

2010-06-09T08:21:00.000-07:00

This is a guest post from Joanna Penn, from The Creative Penn: Writing, Publishing Options, Internet Sales and Marketing...For Your Book.

Whether you are trying to sell your first novel from your new website, or promote your latest product from an established speaking platform, there are lessons everyone can learn from mega marketers, Nike.

Create a brand that is memorable and easy to remember. Everyone knows the slogan “Just do it” and everyone knows the Nike swoosh. They are immediately recognisable. I even saw the swoosh painted on the paddle of a fishing outrigger canoe in the islands of Vanuatu a few years back. What is memorable about your brand, your books, your products or yourself? Can you create a brand or slogan that is easy to remember?

Focus on a niche. Nike are immediately recognisable as a sports-wear company. You don't go to Nike to buy designer evening wear or flat-pack furniture. It's very hard to dominate in multiple niches so the biggest companies don't even try. Who are your books and products for? If you think they are for everyone, you will find it hard to appeal to anyone. Decide on your target market, go where they are and market to them specifically.

Be everywhere. Nike are in physical stores around the world, but they also have internet sales. Plus they have free audio at iTunes, videos online, free blogs and podcasts and even software online for people to use. They provide ease of access to their products from anywhere in the world. How can you expand your platform to become an international, multi-media presence?

Create a community around your brand. Nike have a great community for runners where you can log your runs, learn more about training and even share music you run to. Seth Godin, marketing guru, talks about this in his book “Tribes”. People need leaders and groups to fit into. You can be one of them and create a loyal community around your brand or product.

Work with partners to create new opportunities. Joint ventures are a smart way to promote your product. You get an introduction to new people through someone they trust and access to a whole new market. You also get promotion to their list and new opportunities you would not have found on your own. But it is critical to only collaborate with a complimentary person/business. Nike and Apple iPod partnered to create running shoes integrated with the iPod so the music would match your running pace. This is an inspired joint venture where both parties benefitted. Who could you collaborate with to expand your marketing niche?

Have a product people want to buy that meets the expectations of your marketing. You can put a lot of effort into marketing and brand-building but there is little point unless you are going to make some money from it, or enhance your business somehow. Nike have lots of different products available that matches their marketing message. “Just do it” fits their active, sporty brand and they sell products to match. Do you have products that match your marketing? Does your marketing message attract your ideal customer?

Be in it for the long term and change with the times. Nike is a global company and a world leader in sports apparel. But did you know it was originally started in 1964 and began trading as Nike Inc in 1978? That business has been growing a long time and yet they have continually re-invented themselves for the new market. These days we all expect instant gratification, instant recognition, and instant sales but the best marketing builds on earlier efforts to create a brand over time. So think long term about your brand and your marketing and you will achieve more than you think.

Joanna Penn is an author, speaker and international consultant. Her blog http://www.TheCreativePenn.com provides articles, audio and video on Writing, Publishing, Internet Sales and Promotion...For Your Book. Visit the site for your free Author 2.0 Blueprint: Using Web 2.0 tools to write, publish, sell and promote your book. You can also find Joanna on Twitter @thecreativepenn

COS Social Media in Review – MySpace

2010-06-07T07:35:00.000-07:00

We’re really thrilled to be an official MySpace video partner which happened in May of this year. Being an actual MySpace partner has some benefits. Now our videos accepted immediately without the filters most other video uploads have to go through. And if there are any problems with an upload or the content we have a direct line to MySpace for a quick resolution!

MySpace was once the main online social community for COS Productions and is still in the top 10. With over 9000 followers the site is a main staple for COS online social media. It’s a great way to deliver information and we utilize not only the video opportunities there, but blogging, bulletins and SEO.

The bulletins go out to all 9000+ followers, but because those announcements can sometimes get lost in the shuffle when someone has a lot of friends sending bulletins we send our bulletins out on different days and at different times to help ensure the most visibility of our messages.

The profile is easy to brand and you can see how we’ve created our own online presence to appear almost as its own website- http://www.myspace.com/cosbooktrailers

COS has made connections at MySpace with content managers in books, music, film and comics and have been able to have books or clients featured on MySpace books. For a while the MySpace books feature was left stagnating, but we have been invited to come to the MySpace corporate office to get a tour and a chat, which we will do this year.

• This series of articles reviews a variety of social media venues that Circle of Seven Productions and/or Reader’s Entertainment employees across the online universe.

COS Social Media in Review – DailyMotion

2010-05-31T07:33:00.000-07:00

DailyMotion has proven to be a strong online video site. Part of the proof is that it is still around. Part of it is that is growing. Circle of Seven Productions signed a contract with DailyMotion so that we can offer “Official Content”. The contract is pretty basic, with promises that we’ll offer quality content that follows the laws of copyright and that we will provide consistent content. In exchange, DailyMotion will allow us to upload all content without the strict review process sometimes employed by social sites who must be concerned with copyright laws, etc.

But, more importantly to us, DailyMotion has agreed to feature some of our content on its main site or channels. Not all content is featured, but a good amount is and we’ve seen an increase recently in featured COS videos. That translates into more eyes on the videos and more video views.

Pros and Cons to the site.

Cons are that DailyMotion puts pre-roll ads before each video. Normally that’s not so bad, but when the majority of your own videos are 90 seconds long, a 10 or 15 second pre-roll seems pretty overkill.

There are a lot of advertisements on the site pages.

Pros are that links you put into the video description are live-links which means people can just click on them and be taken to the author’s page or the book product page. It encourages impulse buys or impulse curiosity that results in a click through.

The sites has some special features for sharing and presentation that we like and the profile pages is fairly customizable. You can see on the COS DailyMotion profile that we have branded the site- http://www.dailymotion.com/cosproductions

DailyMotion is also part of the TubeMogul video delivery. COS Productions is a premiere client of TubeMogul and it’s convenient to have this feature. We also RSS out to a lot of other sites from our DailyMotion site.

DailyMotion is a stable site worth investing time in and works hard to promote itself to viewers.

• This series of articles reviews a variety of social media venues that Circle of Seven Productions and/or Reader’s Entertainment employees across the online universe.

BEA a huge success for COS!

2010-05-27T17:33:00.000-07:00

It all started with 500 new COS DVDs that were gone in the first day. The year before COS gave out 300 DVDs and they were gone by the third day.

"I have to admit I was a little shocked when they told me were ran out the first day." Says COS CEO Sheila English. "But the up side to that is that a lot of people stopped me during the convention when they saw I was with Circle of Seven Productions. So the word got out fast!"

COS has increased their presense this year at several conventions and for BEA, which is the biggest convention COS attends, we added a meeting room in additinon to the DVDs and sponsorship. Next year the plan is to have the meeting room again, new DVDs and perhaps a booth for Reader's Entertainment Group.

CEO Sheila English w/ Dot Lin from Tor/Forge

AAP Reports GOOD NEWS in Publishing Sales at BEA

2010-05-26T11:44:00.000-07:00

I can always use some good news. I read about how sales are down here and they're closing bookstores there, it gets a little discouraging. But, finally, we get some good news from the AAP and I wanted to share a little bit of that with you!

Book sales increased by 16.6% in March with is $458.2 million dollars and were up by 8% for the year!!!

Hardcover adult category, audio books and University Press hardcover books all saw a fairly significant increase.

All of this was reported by the Association of American Publishers this week.

I have to say that COS has seen an increase in the number of book videos we're doing and I wondered if that was a reflection of the overall health of the industry. And though I don't know that they are related, I'm hoping it does signify a better year for publishing overall.

Posted from BEA!

COS Social Media in Review – Facebook

2010-05-24T07:25:00.000-07:00

Facebook is a favorite of ours and we have 3 places on Facebook that you can find us. Each place offers something different and in a bit I’ll tell you why that’s important.

COS delivers our videos via RSS feed to our Book Video Facebook page. Every single video that COS distributes will be sent there. This is important for SEO reasons and because we want people on Facebook to be able to share the videos. But that’s not the most popular of all the COS Facebook profiles.

Circle of Seven Productions has a Fan Page, an official COS Facebook page that we keep up on fairly regularly. In 2010 we have plans to be more “present” on the fan page with some behind the scenes, professional marketing information, future projects listings and information on conventions we attend. But that’s not the most popular of the COS Facebook profiles either.

The Facebook profile that over 2000 people follow is www.facebook.com/booktrailers and is the online home of COS Productions CEO Sheila Clover English. This is where the CEO lets her hair down, so to speak.

“It lets people see me as a person. I don’t have to be an expert, a marketer or a ‘CEO’ there. I’m just me.” Says English. She goes on to share, “I started playing a few online games since it allowed me to have fun with people who wanted to get to know me. And before I knew it people who had no idea what book trailers even were started commenting on my wall about books when I’d show a trailer there.”

English is an avid animal enthusiast and offers a good deal of her own brand of personal humor there. It has endeared her to many of her Facebook followers and helped create loyalty as well as engagement with the reading (and even the only-sometimes-reading) public.

The reason having an online social community connection is important is that it allows people to have a more personal bond with you. The site isn’t a sales and marketing site. It’s a place to kick back and make friends. From that organic relationships grow and so does trust, which is very important when you do so much online.

Sheila invites everyone to stop by, become a friend, talk books, play Mafia Wars, check out pictures of her family and travels and of course learn of the mischievous antics of Jack, her half Chihuahua, half Jack Russell puppy.

• This series of articles reviews a variety of social media venues that Circle of Seven Productions and/or Reader’s Entertainment employees across the online universe.

The COS Blog

2010-05-21T20:30:00.000-07:00

I've gone back and forth between Facebook, MySpace, Future Perfect Publishing, COS website news, Reader's Entertainment Blog and the COS newsletter posting things here and there that interest me, irritate me or amuse me. I guess I spend more time on Facebook, but do more writing on the COS website news blog.

So, I sat down and took a look at where I'm at and what I'm doing and decided that I do different things in different places and that's okay.

On Facebook I'm really just me. I write about my work, my dogs, my travels and just about anything that catches my attention. I do post to the COS Fan Page there, but I'm on my personal site more often than I sleep! LOL

MySpace is where I post things that are more for that particular community. I know who follows that blog and I write about MySpace events, trailers and industry stuff. You won't find things about my puppies there or my feelings about videos I find on YouTube.

Future Perfect Publishing asked me to be a contributing blogger a few years ago and I try to send them a blog quarterly that is very specific to the industry and book video.

The COS website has a feature on the main page that shows you the current COS news or press coverage and I write there about the things going on at COS. What I'm hoping to do is find a way to get that over to the COS Facebook fan page and we're working on that now.

Reader's Entertainment is specifically for reader interest. It isn't an industry blog. It's about books, book videos, book reviews, reading and covers all genres. At some point this year there will be a blog for each genre and we will advertise for each genre channel. Guest bloggers will be invited to blog and we will advertise their blogs each month in the COS newsletter and in some paid advertising.

The COS Newsletter is full of COS news, but it also has reader interest items like reviews and book trailers and it talks about what I'm doing, the radio shows I host and things that I think would interest the over 1000 people who subscribe to our newsletter.

Here, on this blog, I want to continue writing about general interest things that involve COS. That might be blogs about the sites we upload to or contract with or maybe it will be about the publishers we work with, behind the scenes stuff, marketing trends, etc.

I don't know if people are interested in the "behind the scenes" stuff or not, but I'm going to do a series about it to see how it is received and will keep an eye on the type of blog posts that seem to get the most attention and then start to write more of those. So, I guess it can be said that, if you read it...I will write it! lol

Monday's are now designated for a series of blogs I'm doing, or someone at COS will do, about the different online upload sites we send our videos to. It will be a frank discussion of how those sites perform, why we choose to upload there and whether or not we think the actual sites is good or not.

Friday's I will do a blog about whatever I'm thinking about that day. Could be anything at all. And, Wednesdays I am going to start writing, or having someone from COS write, about the making of certain videos.

I will ask for guest bloggers for Thursdays to talk about trends in marketing and technology.

All of this will start after I return from BEA in NYC. I will be there all week next week, returning on the 31st of May.

Hope you'll stop by here and check out the blog!

COS Social Media in Review - YouTube

2010-05-17T07:20:00.000-07:00

Welcome to a new blog series we're doing called COS Social Media in Review! We will talk each week about certain sites we're on and why we're on them! This week we're starting with YouTube!

YouTube is generally thought of as the end-all and be-all of video placement. It’s true that you can’t ignore the online video giant and your videos need to be there, but as far as book video goes it isn’t the best placement from a sales standpoint.

YouTube is a great place for silly videos, celebrity videos, controversy and pop culture. Not the greatest place for book video. Now, like any other landscape, that can always change, but at present this is true.

Yes, there are book videos that have tens of thousands even hundreds of thousands of views, but those are the exception, not the rule. The majority of COS Productions book videos get over 5000 views each with many that have tens of thousands. And yes, I’ve seen the Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters video that got over 200,000 views, but please see above explanation of what kind of videos do well on YouTube, those videos will do well for quite some time.

So WHY should is COS on YouTube at all? Here are some reasons-

1. YouTube is the #2 search engine on the internet
2. YouTube is one of the first places people go to when looking for a video they’ve heard about.
3. YouTube gives YOUR VIDEO great SEO across Google and other search engines.
4. You can’t ignore a place that has so many potential viewers.
5. YouTube has a lot of accessories like easy mobile phone viewing, captions, easy sharing, etc.
6. YouTube uses HTML5 which can be seen on iPhones and iPods unlike Flash

COS actually advertises our YouTube channel throughout the year in order to bring in new subscribers and build viewership. Making people aware that our YouTube channel is the “go-to” place for book video helps create a central place readers are aware of for books on YouTube.

COS has more than just one YouTube channel. Since moving toward a genre-specific business plan with our video distribution we have begun to create more genre specific sites so that people interested only in a certain genre of book can go there. Yes, we could make playlists on our main channel, but there are benefits to having these in addition to the main channel. You can see one of our other YouTube channels by going to YouTube and looking for InFaithNetwork.

Technically speaking it is important to watch what YouTube is doing behind the scenes. They are such a giant that the future of video technology can often be seen there first. We have someone who monitors all the new technology and opportunities YouTube offers to both viewers and content creators. COS has taken some of the YouTube technology and employed it for better mobile device engagement and we’ve even been able to create a simple software program wherein we can input a YouTube link to one of our videos and we are given special embed code that gives the highest quality, quickest upload speed and removes any other ads or videos at the end.

YouTube analytics is a great help to us as well. It lets us know who is watching, from where, how they got to us and who is using the video. We did a study a little over a year ago to see how long someone watches a video. Unless that person was very famous, the video had media or pop culture tie-ins or it has something that stood out over all other book videos happening at that time, people really only watched book video for about 90 seconds. What that told us is that we needed to get the call-to-action message in before 90 seconds was up. This information changed how COS did video and we now try to keep all videos under 90 seconds as a rule. Of course some videos really do work best with more content, such as author interviews or music video trailers, but for your standard book video viewer 90 seconds is golden.

COS has received over 2.5 million views to our YouTube channel and we’ve created a wonderful community there. Our subscriber numbers continue to climb.

• This series of articles reviews a variety of social media venues that Circle of Seven Productions and/or Reader’s Entertainment employees across the online universe.

Social Media Marketing – Marketing to the senses

2010-03-15T08:36:00.000-07:00

Instead of sending a message in the way that is best for us, the marketer, we should ask ourselves – What way is best for our intended audience?

Instead of sending a message in the way that is best for us, the marketer, we should ask ourselves – What way is best for our intended audience?

Examine your audience.

You should ask yourself at least three questions about your audience –

How do they normally consume information?
- Radio
- Television
- Online
- Live events

Where do they usually seek it?
- news/media sites directly or bookmarking sites (Digg, StumbleUpon, etc.)
- social sites
- podcasts- Blogtalk, iTunes, Bluebrry, Odeo
- industry outlets (eMarketer, Publisher’s Weekly)
- Friends and family (word of mouth)

How are they retaining information?

Most people have a preference of how they teach themselves to retain information.
We want to tap into that in order to have them retain our message.

The three main ways someone learns are-

Visual
Auditory
Experience (Kinesthetic)

Most people use a combination, but have a preference toward one.

You should identify your general audience, the way they consume information, where they get it and then identify their preferences.
The link below gives you some tips on how to identify learning/retaining styles.

http://homeworktips.about.com/od/homeworkhelp/a/learningstyle.htm

If you’re looking to target a very specific audience work your marketing campaign toward the identified style of accepting, processing and retaining information and deliver your message via that route.

If you are looking to get a message out to a larger, general audience, identify a specific promotional idea and apply one idea per style of learning.

For an example see this site-

http://www.cosproductions.com/specialmarketingpackage.php

Visual is covered with video.

Auditory is covered with radio/podcast.

Experience is covered with blogging, radio and Twitter where the audience is invited to participate in the conversation.

Don’t forget to always include a funnel toward your website when using any of these methods.

Visual
For video you should have a call to action, your URL at the end of the video and within the description when you upload it.

Auditory
For auditory, whether that is radio or a pre-recorded podcast you’re putting on your site, include the call to action whether that is to participate in something, or a reminder at the end as to why they need you.

Experience
When blogging or using Twitter be sure to ask questions that invite participation and try to keep that conversation going as long as you can.
If you’re able to meet someone in person this is ideal since live interaction is possible.

Match the learning/retaining style to the outlet

If your audience is visual and their preference is industry outlets you can create a video to use as an ad in those outlets, or find a way to include the names of those outlets in your video, description or tags.

If your audience prefers word of mouth, try becoming a trusted resource, or join a strong community specific to your market. Check the various Ning.com sites for example.

Marketing isn’t just about putting your product in front of who you believe your audience is. It’s about getting the message to stick and creating fertile ground for your message to grow.

When Opposites Attract, The Fire is Ignited

2009-12-28T12:47:00.000-08:00

People will contend often that, in the game of love, opposites attract. If you are open to testing the validity of that "physical" theory, then look no further than the extreme case of Drew Black and Gillian Noode, an unlikely pair fitted together on a circumstantial basis. Gillian, a PR expert with a talent for smoothing over a man's rough edges, has to help Drew clean up his image before his heated temperament takes him too far and compromises his profession as a sports club president. But Drew is the most extreme case that she has seen, and now, with proximity working against her, she is starting to find Drew's raw personality somehow impossible to resist. Tempers and desires are ignited in Back in Black, the newest novel by Lori Foster. Check out this sensual and provocative release from Foster to find out who will end up on top in this heated conflict between opposing forces.
Foster, a New York Times bestselling author, has written more than sixty novels in the romance genre. Her contemporary works have brought her much praise and many awards, and Back in Black will prove no different. It is bound to keep her readers wanting more. The novel will be a must for Foster followers, but it will make an excellent addition to your romance collection even if you have never encountered Foster's work before.

Shades of Blue - Interview with Karen Kingsbury

2009-12-16T16:21:00.000-08:00

This book was so hard to put down. Karen Kingsbury is one of those authors who lure you in with such well written stories that you find time slipping away as you sit there engrossed in the book.

This book tackles some tough topics in a loving and realistic way.

Brad Cutler lives in New York and has a dream job. A dream life! He is engaged to the love of his life who also happens to be the boss’s daughter. Brad is a Christian man and the relationship between him and Laura seems perfect. But, a past sin comes back to haunt Brad and before he can marry Laura and start his new life with her he has to go back home to North Carolina and right a wrong. Unfortunately that means seeing his old high school sweetheart. Brad only makes matters worse when he doesn’t confide in Laura about Emma and what happened many years ago.

This book is thoughtful and one that makes you think about what really matters in life.

2.5 Million views on YouTube

2009-10-19T12:38:00.000-07:00

With over 500 videos uploaded to YouTube Circle of Seven Productions is proud to share that it has over 2.5 million views on that site alone!

There are actually more than the 500 videos uploaded to YouTube, but many are older or they are behind the scenes type videos that didn't make it online. Back in 2002 when COS first started the book trailer market there wasn't a YouTube or MySpace to post the videos to.

With over 400 sites to choose from when uploading videos, COS has had over 16 million views collectively. That includes views from offline venues as well.

National Geographic Image Collection Book Trailer

2009-10-07T13:42:00.000-07:00

Of all the beautiful photos you’ve ever seen in your life, what would be the ones you would put in a single book to share with the world?

National Geographic tapped into its vault of photographs from over years of time and put them together in this amazing book.

Some of these pictures are dated back to the 19th century and some are never-before-seen pictures. All of them are breath taking.

As someone who loves photography, both the art and the mechanics, this book gave me insight to lighting, angles, subjects and opportunities like nothing else I’ve ever seen.

People, wildlife, landscape it’s all there.

I can’t recommend this book highly enough. Here is a book video someone made for it so you can see some of these amazing photos yourself!

Social Media and Book Video Distribution

2009-06-22T15:21:00.000-07:00

I attended PodCamp Ohio this past weekend where I gave a talk on the topic of online video distribution. We discussed how to identify your target audience, where to find them and how to win them over. We also talked about what online sites are great for video.

I was happy with the turn out for my talk and the fact that the audience participated by asking questions and making comments. All in all it was a great trip and I hope to attend next year.

COS Productions helped to sponsor the PodCamp Ohio event. We were a sponsor of BEA this year, but no one asked "why" since it is obvious. We work in the publishing industry so BEA (Book Expo America) is a natural choice when we go to sponsor an event. But, PodCamp is important to us as well. PodCamp Ohio featured some great talks about new media, social media, trends, SEO and so many other wonderful topics. I learned a great deal and walked away with some great contacts there.

It was a little ironic that one of the main sponsors was Ohio State University's Center For The Study And Teaching of Writing. Ironic since COS Productions is also a book-centric company and a sponsor of PodCamp.

Blip.tv was a sponsor and I was encouraged to see that company be so active in a community event like this. Blip.tv is one of the biggest video sites and one of my personal favorites to distribute to because they offer so much by way of distribution platforms and analytics. They are leaders in what they do and what they offer.

Blubrry, which is a podcast site is also a favorite of mine. We send all of our podcasts there and get a fantastic response. Blubrry even gave out some cool little pins and I snagged one for my "nerd" collection, of which I am proud. lol

I hadn't heard of Spaceblue, AssistCoach.com or even TechSmith but these are all great companies who care about investing in the industry in which they serve. I was familiar with The Doctor Anonymous Show, which you should check out if you are interested in new media.

Other sponsors included Writers Talk, which is a radio show and I'm hoping to get some COS authors on that. Digital Disciples and td/Taviano Design were also sponsors.

It was great being surrounded by like-minded people. I did a quick poll when I addressed the assembly and found that over 50% of the attendees had already seen Star Trek. We all got a good laugh at it and it was wonderful to find that we could laugh at ourselves, be passionate about what we love and share our knowledge all in one day to the benefit of everyone.

During my talk I gave people handouts with links to a list of social media sites that they can put their videos on. I also gave them some TubeMogul t-shirts that went over great! Thank you to the great people over at TubeMogul for sending me t-shirts to give away at my talk.

I saw two people video taping my talk and I am hoping it gets posted online at some point. If it does I'll be sure to share the link!

I have a few more PodCamp stories to share this week so I hope you'll come back often!

Sheila Clover English
Circle of Seven Productions

Book Expo America the Remix

2009-06-04T06:48:00.001-07:00

It was a long week and a fruitful one. Despite the doom and gloom predictions I saw a lot of action, meetings, signings and industry news in the making going on all week during BEA.

I attended as Press since I work for Reader's Entertainment and I planned on blogging during and after the event. But, I was there to promote my own business as well and paid the fee to have my material put in the high traffic areas of the registration desks. It was the best $500 I've spent on promotions this year. I saw an immediate return on investment with an increased amount of traffic to the COS websites.

I heard a lot of talk about social media. Once group said you have be present online the other group saying social media just doesn't sell books. My question is, how do they know that ads in magazines sell books when they aren't tracking that? How do we know what is working? It was interesting to hear the same old song and dance from the same people who continue to hold out, believing that online promotions will go away.

The best workshop I attended was put on by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith. They were promoting their book Trust Agents which I highly recommend. The book talks about using the web to build your reputation and earn trust. There's a lot of great information in this book. If you're job takes you to the internet to interact you should pick this book up immediately!

I could not see where BEA suffered from any lack of participation. That doesn't mean that it didn't, or that those publishers who did not attend weren't missed. I just didn't see any indication that BEA was anything but successful. I walked out with information, ideas and over 100 pounds of books!

I will most certainly attend and invest again next year.

Filmmaker of the Year Uses Talents to Promote Books

2009-05-18T09:04:00.001-07:00

This year at the 9th Annual Phoenix Film Festival, Webb Pickersgill was awarded as the "2009 Arizona Filmmaker of the Year" by the Phoenix Film Foundation which is the largest non-profit film organization in the state of Arizona. With the Phoenix Film Festival, IFP-Phoenix, Arizona Student Film Festival, International Horror and Sci-Fi Film Festival and the Phoenix Film Society.

Webb is multi-talented on many levels. A director, cinematographer, script writer, editor and producer Webb works on feature films, short films, commercials and book trailers. He has won several awards including a Davey for the book trailer Absolute Fear by author Lisa Jackson.

Several of his book trailers have become “Official Selections” of the World Independent Film Expo this year as well.

The "Official Selection" videos include-

Absolute Fear - Lisa Jackson
Ultra Violet- Nancy Bush
Found- Margaret Peterson Haddix
Fragile Eternity - Melissa Marr

Webb has owned his own business, Bassline Digital since 2004 and joined Circle of Seven (COS) Productions as a partner in 2006. You can find out more about Webb and his work at http://www.basslinedigital.com/. Circle of Seven Productions is the top book trailer producer in the United States and own the popular online reader site Reader’s Entertainment TV.

Social Networking - Fun vs. Business

2009-05-04T01:36:00.000-07:00

At what point do we differentiate between social network fun and business? Are we always to be our "business" selves on sites like MySpace and Facebook? Do all of our Tweets need to be carefully constructed for ROI?

Is there a happy medium? And could being ourselves in a more personal way actually be a business strategy?

I've always mixed the COS MySpace with fun and business. Our MySpace blog get tens of thousands of views and is one of our strongest promo tools. I noticed that there's always a spike in views through when I write about two particular topics: Marketing is always well read on our blog, but even more popular are my rants about conventions and attendee behavior. I'm still on topic, sort of, by talking about the conventions, but I lean heavily into a more personal arena by giving my own insight to it (usually done with exasperation and/or humor).

60 days ago I decided to try a case study on Facebook. I hadn't been doing a lot with our Facebook profile, so this was a great opportunity to see what would happen if we tried something more "social". I started playing a popular Facebook game that had over 1 million players. The game is Mafia Wars.

I'm not a game player really. I used to play Tetris years ago, but that is about the extent of my game playing. My husband helped me get set up with Mafia Wars and soon I got the hang of it and learned to really enjoy it. Building my mafia meant finding other players, so I signed up for the Mafia Wars group site on Facebook. Once there I found over 150 people who wanted to be in my mafia.

These people didn't know who I was or what I did. They didn't care. They only cared that I was a good player. But, once they became a friend, in order to get on my mafia, it gave me access to communicating other things with them.

What surprised me was the number of these people who would comment on my Facebook profile when I posted something. At first I would post little things like "What are you doing this weekend?" People love to be able to share things about themselves so these type of questions were popular with everyone.

Then, I started posting our book video or comments on our clients books. Surprising me again, my mafia friends commented here too. Sometimes I got more comments from these people than from people I befriended because they are in the book community.

There is no doubt that some of my mafia friends bought books I recommended or talked about. I know because they emailed me. I never told them I was in the industry. I never went out of my way to say anything about what I did. What they saw was someone who loves to read making recommendations.

Could it be that because these people didn't see me as "selling" books that it instilled more trust for my recommendations? Traditional readers go to reviewers and others who are in the book world in order to get recommendations. But, these people were not traditional readers. They were "occasional" readers. They are part of that group who will read if inspired to do so.

Preaching to the choir does not build a bigger choir. We want to give traditional readers all the information they want in order to make purchasing decisions, but those people are going to read something regardless. It is the occasional reader that needs the extra nurturing so that we can encourage them to become traditional readers.

Mixing fun with the business of book promotion in a way that makes book promotion seem less like selling can be successful if done right. No matter whether you're playing online games or promoting a novel, you need to practice proper etiquette and remember that the way you conduct yourself follows you everywhere you go in the online world. Be thoughtful, considerate and honest and mixing fun with business gets easier to do.

Staffing for Social Networking And Online Success

2009-04-04T08:48:00.001-07:00

How many social networkers does it take to run a company's online social networking program?

That depends. Not on how big the company is, but on how entrenched you want your company to be in social networking. How active do you want to be online? How effective? Is being transparent, responsible and accountable in your social networking outline and execution?

Here's how our own company determined some of our social networking priorities and execution.

We outlined the different types of readers that we know are interested in book video. We identified our audience. We outlined where those people are online. Many people are on more than one site, so we tried to narrow it down to the sites most likely to have the largest number of our target audience.

We outlined the type of material we want to offer these people. We matched up those elements to where we find that audience. Then we asked ourselves, what is the best platform or venue to reach this audience where they are hanging out online?

Then we developed a plan for our clients that would help them make goals that allowed us utilize the information we have attained, while also meeting the client's set goals.

For example, the client may be more interested in "branding" than sales. Branding is a building block to sales and someone looking to invest in their professional writing career knows they need to start with a good foundation. Going straight to sales may net you something, but it's like skipping foreplay, the payoff just isn't going to be the same.

If the client wants to do branding, let's say, as a chicklit author, we then match up our variety of platforms and venues to ensure that their video, audio, blogs, ads or whatever it is we're doing for them, finds that audience in a way that that audience likes. We might upload a fun video to TeamSugar, Popbytes or any number of similar sites, then approach known bloggers who fit that criteria and ask them to blog using the video. We may have other venues that are appropriate for this campaign and we apply them all.

How many people does it take to make that happen?

Since COS is primarily doing online marketing, promotion and advertising we have a full service front-to-back system.

Front End:

We have four people to address customer service. One main, full time employee who does the initial contact, helps determine the client's needs and is the liaison throughout the entire process.
We have someone who works specifically with our bigger clients. Clients who place multiple orders. This could be a publisher, agent, publicist or author.
For clients who have special needs I, personally, will work with them and our main customer service person to assist them in choosing a goal best suited to them.
And then we have our distribution coordinator who fills in for our main customer service person from time to time because we believe that the people who finish a project should understand how it all got to them.

We then have the products and the producers of those products who work with both the front and back end people.

The back end, or distribution department has 5 main workers and 2 ancillary workers. We have our social media manager who uploads video to social platforms and keeps track of what's going on with those sites on a daily basis. He can tell you if a site allows you to change a thumbnail, add more tags, allows live-links. He knows the ins and outs of how those sites operate.
The distribution coordinator works the front end so she knows what's coming and can advise others in the team what the goals are so appropriate distribution can happen. She collects information needed to optimize SEO, she is in charge of the timing of distribution, and she does things like sends out emails to the team what a book is released since COS does additional work on the day a book is released. She is also the person to follow up with our clients when their experience with us is finished. She sends them our company survey and makes sure they are satisfied with the product and the experience.
The quality control person for distribution goes around to our main sites or specified specialty sites to review how each video is performing. Each new video is assigned certain performance expectations and this person reviews that video to ensure it is living up to expectations. He does this until the end of the first week after the book is released. If the video is not performing to expectations he has a list of actions he will take until we get the video to perform.
Distribution research and development manager spends time each week looking for new venues and platforms. This might be a new video site, new blog, reader site or applying our videos to a new technology altogether. This person works with the other members of the team to follow trends and new opportunities.
We have a Distribution Specialist who works with booksellers, libraries and specialty sites who require special formatting or delivery. This has become a full time job.

In addition to those distribution jobs, customer service assists in R&E and in quality control. We have a tech expert who assists with any technical problems we run into.

But what of social networking itself?

Some of these positions incorporate social networking. Andrew, who watches the video performance, will post bulletins, blogs or comment in groups as he identifies how to get a video or audio product to perform better.

We have a group of volunteers made of of readers who will create a buzz for certain campaigns by talking about it in their own circle of influence.

I do the majority of social networking online. I blog every week for one of several blogs. Our COS MySpace blog is the most popular and has had tens of thousands of people read it. We have the COS blog, RECTV blog and I blog for Future Perfect Publishing. Recently I was made chair of the ITW (International Thriller Writers organization) Social Networking Committee and I blog on those social sites as well.

I recycle some of the blogs. If I write a blog that is popular I will re-use it down the line on a different venue. This allows me to maximize the work I put into blogging.

Andrew, Victoria and I all work at answering comments that come in to our blogs and social sites. That is something that is shared, but very vital to us.

In the summer of 2009 COS will have a certification program for Social Media Networking that we will require our employees who do front and back end work to attain. This will help our team to be as effective as possible while also being attuned to the ever-changing landscape of social media. This will help us stay on top of what works, what doesn't and how to best use our time.

Social networking takes commitment and dedication. It takes patience and time. And it takes energy and creativity. It isn't just a matter of mastering Facebook or writing a blog. It's become an important tool needed to keep our company viable.

Book Trailers that Matter

2009-03-27T09:36:00.000-07:00

All books matter. They bring joy, inspiration, knowledge and/or entertainment. But sometimes there are trailers that come along that matter in a way that makes you want to share it with the world.
Currently, I have three such videos I'd like to share.
One is a beautifully drawn children's book called Change Has Come which is an inspiration about the future of America and the election of Barack Obama.
The second is an author reading from a book called Crazy Love. I can't watch this without getting emotional and I wish I could share it with the world.
The third is not a COS made trailer, but we did the distribution for it. It is the story of a mother's journey raising her autistic child.

What is the best book community out there?

2009-03-12T12:12:00.001-07:00

We want to know what YOU think!
GoodReads, a favorite of COS, is a wonderful community of readers, but there are so many it's hard to determine which one to invest your time in.
A great deal of Ning sites have sprung up with groups for general readers and then genre specific. Shelfari and even Amazon's community have a great following. But, which one is best?
We'd love to have your opinion!

A Great Time Travel Novel!

2009-01-28T05:33:00.000-08:00

MY MAN, MICHAEL proves you can be both a lover and a fighter! Combining mixed martial arts, romance and time travel!
The previous book in this series made both the USA Today and NY Times bestseller lists!
Michael thinks an injury will keep him from fighting again until a woman shows up and promises to heal him. But, he must travel with her and teach a community of woman warriors to fight in return.
Imagine Michael’s surprise when she fulfills her end of the bargain and finds that, to fulfill his he must travel into the future!
MY MAN, MICHAEL is out on Jan. 27, 09 and can be found at any major bookstore. Find out more about the book, the series and the author at http://www.lorifoster.com.

Part 1-

MY MAN MICHAEL LORI FOSTER BOOK TRAILER Part 1

Part 2-

MY MAN MICHAEL LORI FOSTER BOOK TRAILER Part 2

Part 3-

MY MAN MICHAEL LORI FOSTER BOOK TRAILER Part 3

Can out-of-home markets be the secret to stimulating books sales?

2009-01-27T13:15:00.001-08:00

According to its website Scarborough Research “measures the lifestyles, shopping patterns, media behaviors, and demographics of American consumers locally, regionally, and nationally. Scarborough consumer insights are used by marketers and media professionals to develop successful programs that maximize return on marketing and sales investments.” When Scarborough researched the buying patterns of the Transit TV commuters it found something that might not be a surprise to publishers; commuters read.

Transit TV has flat screen televisions on its buses in five major cities; Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Orlando and Milwaukee. According to the Transit TV site 46% of its riders are aged 18-34 and 55% are female. But what percentage of commuters are buying books and where are they going to buy them? That’s what Scarborough Research asked. And we’ll look at those stats in a moment.

Other than statistic significance, there are a variety of reasons why the publishing world should take note of this information.

• Demographics- getting your message to major cities
• A repeat audience
• Audience recall of material

Transit TV audience is preconditioned to accept book video as both content and purchase suggestions since they have been watching book trailers since 2008. Circle of Seven Productions signed a contract with Transit TV in March of 2008 to provide book trailers as content. The relationship between the two companies started with a simple email from Sheila English, CEO of Circle of Seven Productions, inviting Transit TV to look at COS videos on YouTube. “I saw the Transit TV logo on the OVAB site and recalled seeing that on ExpandedBooks’ website. I knew there must be interest in book content and COS offers something different than ExpandedBooks so I thought I’d contact Transit TV and see what they thought of our content.” Jeff Hartlieb of Transit TV said, “I saw the significance of the Book Trailer segments and when riders started asking where they could purchase the books, I knew we had hit a home run” Hartlieb goes on to say, “The content is highly visual and well suited to Transit TV’s environment which is one of the major reasons it has done so well on our system”

Once book trailers began to play on Transit TV there was a brief period of adjustment where commuters would see a book trailer and understand what it was. COS book videos are meant to be entertaining, so they aren’t overt advertising. And to lend to the impression of entertainment vs. ad, COS created bumpers, which are pre-roll video that tells commuters they are learning about certain genres of books and an end roll video that encourages people to read anything. “We were contracted to provide content, not ads,” says English. “By creating a pre and post video that encourages the experience of reading, then putting our trailers between those bumpers as examples of what someone might read, we are able to treat our book videos are entertainment, not ads.” The downside of being a content provider instead of an advertiser is that we don’t have the metrics or analytics that advertisers get. We know we will get 10 million impressions for each video, but we don’t get specifics and we don’t get to request particular spots or dates. The videos play within the month we submit them. Because the videos are taken as content and because of the lack of analytics COS doesn’t charge its clients for placement on Transit TV. COS does, however, charge a nominal fee for formatting and processing so it doesn’t absorb incidental costs related to the program.

The Transit TV venue has significant benefits to it. There is a 51% average advertising recall which is an amazing statistic, and one COS has seen in action.

“I was excited when I opened my email to see that I got a fan letter from someone who saw my trailer on the bus!” Says author Thora Gabriel who shared part of the letter. The commuter was so enticed by the trailer he noted the URL of the author and emailed her when he got to a computer. “Being quite a fan of various fantasy books and such, I was intrigued by the "trailer" for the book currently being shown on Los Angeles MTA bus
monitors.” This commuter recalled the book, the author and the URL after getting off the bus. He was inspired enough to take action. That’s what all promotion is suppose to do.

89% have a favorable opinion of Transit TV so the majority of people watching appreciate the content. With so many people on advertisement overload, to find a venue where the audience is happy to watch the material on the screen lends itself to positive outcomes for advertisers.

“I’m getting more and more fan mail from people who saw my trailer on the transit bus!” say author Christine Feehan. Authors are excited about getting this additional exposure and over the fact that it inspires action.

The Scarborough research found interesting facts about Transit TV commuters. They did an index that compares the overall population of the city to those taking the transit system. The way the index works is that it looks at the concentration of a certain type of consumer compared with the overall city.

For example, in Milwaukee, there is a 22% greater concentration of people who purchase books online who are taking the transit system and watching Transit TV. The concentration of readers/commuters purchasing books online in Chicago is 12%. That means that you can find a 12% concentration of book buyers on the bus compared to the metro population index. The down and dirty of these stats tells us that a high concentration of book buyers are riding the transit system.

Where are these book buyers going to purchase their books? Not everyone buys online as the research will show. In Los Angeles, Milwaukee and Chicago Waldenbooks was the preferred bookseller of commuters who watched Transit TV. But, in Atlanta it is B. Dalton that the majority of commuters bought books from. Other places where book buyers went were WalMart, Barnes & Noble, Half Price Books and then online at Amazon.

There is a high concentration of book buyers taking the transit bus system who are spending significant and repeat time on the bus, watching Transit TV. These book buyers are now attuned to book video that plays several times throughout each day, informing them of new books and reminding them of the entertainment of reading.

It’s only a matter of time before one of the booksellers will find a way to utilize this venue and drive foot traffic to their own stores. They will benefit from multiple books being presented to these readers. It will just be a matter of driving that traffic to a central or “preferred” point of sale.

The readers benefit from having this information given to them in an entertaining way, authors benefit from a book promotion venue that is targeted to a high concentration of book buyers and booksellers benefit from repeat messages telling people that reading is a major form of entertainment.

Farewell to 2008 and Hello to 2009!

2008-12-31T19:23:00.001-08:00

As 2008 closes I wonder, "Where did the time go?!" It's been an extraordinary year and a challenging one.

The economy has made it hard for every industry to flourish and as booksellers try to survive, publishers cut back jobs and acquisitions. Yet, books have not gone away. Nor do I think they will. Ever.

I do think that the competition between books will grown. With fewer books being printed publishers will be more picky about what they take and what they will pass on. I have friends who have been published for years that are now struggling to get their newest books picked up, or contracts renewed. It's a hard time and I don't have a crystal ball to tell us if 2009 will be any better. I hope that it will.

COS will be making changes in 2009 to our audio and video products and distribution of those projects. Because of the tight economy we feel obligated to make our products the most effective marketing tool they can be. So we have made relationships and signed contracts with more libraries, booksellers, book clubs and specialty sites. Not only is our distribution more diversified in platform, but it is more targeted in what audience will see it.
We have someone in our Distribution Department that goes around to our online sites and maintains them. He comments on other people's videos, participates in the community and maintains a general presence there for COS in a very real and meaningful way. And, it allows us to engage in a two way relationship, thus creating deeper and more loyal relationships with people on those sites.

Our distribution has increased and our Gold Distribution package is getting 3 million impressions with 3 million increment increases from there. These are meaningful impressions in vast numbers. Radio and television can't compete with our numbers for the price.

We will be doing more with mobile in 2009 and I'm excited about that. We will do a lot more interactive stuff and I can't wait to unveil that!! Reader's Entertainment TV will get a make over and we are adding two more sites-
In Faith Network (InFaithNetwork.com) will go live in January. It is specifically for our Inspirational videos. And Young Readers TV (YoungReadersTV.com) will be for children and young adult videos only. Both will tie in to Reader's Entertainment TV.

We will be attending several conventions in 2009 including RT, RWA, BEA and ThrillerFest.

I was reading the Advertising Age magazine last night and they are saying that in 2008 there were 10 Out-of-Home advertising venues that really stood out. 3 is cinema, where top agencies are now putting ads before movies. COS started doing that back in 2004. The stats on that kind of advertising are very impressive. And 4 is ads on buses. COS started putting book videos on buses earlier this year. It is always good to know that we're on the right track with advertising. We've been extremely happy with both venues!

Did you know that there is a concentration of book buyers on buses? Research shows that we can hit more actual book buyers with Transit TV than with traditional TV in those same areas. We even know where those people are going to buy their books and guess what? It isn't Amazon. That was surprising to me. A very, very small percent went to Amazon.com to buy books.

We are very grateful to everyone who helped make 2008 such a successful year for COS! Thank you! And we hope you and yours will have a wonderful and prosperous New Year in 2009!

The Goddess Prophecies by D.R. Whitney

2008-12-17T00:51:00.000-08:00

The Goddess Prophecies: The Cup of Immortality is being heralded as the next Chronicles of Narnia, but it can also be compared to Lord of the Rings. Its an epic fantasy with 20 years of study and research behind the making of this novel.
Author D.R. Whitney is an Arthurian scholar and has studied in the US and the UK. Her new novel, The Goddess Prophecies is published by Crescent Moon Press.
The book has already inspired a video game and movie!

The story has epic fantasy elements and a lot of intrigue and perils as the last descendant of the Lady of the Lake, a modern and daring twenty-something inherits this mysterious amulet that leads her on an epic quest that time travels her through a Portal of Mists. With clandestine organizations and knights from Charlemagne chasing her, she finds herself in another world where she discovers that she must destroy the Master of the Souls and his minions who have stolen the Cup of Immortality to which her inheritance belongs. There her soul mate an incredibly powerful wizard returns to help her and together her quest takes them across these savage fantasy worlds with awesome creatures, powers and adventure that will keep
you turning each page with anticipation. Find out more at http://goddessprophecies.com

Murder Game Thrills

2008-12-17T00:46:00.000-08:00

The game pieces determine who kill them. The cards tell them who and how they will die. It’s a game of life and death. Of cat and mouse.
I love a good thriller! And I love it when the plot is complicated enough be intriguing but not convoluted.

Murder Game by author Christine Feehan is one of her Ghostwalker books so it has a lot to it.
There’s the paranormal, military intrigue and of course romance. But, this book is differentin that it is very much a suspense thriller. And a great one at that!

Kaden is a dangerous man whose only family is his team of Ghostwalker elite, paranormal military friends. When a series of murders puts the team in danger he searches out a woman with special abilities. She can see the history of the things she touches. And he wants her to touch a game piece.

Tansy did some tracking for the FBI, but after some brutal cases something inside her snapped and she was hospitalized for months. No longer able to withstand her gift and the horrors that come with it, she stays far from civilization.

Kaden has found her and will get her help whether she likes it or not. Her help with the case will save his friends. But it will destroy Tansy. With an undeniable chemistry between them Kaden now must make choices no man should ever have to make.
You can find out more on the author’s site. She has the first chapter up.

http://www.christinefeehan.com.

Also, a very chilling book trailer for the book is available at-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-r_x60pf1A

An Old Fashioned Romance

2008-12-17T00:43:00.000-08:00

PW calls Catherine Anderson “A major voice in the romance genre” and I have to agree. If you’ve not read Anderson and you love a good romance with believable and loveable characters I strongly recommend any of her novels. But, the one coming out January 6, 2009 is the one everyone is talking about.

Star Bright is the story of a woman who escapes her dangerous and abusive husband one night on a cruise ship. She changes her looks and makes her getaway to find herself working for a handsome and charming cowboy.

The chemistry the characters have makes this a true romance of quality.
Anderson has a book trailer for Star Bright and you can find more at the author’s site- http://www.catherineanderson.com