Book Video Distribution

The technology side of book video includes several factors. Formatting, SEO and distribution are major concerns and hot topics for COS Productions' R&D team. Our research and development team is made up of internal employees as well as contracted specialists.

Last year our major concentration was in book video distribution. We worked on establishing relationships with booksellers and specialty sites, we submit our videos to over 300 booksellers and 5000 libraries. We submit to specialty sites such as Watch the Book, Preview the Book, DigiGirls Library, TerrorFeed, Dark Scribe Magazine, Romance Novel TV, and so on. Most recently we're working with BooksiRead and GoodReads. We're delving into more niche communities while continuing to reach out to additional booksellers and book clubs.

We have a definite plan for distribution in 2009 and we continue to grow in that direction. We've mastered the RSS feed and are able to do more with less time invested. We can even use RSS to get our blogs out to several areas and then monitor comments using Friend Feed.

Our big focus in R&D right now is video SEO. Now that technology has caught up with SEO opportunities for video we plan on taking full advantage of that. Our team is currently working on a tutorial video and guide for our network partners that will help our videos have greater SEO.

We have reached out to publishers who are now embracing social media and we're sharing our experience and resources with them. This also helps us get greater distribution since we can deliver client video to publishers in those areas online.

We are always asked about our list of distribution sites. And, since we have a list of over 400 sites that we can distribute to online we feel confident that we're on top of the book video distribution game for social media. We've showed the list to publishers who ask to see it, but we do not make it available to the public because it is proprietary.

But, I will share a list of sites that shows our most basic distribution. We have other distribution packages that are much larger than this one, but this is the least amount of distribution that a video, produced by COS, will get.

1) 5min (when applicable)

2) Addicting Clips

3) AOL

4) AtomUploads

5) Backflip

6) Blinklist

7) Blinx

8) Blip TV

9) Bluedot

10) Break

11) ClipBlast

12) Crackle

13) DailyMotion

14) Del.icio.us

15) Digg

16) Diigo

17) Flickr

18) Flurl

19) Folkd

20) Furl

21) GoFish

22) Google Video

23) Internet Archieve

24) iTunes

25) Lycos

26) Magnolia

27) Meebo

28) MeeVee

29) Mefeedia

30) Mixx

31) Myjeeves

32) MySPace

33) Pando

34) Photobucket

35) Propeller

36) PureVideo

37) Putfile

38) REAL

39) REC TV

40) REC TV Blog

41) Reddit

42) SearchforVideo

43) Sevenload

44) Spash Cast

45) Spurl

46) StumbleUpon

47) Sumo

48) Technoratti

49) TotalVid

50) Twitter

51) Veoh

52) Viddler

53) VidPow

54) Vimeo

55) VSocial

56) Yahoo Video

57) YouTube

58) Borders

59) BN.com

60) Powells.com

61) Southern Independent Bookseller’s Association- all bookstores

62) Watch the Book

63) Preview the Book

64) DigiGirls

65) Dark Scribe Magazine

66) TerrorFeed (Horror only)

67) Romance Novel TV (Romance only)

68) GoodReads

69) BooksiRead

70) Ebookisle

71) Night Owl Romance

72) Romance Designs Theater

73) COS Productions website and newsletter

74) Find Me an Author

75) Kim's Wonderful World of Books

76) OverDrive (sends to 5000 libraries)

As you can see there are some sites that are very specific to genre and we do try to match genres up to the best possible audience. So, if you have an Inspirational we won't send that to TerrorFeed, and so on.

To me that is an impressive list of distribution for a very low price. Our Cover Story videos ($250) and our Level 1 Mini Teasers ($750) get that distribution as part of the package when they purchase their video from us.

We have additional distribution such as Transit TV which is extremely inexpensive and gets your video 11 million impressions in one week. We can format for TV, movie theater and other out-of-home ads.

We now guarantee at least 50,000 impressions for our top distribution packages. That's new. This is a guarantee for impressions not views, I like to be clear on that. We now place ads on MySpace, Facebook and Bebo with our top distribution packages. The ads show the author and book name and sends people to see the video.

Recently I had one of our publisher clients look at our list of 400 sites. I told her to choose any 10 on the list. I told her that I would show her where COS has a presence on any of the 10 she chose. I've shared a generic list, one without our specific book sites on it, with the tech world and will discuss it with Robert Scoble in July on his show. Our next step is creating a software program that we input the 400 sites into. We then input specific details about each site. The final product will give us a software program that we input details about a video to and it will then tell us what the top sites are for that book and it will even tell us WHY those sites are good for the book. That will go live in 2009.

It's exciting to see book video on the same playing field as video game trailers and movie trailers. 2009 promises to be an exciting year for book video!

Do's and Don'ts of social interaction when building relationships online with your business

This is an excerpt from my talk that I will give at BEA this year-

Many top companies have failed at social media. They have the wrong idea of how to interact with people. They see millions of people out there and they want to reach out to them, but they lose site of the ever-changing landscape of social media and the rules that continue to evolve in that medium.

There are hundreds of social media sites that you can have a presence on. Each of those sites have a different group of people with different expectations. Study the site. Know what opportunities are there. See how people are communicating with each other. Look, first, to learn the accepted way businesses are communicating with individuals. Some sites will work for direct sales. Some will work best for branding. Know the difference.

Do's and Don'ts

Do

Do have someone be personable on your profile.

Do know your community.

Do interact when you have nothing to sell.

Do blog about things readers will find interesting.

Do join groups with interests that match yours.

Do have an interesting profile with pictures and items of interest that match your target audience.

Do have a positive and supportive attitude about your community and let that show.

Do monitor comments and approve them before they go out.

Don't

Don’t act like a business on a social profile.

Don’t be something you’re not. People will ferret you out if you pretend to be a person recommending books and you’re really the publisher of the books. Let them know you’re the publisher. Transparency = trust.

Don’t SPAM!!!! It doesn’t matter what you think is SPAM. It matters what the community thinks is SPAM.

Don’t bog down your profile with so much material that it takes forever for it to load.

Don’t be insensitive to the social media site you’re on. If you’re on MySpace, don’t put up YouTube videos if you can help it. Do you think MySpace will feature your profile if you’re advertising for YouTube?

Don’t be a friend whore. Don’t do “whore trains”. Whore trains are like online chain letters that gain friend additions instead of dealing in money. You won’t get your target audience. It will pollute your bulletins. You usually get undesirable people on your friend list.

Don’t add people under 18 if you are selling adult material.

More and more companies are utilizing social media sites as out reach programs. By following some simple rules that can be accomplished without compromising relationships with potential customers.

Quondam: An Ancient Mirrors Tale Jayel Gibson Book Trailer

Her family and homeland destroyed by an otherworldly assassin¢s fires, Cwen of Aaradan escapes through a mysterious portal into Quondam. There, she discovers her fate and an imprisoned dragonspawn's are intertwined in ways that will drag her, heartbroken and vengeful, into the heart of a devastating war. http://www.ancientmirrors.com ISBN# (10 Digit)-193353883X Genre(s) of this book Fantasy/Romance

Before the Storm Diane Chamberlain Book Trailer

After saving a group of teens from a fire, fifteen-year-old Andy becomes an unlikely hero. His overprotective mother, Laurel, watches as her special needs son basks in the positive attention he’s always craved. But when the suspicion of arson is cast upon Andy, Laurel must ask herself how well she really knows her son. . . and just how far she’s willing to go to protect him. ISBN # 0-7783-2541-5
Genre Contemporary/suspense/Romance http://www.dianechamberlain.com

COS CEO Interviewed about online video distribution

TubeMogul is the leading multi-site distribution upload company that offers analytics and the ability to follow video campaigns.
After several months of utilizing the TubeMogul system, COS Productions identifies ways to syndicate even further via RSS feeds and special syndication directly from those sites that take TubeMogul uploads.
COS Productions has a list of over 400 social media sites, which was shared with the tech community. CEO Sheila Clover English created a video performance rating system that is now being considered by several top media distributors and researchers including the Association of Downloadable Media and the Internet Content Syndication Council, both of which COS is a member of.
COS Productions is considered one of the leading companies for online video distribution and the leading producer of book trailers. TubeMogul asked CEO Sheila Clover English to come onto their new TubeMogul University show to discuss the advances and opportunities that she has identified for online video distribution.

The Sun Singer Malcolm R. Campbell Book Trailer

Robert Adams steps through a secret mountain portal into an alternative universe where he must resurrect his dormant psychic powers to tell friend from foe in a world at war, finish a dangerous task his dying avatar grandfather left undone, and survive the trip home. isbn # 0595316654Genre (s ) Fantasy/new age
www.malcolmrcampbell.com

Cruel Summer Alyson Noel Book Trailer

Colby Catherine Cavendish is looking forward to her best summer yet—until her parents decide to divorce and send her to live with her “crazy” aunt Tally on a tiny Greek island. Stranded in a foreign place with no cell phone, Colby fears her friends will forget her. But when she meets Yannis, a sexy Greek local, everything changes . . isbn # 0-312-35511-4. genre Yound Adult
http://www.AlysonNoel.com

RSS - When "Simple Syndication" ISN'T "Really"

RSS Feeds- Really Simple Syndication

They can put the word “simple” in it, but it doesn’t make it any easier to use. RSS feeds seem to be a mystery to most folks, myself included. But, over the last few months I’ve taught myself how and when to use RSS feeds.

In layman’s terms, RSS feeds are a delivery system, or syndication system. When you have material, such as a blog or news, something that changes often or that is important for you to know about when it does change, you can use RSS to update yourself or others. It is a way to deliver material en masse or to receive material in a concise manner.

Let’s take a look at sending RSS and at receiving RSS.

SENDING

How do I know if I have RSS feed? How do I get RSS feed on my site? How do I tell other people I have it? How do I get them to use it?

All of those are very good questions. I’m so glad you asked! Lol

If you have a blog or newsletter you want people to read it, right? So, many of you create ways to get people to sign up for your blog or newsletter, like contests or exclusives that people get only if they “sign up”. Then, you have to maintain that database of users, hope they don’t turn you in for SPAM and send out information to all of those people when you have something you want to share with them. It is you SENDING to them the information you create and want them to have. RSS allows people to collect your data without you having to do anything more than create your content. People can subscribe, just as they subscribe to a newspaper. So, when you have something new on your blog or newsletter, RSS sends that update to people who subscribed to your content. You never have to lift a finger. Technology does it all for you.

I strongly suggest that you hire someone who already knows how to make RSS feeds, validate them and promote them. You can find more information here- http://www.extralabs.net/articles/create-rss.htm.

Most blogs have RSS feeds already. For example, if you have a MySpace blog you have RSS feed. How do you find it?
Go to your MySpace blog and click on one of your articles there.

Look toward the top and to the right. You will see “rss” listed there. Click on that.


You will see your articles listed. There will be a couple of places where you can find your RSS URL feed for this.

You can find it in your browser from this page. Copy and paste the URL that’s in your browser.
Or- Look to the right of that page where it says you can view the properties. Click on that and it should bring up a box that gives you an “address” of the feed. That is what you need in order to send your feed out into the universe.

I put my RSS feed into my AOL page. See below that I just copied and pasted that URL into the box asking for the “Feed URL”. I filled in a title and chose to see the headlines and a synopsis of the articles that will appear.

Click “Save” and your MySpace Blog articles are now on your AOL.


You can send your feeds anywhere RSS feeds are accepted.

Give your feed URL out in your emails or if you send out newsletters give it out there. Make sure it is easy to find that URL so people can take it and use it themselves. This will let others see every time you send out new information.

RECEIVING

When you receive RSS feed you are collecting content. You don’t have time to go all over the place looking at every blog or newsletter. You want to just skim through the headlines or the headlines and synopsis, to determine whether or not you should read the whole article. Instead of going here and there, you bring it all to you. You can do that with Google Reader or AOL or any number of RSS aggregators.

For example, on AOL I put up a few RSS feeds to sites that I want to watch to see if they have new business information of interest. On Reader’s Entertainment TV you can go on the homepage, then on the genre channels and you’ll find that I utilized RSS feeds of other people’s blogs to help make my site more interesting an engaging.

The great thing about it is that, once I place that RSS feed into my reader or onto my site, I don’t have to do anything else. Now, I get new content all the time without ME having to DO anything! It is all done for me automatically.

You can put RSS feed on your website so people can easily see what you’re saying on your blog. You can put up RSS feed from USA Today books, NY Times bestsellers or any other relevant news or blog in order to keep fresh content on your own blog or site. It looks like you do something with your site or blog every day because the content is fresh, but really you’re only to blog once a week or every other week. The RSS keeps it fresh for you.

There’s more to know of course and here is a wonderful resource for you-
http://betabloggerfordummies.blogspot.com/

DIFFERENT TYPES OF FEEDS

You should know that if your RSS feed didn’t work for some reason it could be an incompatible feed. There are different kinds. Three’s RSS 1.0 and 2.0 and then there’s ATOM which is another type of feed altogether.

I had a client who wasn’t able to get their RSS feed to work on their Amazon Connect account. But, it would work on their Blogger account. So we cheated. We send her MySpace blog to her Blogger account using RSS feed. Every time she blogged on MySpace it went automatically to her Blogger account. From there we used the Blogger RSS feed on her Amazon Connect account, which took the Blogger feed easily. Now, she would blog on MySpace, which was forwarded to Blogger, which then forwarded to Amazon. You can just keep forwarding on and on and on.

WHERE CAN I SYNDICATE MY FEED?

If you want to syndicate your feed, to let people know it is there, to move it into more places, you need to take the time to set it all up first. It will take time and effort, but once you’re done, you will get your message out to more people with less effort than ever before. Instead of blogging on MySpace, then on Blogger, then on to the next site, you will blog one time and it will go out to different locations.

MySpace to Blogger to Amazon works great. Here is a site that has a list of places where you can submit your RSS feed- http://www.rss-specifications.com/rss-submission.htm

Here is more information that can help you to market your blog-
http://weblogs.about.com/od/marketingablog/Marketing_Your_Blog_to_Increase_Traffic_and_Your_Earning_Potential.htm

You want to set yourself up so that you can get the greatest syndication with the littlest effort. Save your writing time for your novels.

Marketing - Working Smarter

For Authors-

By Sheila Clover English





You’re told that you have to be on MySpace, Facebook, Bebo and a multitude of other social media sites. Then you’re told to blog, blog, blog in order to connect with fans and create new fans. Every time some new social media opportunity comes up your blood runs cold, your heart runs fast and you feel an immediate need for chocolate. Wait. The need for chocolate thing may only be me. lol

The fact is, there’s so much to do and so little time that authors can’t do it all. And though I love the movie Multiplicity, my luck I’d get the clone that was needy! lol So, I can’t clone myself and if I spend even 5 minutes on each online site that I’m told I need to be on I will never write another book! Ack! Now what?

Well, you can actually use that mess called "emerging technology" to do work for you.

In a couple of weeks I’ll be speaking on a panel about Emerging Technology at the Romantic Times convention. There, I will give details to people on how to make technology work smart for you. Today, I’d like to give some of that information to my MySpace friends.

There are three tools that you need that will get you an abundance of online promo and presence while you’re off typing your next novel.

1. A web master/mistress. Just one.
2. A blog. Just one.
3. A superuser. Just one.


Most of you already have a web person. But, I would like to take a minute and talk about that. This is not personal. I don’t know who your web person is. They may be the nicest person on the planet. They may work for you for free. I don’t know. But, I will tell you that if you don’t have a web person who understand how to put video or audio on your site and has no idea how to utilize RSS feed you need to either -
a. Let them go and hire someone with the right skill set.
b. Pay to have them trained.
c. Pay a second person who has the right skill set and can work with your primary web person.

Why would you take on extra work in order to keep a web designer? If you’re trying to get help for your web person, if YOU are looking around to get help for your web person...fire your web person. Or do something about it that will keep you from having to do your web person’s job. Pay a professional. I know authors don’t make a lot of money, but seriously, invest in someone who knows what they are doing or be prepared to do some of the work yourself.

If you are going to be frugal somewhere, don’t let it be your website.

Blogging is an important tool. It needs to be something you invest some time in. It needs to be part of your overall online promo and presence.
How often should you blog? Well, how much time to you have? Some people blog every day. I don’t have that kind of time. But, I can blog a couple of times a week. But, even if you can only blog one time a week - BLOG!!!

It is of utmost importance that the blog you choose be one that has a RSS feed. Don’t bother with a blog that does not have a RSS feed.


What do you write in the blog?

People want to know who you are. They want to know about your book. But your blog is NOT where you sell your book. NEVER sell your book on your blog. It is terrible etiquette to do so. Yet, you can talk about your book on your blog and people expect, even want, that. You can have a "Buy" button on the side bar of your blog. You can say "My release date is..."

Here is a good rule of thumb when blogging. Act like you’re saying this to someone in person. Would you go up to someone at a convention, someone you hardly know, and say "Please buy my book!?!" How do you think that would sound? Desperate? Embarrassing? I don’t know, maybe you would do that in person. In which case, I guess you can blog like that. But, I just don’t recommend it. People who don’t know you may come across your blog and they will be turned off by a desperate plea to buy your book.

Talk about things that are uniquely you. Talk about things that are unique to writers. Talk about something unique to your book. But be sure to ask a question somewhere along the way since that is an invitation for people to comment back to you.

What is a "SUPERUSER"? A superuser is someone who is a loyal die-hard fan. Someone who will spread the word about your book and you. Most of you know when you have a fan or fans like this. These are the people who become moderators to your fan site or online forum. You need to identify one superuser that has computer skills. Or someone willing to be trained in the proper skill set.

This person, or your web person, will take your blog RSS feed and send it out to designated areas on the internet. For example, your MySpace blog has RSS feed. Your Amazon Connect account allows you to blog - OR- send RSS feed from another blog. So, with one blog you just had 2 blogs appear online. Have your tech-person-of-choice find all of the areas that take RSS feeds and send your single blog out to those areas. You could have 4 or 5 blogs in different areas of the internet, but only be writing one blog.

Let your "superuser" moderate your fan club or forum. But, also, have that person Google your name or the name of your book once a week. They can then go and comment on those blogs, leaving a wonderful message about you, and perhaps even leaving your URL. If they come across a blog that they feel YOU, personally, should read and or comment on that blog, they will contact you with the URL to the blog. But, you need to have someone monitoring for opportunities to sing your praises, and opportunities to protect your brand.

Your superuser can also create and lead a street team. A street team is a group of people who are willing to help you. Your superuser can get your street team to blog during the first week your book is out. Or if you do a contest, etc. If you go to a convention or book signing, your street team can meet you there. They can go around and tell people you’re signing books, etc. They would be a group of enthusiastic, but NOT pushy, people who reflect through their actions that YOU are a center of attention, a great author and someone everyone should want to know.

Superusers are not usually paid. They are compensated through acknowledgment. A dedication in your book, mention in your newsletter, something along those lines.

Beyond those 3 things that I mention you can then start to set yourself apart by doing any additional marketing that you think is necessary. Book videos, bookmarks, conventions to attend, etc. But you need a good solid base for your online promo and presence and these three things can help you have that without you having to spend a lot of time on it yourself.

And of course, if you don't find time to write your novel, soon you'll have LOTS of time to market it. lol

LinkedIn - Welcome!

I've invited my contacts and friends from LinkedIn to join me here in order to chat about books, book marketing and opportunities.

Welcome!

I include my weekend Industry Report here, articles, etc. I also send over some videos since we have some readers who come here to post as well.

The new industry report should be done by tomorrow. I'm gearing up for Pittsburgh for the RT convention.

I'll be at RT, RWA, BEA and ThrillerFest this year. I hope to see you at one of those events!

Sheila

Ghost Walk with Heather Graham - The House on Royal St.

This video may contain pictures that are disturbing in nature.
The La Laurie's were wealthy slave owners in New Orleans. What they found there was nothing less than horrifying and shocking. This is a true story.
http://www.theheathergraham.com

Industry News COS Productions March 27 2008

YouTube, Blinkx new books and more in this week's Industry News!

GUILTY Karen Robards Book Trailer

Something terrible happened that night when Kate was a young girl. She did something terrible. Now her past
is behind her and she is an attorney. But when her past comes back to haunt her and blackmail her she is
torn between two worlds, the old and the new. She knows what she must do. She knows she is – GUILTY.
www.karenrobards.com ISBN# (10 Digit)- 0399154612

Captive Dreams Diane Whiteside Book Trailer

Two sisters, authors of different series, different worlds. Two fictional heroes who realize that the sisters are about to end the series, and them. They use magic to bring the sisters into the worlds they created and show them that they are very real, in every sense. http://www.dianewhiteside.com and http://www.angelaknight.com .ISBN # 978-0425207758

COS Industry News - Ep. 5 March 18, 2008

New industry news about MySpace Books, Revver, Bebo and more!

Marketing and Promotions Through Digital Video

The new ebook by Circle of Seven Productions CEO, Sheila Clover English has been completed and was released yesterday in the COS Newsletter.
The book touches on topics of specific interest to the publishing industry and other book promoters or sellers.
The book can be found HERE on the COS website.

Industry News - COS Vlog - Episode 4

TubeMogul, Booksellers, Books - Lots to talk about this week!

Industry News - COS Vlog - Episode 3

COS Industry News

Social Networking Sites, Revenue Letdown and New Ideas

The newest, most trendy thing to discuss in technical and social media news is whether or not social networking sites are going to live up to the hype for ad revenue. With popular social media sites either being bought for millions or totally forgotten to go down in flames, it seems hard to predict which will succeed or how they will succeed.

Revver.com which was once in the top 20 of best social media sites is now looking to prostitute itself out to the highest bidder. The company doesn’t seem able to bring in the revenue to keeps itself afloat and no new ideas are forthcoming. The once popular site may be no more by the end of the year. The question is, why isn’t someone picking it up? With a built in user and content provider loyalty to the site, why won’t someone pick it up for small amount of half a million dollars when sites like MySpace and Bebo are reportedly worth several millions or more.

Businesses came in, guns blazing, or is that, ads playing? Some tried to join in the social media community, just to be flamed, and some came in thinking they would force feed ads. Facebook has struggled with their endeavors to get buy-in from the community for its revenue building ideas. And the idea that social media participants are immune to ads is not new as evidenced by this article in BusinessWeek (http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2008/tc2008024_252834.htm).

Businesses are missing the point of a social network online environment. They only see a revenue opportunity. You can’t walk into a close-knit community of friends and interrupt their play with your ad. Everyone seems to understand that online ads and television ads don’t work the same way, yet they continue to try the same ploys, with disappointing consequences. People do not want to be interrupted while they socialize. They don’t want to be force fed ads.

There are a few ideas on how to re-approach social media advertising.

1. Build an interactive ad that allows viewers to manipulate the ad themselves, thus making it more like a game and more engaging. If this is done with an artistic and clever ad people could mash-up the ad and share it, or submit to for a contest. Mash-up are acceptable in social media, ads could be “mashable” and fit in better to the community structure.

2. Create new and engaging features and have a pay-for-service level.

3. Create a community hall where people can come and talk about what they want to see done in their community. Then, give that new feature or “fix” a price and create a community goal to meet that price.

4. Have a store where people can create their own t-shirts, posters, etc. from elements of their own page or from the community. Every community has a store. It could prove to be fun as well as revenue generating.

5. Use the more popular blogs on news and magazine sites. Find out where ads are getting good click through and instead of placing an ad next to a blog, place a blog next to an ad. Every keeps putting ads next to material, but if you have access to the material, you could send the material to the ad. For example, if you have a page where you have a lot of car ads you can create a spot near the ad where RSS feeds can go that has the headlines of popular blogs on MySpace (or wherever) where the blogs are talking about cars. Send the content to the appropriate ad. These sites have some great blogs. Some great videos. Some great content. Yet, they don’t utilize it to its fullest potential.
Google could do this with great success. Have an ad in one area, put content near it, when they go to the content have that same ad there too.

Thinking outside the box is what will solve this problem. Continuing to try and force feed a social community is only going to irritate that community. Is that the feeling companies want tied to their brand? I’m going to go out on a limb here and say, “No”.

As long as businesses treat social media communities as a business advertising vehicle they will continue to see poor performance.

Amazon/Connect connects authors, video and readers!

It's the big news of the week. Amazon.com used to charge over $2000 to put a video on their site. Now, an author can upload their video for free to their Amazon/Connect account.
This is a huge deal for authors who utilize video. The ease of "impulse buys" right there at Amazon makes that placement golden.
COS Productions did an industry report on video yesterday. You can see it on the COS YouTube site.

Many authors are asking how to upload the video and even more are asking how to get onto Amazon/Connect. Circle of Seven Productions has put together a step by step guide for doing both.

You can find a pdf form with instructions - HERE

COS Industry News - Feb. 2008 - YouTube News!

If you haven't already subscribed to the COS YouTube this might entice you. The leading producer of book trailers and video distribution will be vlogging industry news on their YouTube site each month. Some of the information is basic industry news about trends and marketing, but some will be tips and tricks like the new offering on YouTube.



The industry news segments are kept on YouTube for a limited time. At some point this year they will be housed on the COS Resources site with other videos such "How To" videos.

You can check out the first segment of the industry vlog here on the COS YouTube site. But it will come donw some time on Wednesday. This is to encourage people to subscribe to the COS YouTube site. Subscribers and Friends get bulletins or emails each time COS uploads a video. This gives subscribers a chance to go over and view the video and take advantage of the advice or industry trend news.

New eBook on Video and Video Utilization Due in Feb. 2008

It's almost completed. So far there are 40 pages and there will be at least another 10 before it is done. The upcoming ebook will be sent out via the COS newsletter, MySpace bulletin and eventually will be placed on the resources section of the new COS website.

Though the ebook touches on some other types of promotional tools it's main focus is on digital video, distribution, video utilization and marketing opportunities.

Here is an excerpt from the unedited version of the ebook-






Your book video is a tool. It’s like any other tool, it needs to be used correctly in order for it to work. These elements need to be in place for your book video to be the most effective tool it can be –

1. Well produced, entertaining video
2. Formatted correctly for placement/distribution
3. Distributed correctly
4. Monitored to establish effectiveness

Producing a quality, entertaining video is just part of the overall process. COS Productions uses a beta testing system that allows for reviewers to rate our videos. We start the survey off by asking, “What is this book about?” There are several questions of that nature that gives us insight to how well we’re doing. “Well produced” means getting your idea across just as it means having an aesthetically pleasing video. I’ve watched many videos that last three or four minutes and I’m never really sure what the book is about. I know there’s a lot of naked people in it though! LOL

Before you start creating your video you need to know what you’re going to do with it. What do you want it to do for you? Have goals in mind so that you can better determine whether or not your book video was successful.

I’ve seen a lot of posts detailing how a book video should be made. Some of those are good and some of them are not. If you take someone’s advice on how to make your video you need to watch some of the videos that person made first.

Here’s some instructions and tips for those of you who want to make your own video-

1. Set your goal. What do you hope to accomplish with this video? Be realistic in your goal. “Sell a million books” is NOT realistic. “Get my name out there for people to see” is a realistic goal. “Have my book video picked up by a bookseller” is a realistic goal.

2. Ask yourself where this video will play. If it is for online use only you don’t have to be too exact in the length of the video. You don’t have to worry about formatting to fit a screen. But, if you plan on showing your video on a television screen, you need to think ahead and format it to fit. If you plan on putting it on a movie screen you need to be using the highest quality pictures or stock footage. What looks good on your computer screen might not look so great on a 40 foot movie screen.

3. Write your text for the video. Don’t make it too long. Don’t use your back cover copy. You want to entice the viewer to find out more. If you use the back cover copy you’ve taken away another enticement that you could give a potential reader. Determine the conflict of the characters and of the story. Don’t give away any secrets! Nothing irritates me more than to see a book video that tells what the ending of the book is. Thanks! I don’t need to buy that book now.

4. Once you write the text, have someone critique it. If they read it will they know what the book is about? Ask them to tell you what the book is about just from the text. Remember that the visuals can tell part of the story too. So, if they get most of it, you’re doing okay. Just fill in the blanks with whatever visuals you choose.

5. Choose the visuals for the video. This can be stock photos, stock footage, black screen, motionloops, etc. Don’t have so many pictures that people spend their time trying to figure out what the pictures are and they miss the text. Don’t put so much text on the screen that people can’t see the image behind it. And, if you do have a lot of text on the screen, please leave it up there long enough for slower readers to read it all.

6. Sound effects and music. There are a lot of great places to find royalty free sound effects and music. www.shockwave-sound.com is a perfect place to find those things at a reasonable rate. Be sure you read the license agreement and follow that. I have heard popular music used in book video. There’s even a company out there that used some popular music on a book video they created for an author, so please be careful. I have done cost analysis for popular music and can say with some authority that most people won’t pay that much to include popular music. It would, most likely, cost more than what you pay to have the entire video made.
You do want to spend a little extra time working on the audio for your book video. The music should reflect the kind of video it is. Here is a great example of the proper use of music for a book video-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1dnOyb47K0

7. You’ve assembled your text, visuals, sound effects (if you want them) and music. Now you need to put them on the timeline and create your masterpiece! Be careful to have your font size large enough to read. And the font doesn’t have to be fancy. It has to be readable.

8. Transitions. Transitions are where you fade from one picture to the next. People get pretty creative with transitions. Please don’t. It’s a sure sign of an amateur. If you want to do something other than a simple fade in- fade out please keep it simple and don’t do it too often. The same goes with making your words do special little tricks. Your words don’t need to dance, unless dancing words is part how you get your story across. If your story is about dancing, then maybe I could see it. If you just have to make the words do something exciting please keep it simple and don’t do it too often.

9. Appropriateness. If you’re going to play your video in any public arena please give some thought to the pictures you choose to put in your video. And give some thought as to the content of your text as well. I’m all for Freedom of Speech. I am also all for having some class. If you want me to NEVER pick up your book or recommend it then by all means, play your nearly-X-rated video in front of my 6 year old daughter. Give some thought as to where you want to play your video.

10. Formatting. If you’re looking for quality then I would format to mov (Quicktime). But those files are larger and take longer to upload. If you’re looking for quick and easy then format to wmv (Windows Media). The wmv files are find, but blown up big on the computer screen it starts to look pixilated. If you’re going straight to flash that’s great, but some sites can’t upload flash.

11. Distribution. Send it everywhere. Why not? You’ve got nothing to lose but a little of your time. Think about what your initial goal was for the video. Where do you need to distribute this video in order to attain your goal?


There are a variety of topics discussed in the ebook and we encourage you to sign up for the COS Newsletter to get the ebook soonest.

Beyond The Video - What Else Is Important?

It’s hard to sell something creative when most creative is subjective. Recently we did an online survey of our videos. We chose one video from each of our editors and created a survey. If you ever want to do a survey of your readers or clients, Survey Monkey 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 become established. With growing online demand for entertainment and news, the book video market has solidified its place in most marketing campaigns.


There is 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. Now, in 2008, we have well over 200 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 somehow grow your own YouTube-type sites, or 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 going to be key in 2008 as well. `What are analytics? Analytics is the measurement and analysis of how something did, in this case, online video. This includes information such as: who is watching the video, where they were referred from, how long they watched the video, and whether they shared 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 opportunities 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.

Book Trailers Doing Well On YouTube

More and more readers are turning to YouTube to find book trailers and many content providers/publishers are uploading there.
COS Productions has seen an increase in hits and subscribers over the last two months. You can check out the COS YouTube channel HERE.
You can see the progress over the last few weeks -

It's exciting to see trailers growing in popularity on the top social networks!

Circle of Seven Productions Goes Coast to Coast

It will be a busy week for COS Productions' CEO Sheila Clover English as COS sets out to start 2008 with a bang! Starting tomorrow Sheila will be in Arizona meeting with productions partners, then over to work with the distribution manager then off to Mexico to get some stock photos and footage for the upcoming Hispanic Station on REC TV. COS will be offering Hispanic trailers in 2008! Next week Sheila is off to New York City to meet with publishers and booksellers! She will also be signing up a new production partner who will do shoots in NYC. Before spring the plan is to make it over to Ann Arbor to meet with the good folks at Borders Group! So it's going to be a very busy time for COS! In the meantime, check out the new Video Book Reviews Sheila is doing for REC TV!

COS on YouTube

Did you know that you can subscribe to COS videos on YouTube?


When you sign up for COS on YouTube you will recieve a notice when new videos are uploaded! This is an easy way to fing book trailers, author interviews, book reviews and more! You don't have to go search them out, they come right to you!

Love a particular video? You can put the URL link from that video on your automated signature! Promote your favorite author every time you send an email, but without being intrusive. People will see the link under your name and can choose to check it out if they want!

Want your very own player? Contact COS at info@cosproductions.com and let us know what you would like and where it will be playing. Our technical team will help you set up your own COS YouTube player! The new videos will automatically upload to your site. You won't have to do anything but enjoy the view!

Predatory Game - Photos and Follow Up

Our staff photographer, Jen Henderson, brought some great photos over tonight of the shoot. Many of these will go up on Christine's site when I write the article about the trailer. But, I thought I would put up a few for those of you who are following the blog.

Brian Schell did a wonderful job as our hero Jesse Calhoun. I did a little mini-interview with him that you can find in a previous blog here.

I was very happy with Brian's performance. This was his first acting experience. In "real life" he is in law enforcement, and he does modeling on the side. I really thought he made a perfect Ghostwalker!

Lauren was a wonderful heroine but was a little shy. She was able to overcome that long enough to do the kissing scenes though. Yes...she made that sacrafice just for you! Isn't she so sweet?! LOL

Lauren says she really enjoyed the fight scenes the most, but those kissing scenes can't be all THAT bad, right? LOL

The two made a great couple and really matched the character descriptions from the book. Saber is very petite and young looking and Jess is large and very masculine. I was so happy with the way their characters came across on film.

Lauren did a scene where Saber is sent to assasinate a senator and that scene turned out so great!!! You'll see some other party-goers and those extras are some friends of the family and some are Christine's daughters. You may recognize them from the many Drake Sister trailers we've done.

The man playing the senator in the scene is Christine's son Mark. He also played the villain in Safe Harbor. Mark is an experienced martial arts expert and helped to choreograph the fight scenes with Christine. Plus...he looks hot in a suit so we just had to use him in the trailer! LOL

We've got literally hundreds of pictures from this shoot. Some are behind the scenes and some are of the scenes being acted out. Keep an eye out for the Behind The Scenes article that will go up on Christine's site by the first of the year!

Final Day of the Shoot- Predatory Game

It's a wrap! We have completed the Predatory Game shoot and are now back at the studio sampling in the footage. We'll go through it tomorrow and start editing.
I have two more video blogs for you. Here is one with the star, Brian Schell who had a slight mishap with his jacket during the shoot that he will tell you about.

It was very fun and very interesting to work with Christine. As most of you know she taught self-defense and martial arts. She worked to choreograph the fight scenes for both the hero and the heroine. I took some footage of her working with Lauren, then I got some of Domini working with Lauren again right before the actual shoot.

This has been really fun blogging during the shoot. If we get enough interest in these blogs we will do another one for our next trailer, which is a Drake Sisters trailer next month.

Thank you!

Day 4 Predatory Game - Christine's Blog

Hi all!

We got day one of two done with the shoot for the book trailer! It went really well and Brian Schell is such a great guy...and very funny too!
Christine helped with the fight scenes and we have one more tomorrow that she will help us with!
This has been a big production with a lot of extra actors, big effects and lots of fighting. Very cool stuff!
Christine answered all of the questions you asked. Yes, she answered the one about Barrack and Syndil too. lol :-)

I put her answers in smaller snippets so those of you with dial up can view them easier.

Blog 1 above. We finished the work for the day and were so tired! We sat back and relaxed a little and talked about the blog and how fun it was.

Blog 2

You can see Christine's little dogs running around and begging for attention. They didn't care if we were doing an interview. They don't blog and were totally unconcerned with my deadline! LOL

This has been so fun! Please leave any comments or questions by Sunday night. We will leave at that time and won't get a chance to interview Christine for another month!

Day 3 Blog Pre Production Predatory Game Book Trailer

Here we are. Day 3 of the pre production for Predatory Game Book Trailer. We start the shoot tomorrow!

Michael Miller answers questions that YOU sent!

Hear some of the answers I give about casting, Brian and more!

This is about a 8-10 minute video, so if you have dial up it may be hard to watch. I know Christine is going to have these put on MySpace at some point, which may be easier to watch, but give it a try here. And don't forget to send in your comments and questions!

I got to Christine's today, but it's very busy right now and late. I got to see and chat with Brian Schell. He is very nice and I'm looking forward to working with him tomorrow.

Christine is ready to answer your questions and we'll do her interview/vlog tomorrow some time.

Wish us luck on tomorrow's FIRST DAY OF THE SHOOT!

Predatory Game Day 2 Pre Production Book Trailer

Well, day 2 of pre production is done. We worked all day on getting wardrobe and making or buying props. We have made a smoke bomb (no...not a real one, but it looks cool!) to go with our gas masks that we bought last week!

Thank you to Anne and Denise for sending questions. I answered them in the video above. Semet, thank you as well! We'll get to ask Christine questions tomorrow!

I have to see if my new little camcorder ( I got the new Flip) will work at Christine's place on her computer. If not, I'll have to upload the next set of videos on Saturday when Mike brings his portable editor over.

Above is a little snippet of our crew meeting for Day 2 of pre production for the book trailer. It lasted about 2 hours (you see about 3-4 minutes of that)and we'll re-group again tomorrow to make sure all assignments are complete and ready to go for the Saturday and Sunday shoot.

The thumbnail you see above is of Jacob Henderson who does our special make up, special effects and lots of other important jobs. The main person speaking is our special and visual effects guru Michael Miller. Mike hates to be in front of the camera, so I didn't tell him that I was filming him. LOL shhhhhh....don't tell him! LOL

I hope to get more comments and questions for tomorrow's meeting with Christine and for anyone on the cast and crew!

Predatory Game Pre-Production Day 1

Christine Feehan's newest installment of the Ghostwalker, or "Game", series is entitled Predatory Game.
Predatory Game has Ghostwalker Jesse Calhoun and mysterious Saber Wynter paired together as someone seeks to stop Jesse's investigation and capture Saber. You'll learn more as the week progresses.
But, for now, we want to invite YOU to participate in the this blog by sending questions to the director, actors, crew, or even to Christine Feehan herself!
Watch our Vlogs (video blogs) that give you little glimpses of how we prepare to do the book trailer for a novel.

Leave your questions in the comments section of this blog. We will check the comments every day and answer questions either in writing or on video.

We will interview Christine sometime on Friday, so please have questions for her by then. We may not be able to get to all of the quetions with the video, but we'll do our best to get you answers eventually in writing.

What would YOU like to know?

Now, check out day 1 of pre-production as we speak to Lauren and look at wardrobe.

Lauren is a sweet, beautiful, slightly shy girl who thinks kicking bad-guy butts is still womanly! Woohoo! Go Lauren!

Drama, Espionage and Romance

Cue the James Bond music and call the Geek Squad! If you like your espionage with thrills, romance and a touch of humor look no further! Lucy Monroe, internationally best selling author, brings us sensuality and sass with her new high-tech action romance called “Deal With This”.

It’s lights, camera, action as this novel brings the reader inside the Vancouver film industry. It’s a fun look at the industry itself while taking you through a rollercoaster ride of spy action and hot romance. The book is lighthearted but intensely researched for believability. There’s no doubt that the romance and sass will satisfy as much as the action and technology.

Michelle Buonfiglio of Lifetime TV's Romance: B(u)y the Book says Monroe "excels at creating alpha bad boys and authentic erotic romance." The love scenes sizzle and the characters are the highlight of every scene. Her “alpha bad boy” Alan goes undercover to find out who is trying to auction off international secrets and finds himself on the set of scifi TV show with the star of the show, Jillian, set to help him whether he likes it or not!

Monroe is especially pleased with this novel because of the character development of both the hero and heroine. The hero isn’t a typical “alpha male”, but he has layers of complexity to him that allows him to appreciate the heroine’s independence and accept himself without having to be in charge all the time. The heroine is strong, sassy, fun and loveable. She isn’t going to faint at the sight of a gun and she doesn’t mind talking about sex, needs and what she really wants.

Throw in a scifi TV show, producers, spies, anti-gravity planes, costumes and great love scenes and you’ve got a formula for a best selling novel! Deal With This comes out November 27th!