It's getting harder to make posts about books stand out on social media. At one time a cover shot was good enough, but now there are so many Gifs it's easy to be overlooked. If you take a look at the analysis from Twitter, it's clear that short video is the way to go. Twitter claim 2 billion video views a day, which is 66% year-over-year growth in the past 12 months. They also add that 93% of video views happen on mobile. (Twitter internal data, 2019)
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| (Source: Twitter 2019) |
So how do you make book videos without spending a fortune or being distracted from writing goals? Earlier this year author Marcia Meara (@MarciaMeara) pointed me in the direction of 'Book Brush', which claims to be the easiest way to create professional social media images for your books. Since then it has become my 'go to' tool for enhancing social media posts.
A web-based application, Book Brush has been in 'beta' for quite a while - but they keep adding new features and more templates, which is good. It can be a little 'quirky' to use, although once you've found your way around it's much quicker than most of the competition.
I like the 'Instant Mockups', which allow you to use a library of over two-hundred images featuring your book:
I also like the Video Creator, which can get you a lot of views on Twitter (I set a target of 30,000 followers before Christmas and I'm fairly sure my little videos have helped speed up progress, as I'm there already.
The hardest bit for me is deciding on the text to use with images, so here is author and book marketing specialist Mandi Lynn (@mandilynnwrites) with her top six tips:
The best way to learn is to have a go. Book Brush encourage free evaluation - and I've been happy to pay for the 'plus' options, as it pays for itself in no time through increased awareness of your books.
Tony Riches
An excellent and informative post, Tony! I love BookBrush, but my time has been so limited lately (due to various small LIFE-threatening storms and such) that I haven't had a chance to explore all it will do. I definitely want to look into Video Creator, and soon! Love what you've done and that it has been so effective for you. Thanks for sharing, too. Wonderful post! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Marcia - and I'm relieved you've survived the storms!
DeleteYou share some great tools Tony. Thank you for the insights. I haven't tried BookBrush but will add it to my list. :)
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Tony! You just about have me convinced to try and improve my technology skills. Novel isn’t ready yet so I’ve got some time.
ReplyDeleteThanks Kerry - you are welcome to add me to your book launch guest post list :)
DeleteYes, I always love finding new sites and apps to help with the social media impact. I know mood boards are a big hit right now too, but they're also kind of time consuming to put together. I had to go over and start a free account on Book Brush. So far it's amazing! Thank you for sharing this!
ReplyDeleteI tried commenting before, but I don't know if it went through, so this may be a repost!
ReplyDeleteAnyway thank you for sharing this! I had to go over a setup a free version of Book Brush. Honestly it's perfect timing since October is around the corner for me! Thank you for this!
Thank you very much for sharing this. I'm going to check out book brush.
ReplyDeleteNever heard of it 'til now. Thanks for the heads-up. :-)
ReplyDeleteAnna from elements of emaginette
This looks like a nice tool that I've never heard of. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like a nice tool. I've been dragging my feet getting into video creation. I think it's because I never watch them myself. But it appears the majority are not like me so I better figure it out.
ReplyDeleteSusan Says
Interesting post! I've heard a lot about Book Brush lately. I'll have to check it out. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteOMG, I bookmarked this so fast. Great post, Tony. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteThanks Raimey :)
DeleteTony, so many helpful videos here. Thank you so much! If I ever finish my memoir about attending college as a mother of five and publish it, this will become a necessary post for me to refer back to. Thanks again!
ReplyDelete