In this post, we show you how to shoot a video book review that shouldn’t break your already stretched time commitments. You can download the pdf over at Scribd. We’ll be improving the package as we add more posts to this series for the folks over at @SMBAustin.
Here’s a rough sketch of the time it takes me to do a video book review. Your time commitment will depend on how much you put into post-production.
Maximum, I spend 2 hours on book review. That includes uploading. If you’re a better multi-tasker you’ll get these things knocked out more quickly – literally in 5 – 10 minutes without a lot of post.
Read the book: This depends on your style.
Get Your Bullets: 15 minutes
Shoot The Review: 5 – 10 Minutes
Edit: 5 -15 minutes
Export and Compress: 10 – 12 Minutes
Upload: Up to 60 minutes depending on file size
Tagging/Descripting: 5 Minutes
Writing Blog post : 10 Minutes
Transcribing: 2 Minutes
Scribd: 3 – 5 Minutes
Keep your book reviews short and to the point.
People tend to stop watching videos that are over 1:30 long as it is. You want to speak from the heart, but only say the 3 – 4 things that you really want people to know about the book.
For examples of people who do it well, take a look at www.chrisbrogan.com and read Chris Ming Ryan. Chris is a professional storyteller and offers great insight on how to keep things zipping along.
Also check out Brand Autopsy’s dramatic readings, they’re definitely a different spin on the genre.
To reduce time, I also shoot with a Canon HV40 right into iMovie on my laptop. This keeps me from having to record to tape and then import later. I despise iMovie for editing and move into Final Cut Express when there’s real work to be done, but it’s great for getting the video shot quickly.
You don’t HAVE to shoot with a microphone, but it sure sounds a whole heck of a lot better. On camera mics are terrible. Plus, people will stick around if they can hear you.
I’ve been using the Audio Technica ATR-3550. It’s wired, easy to use and produces a sound good enough for a quick book report.
Not everyone wants to watch your whole review. They may just want to skim it.
Transcribing your videos not only helps your readers consume your content the way that is easiest for them, but helps seed your post with fresh, SEO tuned content.
I’ve been using SpeakerText with some great results. For $20, you can get several videos transcribed. They usually cost me .33 to $1.50 a piece depending on how verbose I am. Another reason to keep things pithy.
One warning, SpeakerText is in BETA and at times it can take a while for them to find your YouTube video. Don’t get too addicted to the juice just yet – they’re still working out the kinks. UPDATE: Matt Mireles, CEO SpeakerText, and Bjiorn Liljequist were extremely fast and helpful in fixing the problems I had.
It’s all about production and reach these days. While YouTube is your most trafficed video site out there, I highly recommend that you try TubeMogul for launching your book reviews. This can take some time to set up, but you’ll be happier when you see your shining face show up in random places.
Remember that distribution doesn’t just mean video – you’ve created a lot of text-rich content as well. I like to use www.sribd.com to load up my transcriptions and build links back to my videos.
More social media savvy authors will already be listening for mentions of their books. Be sure to tell Twitter what you’ve just created and there is a good chance that the author will comment, respond and even debate with you about your points.
So that’s it. The trick is to just get the video up and work your way into your own style. As you produce more content, you’ll develop patterns that will help you move along more quickly.
Check out the pilot we produced for TAKE Supply Chain’s web video series. More to come soon!
Our friends at Phurnace Software asked us to help them create a show that highlights their ability to automate java application deployments. Phurnace builds software to help companies automate the deployment of J2EE applications and configuration of WebSphere, WebLogic, JBoss or WebSphere Portal.
Shot on a Canon HV30 and performed by Larry Warnock and Jessica Gass [...]
Our friends at Phurnace Software, who make Java application deployment software, are gearing up to announce a new “rollback” feature in their Portal Deliver product at the next Websphere Portal Excellence Conference.
They asked us to put together a quick promo piece to invite people to their booth.
We are gearing up for a great [...]
We put together a book trailer for the book “Smoke Screen” by Sandra Brown.
Ms. Brown isn’t a customer of ours, but we felt like playing around a little with graphic animation, and intrigue. You can find out more about the book and the author over at Barnes and Noble.
The Pink Slip Festival in Austin, Texas provided free live music, family fun, cheap beer and hotdogs for Austin’s unemployed families. Dan Dillard of Amplify Financial created the Pink Slip Festival as an Austin styled response at to the down economy. The Pink Slip Festival was held at the Spider House coffee shop and featured [...]
It’s no big secret that @bigmanweston and I like to eat.
My wife is a killer cook and Weston’s culinary paramour, @girlblake, can make a mean Sunny Side Up-Cake.
So when she decided to take her cupcakes on the road to the Cupcake Smackdown 1.0, we thought we’d tag along with a camera.
There were many entries. [...]