When I Googled “how to change an oven lightbulb,” the first search result was a YouTube video.

And that’s exactly what I wanted. I didn’t want to read about how to do it. I wanted someone to show me how to do it.

I’m not alone. With 2.6 billion users worldwide, YouTube is the second most popular social media platform (Facebook is first). Whether you need instruction, entertainment, or news, you’ll find what you need in a video.

In fact, Tubics reports it’s the most popular search engine for teenagers. (If you write for young adults, now’s the time to perk up.)

This means that YouTube is a powerful marketing tool that can be used to sell books. It also means that you want to use YouTube for book marketing.

Why YouTube is a powerful marketing tool for books

If you’re an author looking to get your work out there, YouTube should be your go-to platform. Here are five reasons why:

1. There’s a huge book community on YouTube.

There are tons of booktubers and bookish channels on YouTube, which means there’s already a built-in audience for your book’s content. If you produce quality videos, you will attract and acquire passionate book fans.

2. You can reach a global audience.

YouTube is available in more than 80 countries and reaches billions of people around the world. This gives you the opportunity to connect with book lovers from all over, no matter where they are.

3. You can connect with other authors.

YouTube is a great place to connect with other authors and build relationships. Collaborate on videos, cross-promote each other’s work, support each other’s careers.

4. It’s a brand-builder.

Use video to share your personality and connect with your audience on a personal level. This can help you attract more readers and followers.

5. It’s a moneymaker.

If you build a large enough following, you can make money from YouTube through sponsorships, affiliate links, and advertisements. This can help offset self-publishing and marketing costs.

How to create a YouTube channel for your book

The process for creating your own YouTube channel is similar to what you’ve done already with your social media profiles. Here are the steps to follow so you use YouTube for book marketing effectively:

Choose a catchy name. Select something that will make people want to subscribe so they’re notified when you add videos.

I use my YouTube channel as a brand extension, so my channel name is Build Book Buzz.

Create a visually appealing channel banner. Make sure it’s consistent with your book’s branding.

Upload a professional headshot as your profile picture. Use the same image that you use on other social networks.

Write your channel description. This is where you’ll tell viewers what they can expect to find on your channel.

Here’s mine: Tips, tactics and tools for generating awareness and buzz about your books. Subscribe to our free book marketing newsletter at http://buildbookbuzz.com/gift.

Start creating and uploading videos. There are so many possibilities! Share book trailers, how-tos, readings, Q&As, behind-the-scenes looks, interviews with others, and anything else you can think of.

A few video basics

You want your videos to be as effective as possible, right? For that reason, make sure they’re high quality and engaging. No one wants to watch a low-quality, boring video, so focus on creating something that’s interesting and will hold viewers’ attention.

“Quality,” by the way, applies to audio as well as video. You’ll lose viewers if your audio isn’t strong and clear.

via GIPHY

Get creative with how you promote your book with video, too. Instead of just doing a standard reading or Q&A, do a book-themed challenge or an interactive video where viewers can help you choose what happens next in the story.

Have fun with it – the more fun you’re having, the more likely viewers are to stick around and watch.

Finally, don’t forget to include a call to action at the end of each video. Let viewers know where they can buy your book or sign up for your newsletter to stay up-to-date on your latest releases.

Getting views and subscribers

If you’re hoping to build a following on YouTube, you’ll need to put in some work. Growing a channel takes time, but if you’re consistent and create quality content, you will eventually see results. Here are a few tips to help you get more views and subscribers:

Optimize your channel

Make sure your channel is set up for success by completing the About section and adding keywords that describe your content. This will make it easier for people to find your channel when they’re searching for topics they’re interested in that you’re addressing.

Create engaging videos

Your videos should be interesting and engaging, offering viewers something they can’t find elsewhere. If your content is enjoyable, people will be more likely to watch it and subscribe to your channel.

Promote your videos

Get the word out about your videos by promoting them on social media and other platforms. You can also run ads on YouTube to reach a wider audience.

Use keywords in your video title and description

When people search for books on YouTube, they typically use keywords such as “book review” or “book recommendations.” When appropriate, use these keywords in your video title and description so that your video will show up in these searches.

People search on YouTube for topic information, too, so be sure to add the right keywords for the topics you’re featuring.

Collaborate with other creators

Teaming up with other YouTube creators can help expose a new audience to your book. Partner on videos, cross-promote each other’s content, and guest star on each other’s channels.

Be patient

As with other social networks, it takes time to build a following on YouTube, so don’t get discouraged if you don’t see results overnight. Keep creating quality content and promoting your channel, and eventually you’ll start to see your subscriber count rise.

How to promote your video

As with blog posts and other online content, you have to help people find your videos. Don’t rely on getting found in search results alone – send people to your videos with these tactics:

• Every time you upload a new video, share it on social media, email it to your list, and embed it on your website – especially if it’s a book trailer.
• Help your video stand out and get more views by creating a catchy title and thumbnail.
• Get discovered by including keywords in your title and description.

Using YouTube for book marketing takes effort

There are many advantages to using YouTube for book marketing, including the simple fact that creating and uploading videos is free. You don’t have to spend a cent to reach your target audience there.

You can also target a specific audience by using keywords and tags that they’ll search for to find videos like yours.

And, if your video is well-done, it has the potential to go viral, which could result in a lot of free publicity for your book.

Even so, YouTube marketing requires a bit more effort than some other options.

You need to create a quality video that will grab people’s attention and make them want to learn more about your book. You also need to proactively promote your video.

If you don’t put in the work, your video is likely to get lost in the shuffle.

What’s the verdict?

Is YouTube for book marketing worth it?

Ultimately, that’s for you to decide.

If you’re willing to put in the time and effort, it can be a great way to reach a wide audience. This is especially true if you’re willing to include yourself in the video (either on- or off-camera), as it will help readers connect with you.

If you aren’t already creating videos, there’s a learning curve. If you’re like me, though, mastering a new skill is not only fun, it’s personally rewarding.

Give it a try! You have nothing to lose.

Are you creating YouTube videos to promote your book? Please provide a link to your channel in the comments.

Editor’s note: I used QuickWrite, the new artificial intelligence (AI) writing software created specifically for authors, to write this blog post. I added new content at the beginning and did a little editing to eliminate some of the “rote” approach to writing, but all of that was far easier than starting from scratch.

QuickWrite’s creator assured me that I don’t need to worry about duplicate content or plagiarism, too. 

AI software won’t replace me, but in some situations, it could make my job a little easier. It did this time.

These book lovers who create the videos are “BookTubers;” their collective accounts, known as “channels,” create the BookTube community.

There are thousands of them producing videos about books. Thousands.

And because readers love their content, book publishers often incorporate them into marketing plans. (Even Michelle Obama did a BookTube tour for Becoming.)

BookTubers and you

Should you send your book to any of these people in hopes of getting it read and reviewed, or mentioned in a “book haul” (when BookTubers show the books they’ve just bought or borrowed)?

That depends on whether the people reviewing books on YouTube read the types of books you write.

To do that, you first have to find their accounts — channels — and videos.

7 BookTuber lists

You could spend hours and hours wading through Google and YouTube searches to find the best and most popular BookTubers.

Fortunately, you don’t have to. Others have done it for you, and I’m linking to their lists so you can take advantage of their hard work.

Here they are.

1. Reedsy, BookTube Channel Guide

This vetted list features a subscriber count, short description, and link for each of more than 170 BookTubers.

Note that the search box only searches the channel name (I’m not complaining — just explaining). There’s also an option that lets you filter for BookTubers who are also authors.

2. Book Riot, 15 FANTASTIC YOUTUBE BOOK REVIEWERS FOR YOUR VIEWING PLEASURE

This list is far more personal than some of the others, as it’s curated and reported by an individual rather than a team. She tells us why she likes each reviewer and includes an embedded video.

To get to the YouTuber’s channel, click “Watch on YouTube” on each video.

3. Book Scrolling, The Top Booktubers & Book Youtube Channels

You won’t get a description for each of the 23 on the list, but you can preview their content without leaving the list. Each entry links to the channel, too.

Be sure to scroll to the bottom for links to another 72 that didn’t rank at the top.

4. SheReads, Best Booktubers to watch in 2021

Get mini-profiles, photos, channel links, and Instagram account handles for 10 individuals.

5. SheReads, Best BookTubers of 2020

Last year’s list uses the same format as 2021’s — 10 short profiles that describe their content and how it’s presented, plus a photo and link to each channel and Instagram account.

6. Book Riot, 7 BOOKTUBERS WHO TALK ABOUT ADULT BOOKS

If you’re still with me, you might have realized by now that many of the book lovers talking all things books are fans of young adult and teen fiction. To counter that, I’m including this short list for those who write books for an older audience.

As with the other Book Riot list above, you’ll learn what the writer compiling the list likes about each BookTuber and what they read. Each description includes an embedded video or a YouTube channel link.

7. We Are Bookish, 20 Diverse Booktubers to Follow in 2020

This list compiled by a NetGalley staffer features mini-descriptions, an embedded video, and a link to the BookTuber’s channel.

Immerse yourself

If you’re interested in exploring the potential for your books, approach this as a reader and book lover first.

Who talks about the kinds of books you read? Who has an approach or style that you like? Who do you feel drawn to?

Subscribe to their channel; follow their social media accounts. Comment on and share their content, just as you’re doing already with other people you follow and like.

Once you value their content as a reader, you’ll better understand how you might collaborate.

A few more tips

NetGalley’s article, “BookTube Basics for Marketers,” offers tips for finding and engaging with the right BookTubers for the types of books you write, too.

Finally, I hope this underscores the importance of knowing your target audience — your ideal readers. Without that, you can’t assess whether working with BookTubers should be part of your book marketing plan.

Do you have a favorite BookTuber? Who is it, and why? Please tell us in a comment. 

It’s not something I look forward to, and that’s not just because good hair days don’t come around very often.

It’s because:

• I don’t like appearing on camera (see reference to good hair days above)
• I’m not as familiar as I’d like to be with the technology involved

But I know that because YouTube is the second most popular search engine, I need to load more videos into the Build Book Buzz YouTube channel. This will help more authors discover the free book marketing tips and advice I offer on this site and in the free Build Book Buzz newsletter.

Fortunately, you and I can create videos without appearing on camera — just create a  video with PowerPoint instead, using your slides as the basis of your video.

To help anyone who is just as new at this as I am, I’m sharing the steps I took to create this PowerPoint-based video that I just uploaded. I hope it saves you time, since you’re spared all of the Googling I did to figure out how to do something that’s new to me.

Here’s the video; scroll down for the how-to:

Start with a PowerPoint presentation

With the help of Google, I discovered that if you’ve got PowerPoint 2010, you can save your presentation file in a video format and work with that. I don’t, so I needed Plan B.

I knew that Windows Live Movie Maker, the free software I use that was pre-installed on my computer, lets me create a video from pictures/images, so I looked in the “save as” options in my PowerPoint file to see if I could save it in JPEG (image) format.

Yes!

That arrow is pointing to a drop-down menu that lets you save the file in many different formats. I selected “JPEG File Interchange Format.” When I selected “save,” a new window popped up, asking me, “Do you want to export every slide in the presentation or only the current slide?” I selected “Every slide” from the three options.

That step created a new folder with each slide as a JPEG image. I added them into my new video file in Movie Maker by selecting “add videos and photos” from the “home” tab.

With the images in place, I played around with the software’s auto movie themes to see which one I liked the most. The option I selected added a “slide” at the beginning (the “Build Book Buzz” text that moves across my first PPT slide as the video starts) and three slides at the end for production credits. I could have deleted those extra slides at the end, but I left them in because just between us, adding silly stuff for the end credits is my favorite part of video-making.

How to add narration

With the video portion done pretty quickly, I was ready to add narration. I knew I had to create and add an audio file, but didn’t know how, so I turned to Google again. I found a super helpful video that showed me how to find the computer’s recorder software and then how it use it. (Tip: It’s as easy as pressing the “start” button.)

The instructions told me to type “sound recorder” into the search box. Bam! There it was! Clicking on the search results brought up the recorder software.

To make sure my audio is good, I always use an external microphone, an Audio-Technica ATR-3350 Lavalier Omnidirectional Condenser Microphone. I plugged it in to the side, turned it on, and practiced my narration by speaking while the video ran through in “view/preview full screen” mode.

The video moved too quickly, so I had to adjust the settings so that each image stayed on the screen longer. The default was 7 seconds; I bumped each one up to 12.5 and that seemed to be good enough.

After a few more practice narrations while the video moved through, I was ready to record it with the sound recorder. It wasn’t perfect, but I would have been working on it all day if perfection was the goal. Some days, good is good enough.

I added my recorded narration to the video by going to the “home” screen, selecting “add music” from the toolbar, and selecting the audio file. It was really that simple.

I played the file to make sure audio and video were in sync, saved the file, and uploaded it to my YouTube channel.

I hope this level of detail helps anyone who had the same questions I had. So now it’s my turn to ask a question:

What’s your best video production tip for newbies? What tip can you offer that might either save us time, or improve our video quality?

If you are, you probably have pinned your book cover to a board dedicated to your book and related images. Highlight the fact that your book is for sale (subtlety is over-rated!) by adding the price to it. It will look like the image here on the right.

Here’s how to do it

Don’t know how to add a price to your pin? It’s real easy. Watch this short video (or read the transcript below). After beginning to play the video below, select “Watch on YouTube” in the lower right corner of the viewer to see it in full screen version. Or, go directly to YouTube to view it there.

Loose transcript

It’s real easy.

• Start with the board on your Pinterest page that has your book cover. I’ll start with mine as the example.
• Select the pin with your book cover, then select edit.
• In the description, add the price for your book, remembering to add the dollar sign. The dollar sign is important because that’s what  tells Pinterest to treat your price differently —  and differently means you get this banner right here in the upper corner. it looks pretty good, doesn’t it?
• Then select “save pin,” and go back to your book in the final version to see what it looks like.

Do you have a favorite Pinterest book promotion tip? Please share it here!