You’ve got your ARCs in hand: They’re beautiful and you’ve taken approximately 1 million pictures to share across social media. You pull your phone out in every bookstore you visit to snap photos.
Pictures are great, and they’re definitely easy to take and have on hand. But recognizing that audio and video assets exist can help you expand your author brand and book promo. The more interactive an asset, the more engagement you’re likely to receive. And diversifying your posts — using audio and video in conjunction with links and photos — helps keep content fresh and creative!
Here are some ideas on how to utilize audio and video assets as you promote your book:
Audiograms
Audiograms are easy ways to promote recent podcast or radio interviews in fun and engaging ways for your followers. Check out some of these examples: Like this one from the podcast Pretty Wellness, which Books Forward authors have worked with in the past, and take a look at this one from Books Forward author Diane Dewey and her radio show Dropping In.
But audiograms aren’t just for interviews. If you’re looking to promote a recently produced audiobook, you can also create audiograms to highlight certain quotes or sections from your book. Don’t have an audiobook yet? Learn more about why you should hop on the bandwagon now.
Creative assets can easily be constructed using sites like Canva, Design Wizard, Visme, etc. Just grab the snippet of audio you want to use and work with any of their templated designs to craft an audiogram that matches your social media branding. Want help on solidifying your author brand? Check out our tips here.
Keep in mind: You’ll actually be exporting these assets as videos, so you’ll want to remember platform video time limits, like 60 seconds for Instagram and 2 minutes and 20 seconds for Twitter.
Book Trailers
Not every book has a book trailer, so having one created — or creating one yourself — can set your book apart from the pack. Just like trailers do for movies, well-made book trailers can entice readers to pick up a new book or learn about a new author.
There’s also a variety of different ways to present a book trailer. You can go the traditional route of doing a teaser with audio and video elements like a traditional movie trailer. Or you can even take a video of you sitting down and talking about your book. Just remember that a trailer is just a bite-sized sample of you and your book — try to keep them below 2 minutes if possible.
Book trailers can also be great to use if you’re incorporating Facebook advertising into your book promo. Video ads have the potential to reach different audiences and see even greater engagement than typical image or link ads. According to DataReport, videos account for over 15% of all the content posted to Facebook, and Social Media Examiner says almost 50% of marketers utilize Facebook video in their campaigns. So utilizing video can really help set you apart not just on your author page but also in your advertising!
And you don’t have to be a professional cinematographer to get started building a trailer. In addition to Canva, FlexClip and other sites can help you start creating videos by utilizing templates they already have, which can further enhance your book’s promotional strategy.
Videos for social media
If you’ve been on social media for a fraction of a second, you’ll know video has blown up in terms of content and engagement across multiple platforms. Reels have seen an increase in engagement over feed posts on Instagram, which comes as no surprise after IG said the algorithms for the two two types of posts differ.
So if you have the bandwidth to create them, try and maximize your Instagram presence by creating videos. Reels can be up to 90 seconds long; just remember to try and shoot video vertically with a 9:16 aspect ratio (or 1080×1920 pixels) for best results.
And, of course, there’s TikTok.
We know TikTok isn’t for everyone, but it can be a great platform to utilize if you’re focused on video content. If you have videos you’re using for Reels on Instagram, you can easily use that same content — or repurpose similar ideas – over on TikTok. Keep in mind that audiences are different across platforms, and a video that works well on Reels might not be as popular on TikTok and vice versa.
The great thing about Reels and TikTok is you have so much freedom to get creative! Look into using images and videos outside you and your book — like this popular trend to describe a book by its aesthetics. You can learn more about how you can take advantage of TikTok trends as an author here.
Starting a BookTok account can seem like a challenging undertaking. We’ve got some tips here to help get you started!
Add your audio and video assets wherever possible
If you’ve got a book trailer or have created a video talking about your book, you’ll want to make sure to use those wherever possible. So don’t just save those for social media. Make sure to incorporate them on your author website where you can and on YouTube if possible. You can also include a video on your Amazon Author page, which will add an additional asset to your page, as well as help readers who come across your profile learn more about you.
Check out even more about how to make your Amazon page pop here.
Going live
Don’t forget that video and audio assets aren’t reserved only for pre-recorded content. Going live on apps like Facebook and Instagram are also valuable tools to have in your author marketing arsenal. Just make sure to capitalize on going live. Whether it’s for a launch event, a special series, a Q&A, etc., remember that people are taking time out of their day to join you for a live social media event, so you’ll want to prepare and plan to make the most of it!
And if you need help deciding which social media platform you should take advantage of, learn more here.
Jennifer Vance is a publicist at Books Forward, an author publicity and book marketing firm committed to promoting voices from a diverse variety of communities. From book reviews and author events, to social media and digital marketing, we help authors find success and connect with readers.
Interested in what’s possible for your book sales and building readership? Check out our services, tell us your goals, and get a customized publicity campaign tailored just for you.
