2009-08-13 20:59:00

  August 13, 9:28 AMPittsburgh Books ExaminerHolly Christine

I first came across Circle of Seven Productions on YouTube. After searching for book trailers, the name CoS Productions kept appearing. Not just for one genre: for everything. After further research, I found that the owner of CoS, Sheila Clover English, had actually created the book trailer market in 2002 and trademarked the term “book trailer” in 2003.

The company itself has an award winning staff that works with traditional publishers (such as HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster) and independent authors alike. To date, CoS has generated over 65 million hits to its trailers and interviews.  I first contacted the company for permission to use a trailer for What’s a Book Trailer and through this simple inquiry discovered that CoS is incredibly friendly, extremely professional and very much a major role-player in the publishing industry. Sheila English was kind and generous enough to answer a few questions.    You created the first book trailer in 2002. How did CoS begin and how has it grown in the past seven years?   In the beginning I was looking to promote my own book. As an aspiring author attending her first professional conference I was amazed at the number of people trying to get their book to publishers. I knew I needed something to make me stand out. I thought since movie trailers help promote movies, why not “book trailers” to promote books?   I spoke to another author about it and she loved the idea. So I thought I’d see if I could convince others to give the whole book trailer marketing idea a try.   There wasn’t a YouTube or MySpace at that time. We had to create special deals to get our videos placed. 2005 brought in social networking and everyone in the publishing industry turned their attention toward how to utilize it. Videos were a natural way to extend into social media.   By the end of 2005 we’d created 12 book videos. One per month. By the end of 2006 we’d created 60 and in 2008 we did nearly 200.   We started with creating book trailers, then creating a market for them, but at this point we’ve gone on to include full promotional packages and distribution that reaches out to hundreds of booksellers, libraries and social sites. We’ve been featured in Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times among other top media.   Do you believe there is a connection between readers and movie watchers? Does the book trailer fill the gap?   The connection is story. People love a good story whether it is something to watch, listen to or read.   People have evolved into visual creatures. We want instant information in an entertaining way. Book trailers offer that.   In the last 2 months we’ve had over 20 of our book videos requested by television programs to show on news shows, talk shows and b-roll. They are not being viewed as commercials, but as entertainment.   You have many services available for authors and publishing houses. How can an independent author decide what service is best for their needs?   We always start with establishing a goal for any client. We are very goal oriented and efficiency driven. If we know what we want the trailer to do (i.e. name branding, promoting a cross genre, etc.) we create the video and distribute it with that in mind.   Obviously everyone wants sales. But because it is so difficult to track direct sales to most marketing endeavors we feel it is important that the client get other benefits from the video that are easier to track. We do include links for direct sales though.   When someone contacts us we have staff trained to help them determine goals and products. We don’t have a sales person. We have a customer service person. So the focus is on service not sales. Sales will happen for us if we can offer you something that works. We help determine goals, share those with the producer of the video and the distribution coordinator and set up a strategy that will help you meet those goals.   After the video is uploaded for one month we will send you a report to tell you how it did. We want you to see for yourself how effective it was. Creating the video and even uploading it is not the end. Making sure it performs and letting you know how it did is how we help ensure a good return on investment.    How do you decide what to include in a book trailer?   Some things are inherent to the creation of a video. Visuals, sound, text or narration are included.   Some of what we do comes from experience, beta testing our videos and performance of videos. For example our analytics show that the majority of viewers will watch a video for 90 seconds regardless of who the author is. If the author is famous they will watch longer.   The book cover and sales information comes at the end, so we now keep videos to 90 seconds or less to ensure the sales message is seen.   We do work with the client to find out if they have a vision or suggestions.  The client is not expected to do the work, but if they want to choose music or pictures we invite them to participate. There’s no reason why the experience can’t be enjoyable. Our clients have a great time helping create a representation of their book.     After a book trailer is created, what is the next step in promoting the video?   We go back to the goals set at the start. We have a distribution team made up of 6 people who specialize in something different. Someone works with booksellers and libraries while the other is an SEO specialist and so on. Those people look at the goals and come up with a strategy. The strategy is based on a number of factors; goals, genre, author, geo-target, etc.   We upload the video and then we have someone whose job is to monitor the videos until one week after the book is released. That person checks the video each week to ensure it is performing to the standards we set for it. If it isn’t, then he will take measures to make it perform. Sometimes that includes changing the tags or title, or even adding it to another site to make sure we are getting the amount of views we feel the videos should be getting.   A follow up report is sent a month after upload. Report information is based on the type of distribution package you got. All videos come with distribution.   What types of book trailers are most successful?   Statistically the full production trailers get more engagement and hits than those with only still photos.   But, we have some basic videos that are Cover Story videos, which only uses the book cover and those get thousands of views. It’s a $300 investment that gets you video to over 300 booksellers, 5000 libraries and dozens of social sites and reader’s sites.   The higher the level, the more impressions you can expect to see. People want to be entertained. They don’t want a commercial. So if you are making a video that offers entertainment value more people will watch it and share it.   Do you have any statistics regarding sales and book trailer hits?   There’s not a lot. Just like there’s not a lot of statistics that definitively link sales with a $15,000 USA Today ad.   I can tell you what I’ve heard from clients. Cheryl Holt said she saw a 12% increase in sales the first time she did a video with us. She now does a video with us for all of her books. We have two authors who directly attribute their video promo to making the USA Today list for the first time. We have Alyson Noel who says she saw 10x the amount of traffic on her website when she put the video up.   I am a firm believer in the fact that you should research anything you are investing in. Especially with online marketing. That’s why we post our client list and testimonials. It is easy enough for someone to go to an author and email them via their website to check on us. We encourage it. http://www.cosproductions.com/aboutTestimonials.php    What can a customer expect from CoS?   Thoughtful strategy, not just a video. We realize that there are a lot of people out there who can create a video these days. We know we need to offer our customers a good experience, a good video and a good return on investment. That is how you create a success story.   Most of our work comes in from client referrals. I think that speaks well of our company.    Do you have any sales or marketing advice for Independent authors?    Yes. Know what you want before you begin researching what tools you will use, buy and/or will employ. There are so many great tools and there are some that just sound fun. Don’t choose your tools first. Choose your goals first. And don’t choose “sales” as your only goal. “Overnight success” takes a lot of hard work and a lot of time to achieve.   “Instant” rarely happens. Instant success, instant fame, instant money are not something you will get from a single tool.   Set a goal. Create a strategy. Find a tool or tools. Monitor the success of the campaign. If it worked, do it again. If it didn’t it may not have been the right tool for that book.
For more on Circle of Seven Productions, visit their website. Be sure to check out their impressive client list and awards.    More About: book trailers · Circle Of Seven Productions Originally posted by The Examinper.com Link