From Indies Unlimited:
While perusing Facebook, I noticed a post in the Indies Unlimited Fans Group that piqued my interest — the new “add your video” option for your book’s Amazon sales page. I state upfront that technology and I do not always have an easy relationship, but this looked so promising that I thought I would give it a try. Please note that not everyone is seeing this option on their books’ pages yet.
. . . .
Step 1. Click on “Upload your video” (see above). You will then get this screen:
. . . .
Step 2. Decide how you want your video categorized. I clicked “Other.”
This brings up your video files.
Step 3. Choose the file you want displayed. In my case it is Charlie’s New Beginnings.
. . . .
The video file will upload.
Step 4. Give it a title and description (optional) and press submit if you are satisfied with the video. As stated on this screen, you can view and manage your videos by going to “Your Account” and then selecting “Your uploaded product videos.”
. . . .
This is the second time I’ve uploaded Charlie’s New Beginning as the first one is attached to the physical book and I wanted a video for the Kindle version as well. Since this is the case when I scrolled down, I saw the Charlie’s New Beginning video short that I had uploaded for the physical book.
Just to see what happens, I clicked on Upload video while it is still processing. The screen reverted to the select a category for your video as if you were getting ready to upload another one.
The wait is 24 to 48 hours, although I suspect it may be less.
After more than enough time I checked to see if the video was on the sales page. It was not.
Step 6. Go back to amazon.com/CreatorHub, pressed upload video, and rechecked the sales page. Success!
Indies Unlimited also has a resource page for Video Trailers.
Link to the rest at Indies Unlimited
I really think that book trailers are one of those fads that publishers and some indies are all “ooh, new shiny!” about but which will pass quickly because, ultimately, they don’t actually do anything at all for sales. Books aren’t a visual medium, so trailers for them make about as much sense as radio spots for movies. I expect this fad to pass pretty quickly.
It’s ‘added value’ they can con money out of indie/self-pub writers out of. Like those ‘enhanced ebooks’, the only thing enhanced is someone else’s pocket.
Sigh. Rather confusing here. Nate has an update to his piece that an author cannot upload a video. The Indies Unlimited piece seems to say that they can.
But the video on the example Ms. Buikema states that it is from an “Amazon Customer” – not the author. So is this a “cheat,” to post the video as a “customer review” rather than a promotional piece? That gets worrisome for me; Amazon tends to overreact to end runs around their policies. (I know, nobody here will believe that, but it’s true!)
Then there is this: https://authorcentral.amazon.com/gp/help?topicID=200649570. This seems to say that videos can be uploaded to the Author Central page (as Ms. Buikema writes in the OP comments was possible before). Then again, quoting from that page:
Well, obviously the “vendor” is the author, for indies (or their small business, if organized that way). But they seem to say that you cannot just post a video as the author to the sales page without Amazon directly working with you.
I’m not interested enough to trying untangling the spaghetti here, but I’d be interested to see answers from someone who does do so.
Thank you for pointing that out; I had forgotten that detail from my old post.
I’ll go revise my post.
It cost something like $600 to have a details section you can post video and images in. I believe, but I’m not positive, you have to have a publishers account as well. Check out this-
https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Veil-Muse-Urban-Fantasy-ebook/dp/B00IA3S97K
-for what that can look like. I asked Pippa and a few other authors who have it if it did anything for their sales, and it was a resounding no.
It’s funny how this is worth sharing now but wasn’t interesting when I reported the scoop four months ago.
https://the-digital-reader.com/2018/04/26/amazon-now-automatically-embeds-video-clips-in-book-listings/
Then (and now) I’m wondering what video I would add – and why …
Me reading or talking about my ebook is more likely to scare people off than it is to get them to buy! 😉
Hmm. I think that many of the romance cover models also have acting credentials. About the only “value add” I can see right off hand. (If you weren’t already thinking about that for Mrs. PG’s books, please credit me…)
Well, maybe some few writers that also have a line of merchandise – although that might fall afoul of some Amazon policy, I don’t know.
Sorry, Nate. I missed your prior post.
I’ve been wondering if PG would pick up the story from last week about Amazon posting audio books to Kindle Unlimited without the authors’ permission. That story goes against the Amazon narrative normally found here.
Edit: Also, I just read your post from yesterday about Amazon randomly banning authors. That story, too.