How does a consumer encounter a video for a book? Where? Is it ads? Author pages? If so, I’d ask about the clicks on the ads or author page. That would be a limiting factor on video views. If nobody is clicking, nobody is viewing.
In my limited digital travels, I see very few ads for books, and have never seen a book video other than right here.
You have to go looming for them.
On youtube you search for book trailer and get this:
If discoverability is a challenge most books face, discoverability for a book video is even a harder task to accomplish.
I have no data, but I’m not tempted to find out. If I were, I would do the following analysis:
1) What percentage of my target audience looks at video trailers?
2) Do I have the skillset to build one myself? [No]
3) How does the one-time cost of having one made compare to the equivalent cost of running FB/Amazon ads (which I sort of know how to do) vs how many additional buys are generated by either method?
4) What is the long-tail earning in additional buys for a video trailer investment (vs per-ad costs/buys which have no long-tail)
5) Will my blood pressure survive the reminder that there is insufficient data in principle to actually answer the questions in [1], [3], and [4] and thus no possible basis for rational analysis? I’ve discovered that it is rather expensive to spend money just to collect imperfectly predictable/detailed data, much less to generate income. Running the experiments is both frustrating and pricy.
I have no data, but I’m not tempted to find out. If I were, I would do the following analysis:
1) What percentage of my target audience looks at video trailers?
2) Do I have the skillset to build one myself? [No]
3) How does the one-time cost of having one made compare to the equivalent cost of running FB/Amazon ads (which I sort of know how to do) vs how many additional buys are generated by either method?
4) What is the long-tail earning in additional buys for a video trailer investment (vs per-ad costs/buys which have no long-tail)
5) Will my blood pressure survive the reminder that there is insufficient data in principle to actually answer the questions in [1], [3], and [4] and thus no possible basis for rational analysis? I’ve discovered that it is rather expensive to spend money just to collect imperfectly predictable/detailed data, much less to generate income. Running the experiments is both frustrating and pricy.
Definitely a thorough analysis, K. I especially identify with the blood pressure part of your analysis.
The difficulty, of course, is much affected by the property.
The last one, for the Enola Holmes graphic novel, for instance: Had only a dozen new segments, all of them pretty simple, one of their already paid for graphic artists probably did them before lunchtime. (Their logo in one segment was already done.) Approximately half of it was panels from the novel itself. The other half was clips from the Netflix film. Given those pieces, even my son (somewhat of a “hobbyist” video editor) would have churned out this one minute video in less than a day.
Starting from a text-only property, even with all of the skills necessary? A rather long and involved process. Segments would have to be produced in-house or commissioned, or existing rights negotiated and paid for. Off the top of my head, you’d have to realize several thousand additional sales to break even on the project. Not worth it for one typical novel. (One video for a large series could be a different analysis.)
How does a consumer encounter a video for a book? Where? Is it ads? Author pages? If so, I’d ask about the clicks on the ads or author page. That would be a limiting factor on video views. If nobody is clicking, nobody is viewing.
In my limited digital travels, I see very few ads for books, and have never seen a book video other than right here.
You have to go looming for them.
On youtube you search for book trailer and get this:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=book+trailer
No exactly mainstream.
Good question, E.
If discoverability is a challenge most books face, discoverability for a book video is even a harder task to accomplish.
I have no data, but I’m not tempted to find out. If I were, I would do the following analysis:
1) What percentage of my target audience looks at video trailers?
2) Do I have the skillset to build one myself? [No]
3) How does the one-time cost of having one made compare to the equivalent cost of running FB/Amazon ads (which I sort of know how to do) vs how many additional buys are generated by either method?
4) What is the long-tail earning in additional buys for a video trailer investment (vs per-ad costs/buys which have no long-tail)
5) Will my blood pressure survive the reminder that there is insufficient data in principle to actually answer the questions in [1], [3], and [4] and thus no possible basis for rational analysis? I’ve discovered that it is rather expensive to spend money just to collect imperfectly predictable/detailed data, much less to generate income. Running the experiments is both frustrating and pricy.
I have no data, but I’m not tempted to find out. If I were, I would do the following analysis:
1) What percentage of my target audience looks at video trailers?
2) Do I have the skillset to build one myself? [No]
3) How does the one-time cost of having one made compare to the equivalent cost of running FB/Amazon ads (which I sort of know how to do) vs how many additional buys are generated by either method?
4) What is the long-tail earning in additional buys for a video trailer investment (vs per-ad costs/buys which have no long-tail)
5) Will my blood pressure survive the reminder that there is insufficient data in principle to actually answer the questions in [1], [3], and [4] and thus no possible basis for rational analysis? I’ve discovered that it is rather expensive to spend money just to collect imperfectly predictable/detailed data, much less to generate income. Running the experiments is both frustrating and pricy.
Definitely a thorough analysis, K. I especially identify with the blood pressure part of your analysis.
The difficulty, of course, is much affected by the property.
The last one, for the Enola Holmes graphic novel, for instance: Had only a dozen new segments, all of them pretty simple, one of their already paid for graphic artists probably did them before lunchtime. (Their logo in one segment was already done.) Approximately half of it was panels from the novel itself. The other half was clips from the Netflix film. Given those pieces, even my son (somewhat of a “hobbyist” video editor) would have churned out this one minute video in less than a day.
Starting from a text-only property, even with all of the skills necessary? A rather long and involved process. Segments would have to be produced in-house or commissioned, or existing rights negotiated and paid for. Off the top of my head, you’d have to realize several thousand additional sales to break even on the project. Not worth it for one typical novel. (One video for a large series could be a different analysis.)