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Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Videos and Promo

I'm still jazzed about my video for Eternal Nights. I keep wanting to play it over and over, but I'm writing this from my laptop while I drink coffee and there's no way. I'd have to logoff before dial up could manage to download it. :-) But if you're on a high-speed connection, definitely check it out.

I love these book videos! No, they're not enough to make me buy a book unless it's by one of my must-buy authors, but if I find it intriguing, I will check out the author's website or Amazon and find out more and I think that's a big thing. But more than that, I'm more likely to remember the author's name. That's huge. Not all advertising is for a direct sale. Some is solely to build name recognition. That's kind of why when I hear people talking about how they never buy a book because of ______ (Fill in the blank), I think, well, yeah, but...

Usually, the argument arises when it comes to bookmarks. No, I don't believe a bookmarks lead to huge point of purchase sales, but I do believe they're good at gaining name recognition even if the person who sees it either a) doesn't pick it up or b) doesn't keep it long. For however many seconds it takes them to see the bookmark at the register or pick it up and throw it away, your name has been noticed. It's an impression. It takes something like 9 impressions before something registers with the consumer--or so I was told. To my mind, bookmarks are a cost-effective way to achieve this.

Of course, I could be wrong. If I was Coke or some other big corporation, I could undertake a study on the effect of my advertising on the target market, but few authors have the kind of money something like that entails. And even at the level where national television advertising is a no-brainer decision, no one's sure what works. One of the author's on a loop I'm part of says that only half of advertising works and no one's sure which half. I heard the same thing when I was in college learning advertising. So in the meantime, I muddle through, looking for cost per impression numbers and hoping that something sticks. And that people love my stories.