Friday 8 June 2012

Friday Guest: Sarah Allen

Before I introduce today's guest blogger, I am being interviewed over on Joanne Faries blog Word Splash - and then next Friday, she's popping here to be interviewed by me. I'd love you to come and see me on Joanne's blog, after you've read Sarah's post, of course!



And now, please welcome Sarah Allen to my blog. If you haven't visited Sarah's blog, From Sarah, With Joy, she's been experimenting recently with video poems and vlogging, so I invited her here to explain why.


YouTube for Writers
by Sarah Allen

So we all know that YouTube is this huge, monstrously popular thing. It has how many hits every day? How many hours of video uploaded every second?

Writing is not a visual medium, like art or video. But I think if we are completely serious about building a satisfying, successful, creative career, YouTube is a resource we cannot afford to miss out on.

There are two reasons why:

1. Creative output. YouTube is, simply put, another place to be creative. Absolutely ANYTHING you’re interested, you can use in conjunction with YouTube. Children’s books, poetry, gaming, cooking, gymnastics. All of it can be made into a video, and a pretty cool video too with only limited editing skills.

So be creative. I think people get intimidated and scared at the thought of making videos, but it doesn’t have to be scary at all. If you need help editing, find someone to teach you. If you don’t like being in front of the camera, put someone else in front of it. Just take a camera around with you to your kids dance competitions or your day at the zoo and find a creative way to make a video out of it.

2. Marketing. So basically the only more popular sites than YouTube are Facebook and Google. Again, not a resource to take lightly. Writers like John Green have a gigantisourus YouTube following, which feeds directly into book sales. We don’t have to do anything that serious, so don’t stress. But if we’re trying to catch fish, YouTube is a really, really big pond. Anything can help.

There are so many things you can do to reel in viewers and subscribers. Vlogging, gaming, cooking show, videopoetry, illustrate a childrens book and put it in video format. Be creative, be you. Then when you have a book come out, make a video letting your viewers know about it.

As with any marketing or creative project, keep this in mind: just do what you can, learn, work, don’t stress so much the fun goes away. Work at it a little at a time, and big things might happen. Especially with the decline in blogging, video is the new commons area. Find a way to make that work for you.

And besides, making videos really is fun


Sarah Allen

Bio:
Sarah Allen is a fangirl from Utah working on drafting her second novel, editing and submitting the first. She loves jazz, white chocolate and Colin Firth. Find more at her blog (http://fromsarahwithjoy.blogspot.com/) and YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/sarahthewriter1).

28 comments:

  1. I have been meaning to post more videos. :)

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    1. I've never attempted it. But I might give it a go after reading Sarah's post.

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  2. I have been thinking about making a trailer for my book to post on YouTube - this was really helpful!

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  3. Trailers are cool - good post. And I'm glad you agreed to be my guest today. Made for a fun Friday - it's up and running through the weekend. Thanks

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  4. Great post, Sarah. Youtube is indeed another resource just waiting for writers to tap into. I can see myself resurrecting my old channel and getting in front of a camera in the very near future.

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  5. My publisher made book trailers for both of my books and it's cool to see them on You Tube!

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    1. I watched your trailers, Alex - they were very good!

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  6. They say England and America are two countries divided by a common language! Presumably a "fangirl" is not the same as a "fan dancer"?

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    1. I think it's something to do with comics and superheroes, Lizy. Or perhaps I'm wrong too?

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  7. Good post, by coincidence, I had my first attempt at making a video on my phone last weekend. I was stunned by the quality, although I need more practice before I post anything on my blog!It was fun though...

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  8. I hopped on over from Word Splash. I lived in Cornwall for a number of years - what a beautiful part of the world.
    Ann

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    1. Hi Ann, nice to meet you. Yes, Cornwall is really beautiful.

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  9. I agree.. Youtube can be daunting, but so many people are on it, it's a lost opportunity. I love what you did with you video - it's great.

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    1. I know I feel daunted, but Sarah does such a great job, I'm tempted. I don't write poetry though. Not sure how it would work with prose.

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  10. Hey, thanks for all your comments guys! I've actually been making a playlist of booktrailers, there are some pretty awesome ones out there.

    Thanks Annalisa for having me over :)

    Sarah

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  11. I need to get on board with this. But I love YouTube and what it offers. Someday when I'm selling my own books I'll give it a whirl. Creativity is definitely key! Thanks for the tips, Sarah! :)

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  12. It's interesting to learn of authors leveraging YouTube to reach out to their readers. I'd have thought blogging might be more effective, but vlogging must surely offer a more immediate connection with your readers.

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    1. I think it's a case of using as many different ways to reach your audience as possible. Thanks for visiting.

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  13. Am really shy about vlogging, but I can see how it can be useful!

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    1. Me too! I'm really not keen on listening to my own voice either.

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  14. I need to try this. I think YouTube is a great resource.

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  15. I've been trying to figure out what YouTube has to do with writers, and I think you answered that quite nicely. I kept seeing it popping up as something writers should get involved with, but there was never an explanation of how it could be used to benefit us. Thanks for the helpful post!

    Shannon at The Warrior Muse, road tripping through the #atozchallenge participants!

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