Wet Noodle Posse

Monday, June 16, 2008

Author Talk - There Was Only Supposed To Be One

When the members of the WNP were brainstorming the Promo topic, I was at a loss. Then someone suggested I write about Author Talk, so here you go. It's funny that AT is included in Promotion month on the WNP, especially since it was never supposed to be promotion - just something silly between two authors.

Author Talk began after my friend and critique partner, Gena Showalter, received a series of questions by an interviewer who clearly didn't know anything about her. This person got everything wrong, from Gena's genre (historical?), number of books (one YA?). I, of course, thought this was HILARIOUS. So, I suggested we spoof it. So one day in January, Gena ordered Chinese food and we filmed our first Author Talk.

I didn't look at what we'd filmed for two days. I just couldn't. But, I finally began importing the footage into my laptop. It took me an entire week to edit. (My editing skills had gone WAY rusty from my R/TV/F days in J School - I'm much faster now.)

Gena met me in the parking lot while my kids were taking dance, and I showed her the almost final product in the front seat of her car. I kept expecting her to say something like, "Jill, let's just forget this whole thing." Even though I'd spent so many hours cutting and shaping the video, I wouldn't have minded - she paid for the Chinese food after all. But no, she never said just delete - in fact she had suggestions. Later I added music, the AT purple arrow open and her book cover and had a finished product:

I remember calling Gena the morning before I uploaded it onto YouTube. "Are you sure about this?" kept coming out of my mouth. So did phrases like "career suicide" but I hit upload anyway. Put it on my blog. She did the same and then I left the house. I was stunned by the comments we'd received, and so very, very thankful people liked it. That I hadn't ruined one of my best friend's (top ten) career was also a bonus.

There Was Only Supposed To Be One

Several people began asking who was next. Gena said it had to be me. So, we met again and filmed my Author Talk. I was pretty sure that would be it. No more Author Talks after that.

As I am so often, I was wrong. People began suggesting who they wanted to see interviewed. (In fact, I have an interesting search string list of people looking for a particular author's AT interview.) For my birthday, Gena bought me the Author Talk website. So, now I'll answer some questions.

What is Your Favorite Author Talk?

Wow, that is a hard one. There are so many good memories associated with each one and each author. So, we'll call that a draw.

Now my favorite Author Talk Extra is the one we did for Dear Author. You can view it here. The questions were a lot of fun, and I was able to use special effects and music to make it even more cheesy.

What's the filming process?

Because I have a news background, we set up AT to look like a studio interview. That would mean having three cameras, but we're only using one. So we start each interview with a two shot and then a headshot of individual answers from authors and questions from me. Everything is out of order and mixed up, but it all gets put together in the editing.

For me, I want to try and make things visually interesting. So I like things in the background, quick cuts and flashes of covers or pictures that represent an author's book to avoid the "talking head" effect.

Filming usually lasts no more than an hour. The editing is a lot longer. I'll send a low res quick time file of the finished product to Gena and the author for their input and suggestions. The longest (and most boring) part is waiting for something to upload or video to render.

Veronica asked, Did it hurt your feelings when you were called a mahjor bitch?

Veronica, I'm so glad you used the correct spelling of mahjor. Yes, I did receive that comment on YouTube of PC and Kristin Cast's AT Interview. You can click here for my response. No, it doesn't hurt my feelings (much), because that's addressed to the Jill Monroe character.

Because we're writers, Gena and I have given our characters motivation. We didn't really discover the Gena Showalter character's motivation until the Rachel Vincent interview, which is to get as much air time as possible. Notice how naturally she hogs the camera...

Speaking of character motivation, I'm going to answer the rest of these questions as the Jill Monroe Author Talk character. Which has absolutely no resemblance to my own personality whatsoever. None. Really.

****

What exactly is Author Talk?

Author Talk is an interview show I do with Gena Showalter. Actually, I don't do the show with Gena, she was just my first interviewee, and she's never left. Finally I had to come up with some bogus title for her, right now she's Special Correspondent On The Scene. But now you know the real reason she's around.

Some would call Author Talk a spoof, others would call it silliness. I would call it serious journalism, my friend.

Jill Monroe takes her job as interviewer very seriously, ready to ask the hard hitting questions to any difficult author. And they all are - difficult. But now the people have been asking ME the questions, and while they aren't as good as something I could come up with, being a professional journalist and all, I'll give it a shot.

How Do Authors Get On Author Talk?

We make it so simple - all an author has to do is ask, and we'll get the ball rolling. For some strange reason, some people are offended that I might want to interview them (see Kresley Cole) in fact, sometimes they have to be a little restrained (once again - see Kresley Cole). Right now Beth Wilson is handling all requests. We have many lined up to film at RWA National as well as a waiting list. However, if people are in Oklahoma (and really, how hard is it? No matter where you are in the continental US - you're only a day away from Oklahoma.) we can always find a time.

We also film at regional conferences. One we filmed at the Red River Romance Writer's conference will premier this Friday.

Why doesn't Gena Showalter have more air time?

Who would ask such a stupid question. Next?!

Ginger asks, "If you could be any kind of animal, what would it be?"

What an amazing question, Ginger - my kind of question. I'd be an Acinonyx jubatus. I'll answer for Gena. She'd be an anteater. Actually a peacock.

***

You can view all the Author Talk videos on youtube by going here.

You can see all the Author Talk videos and read all the Behind The Scenes Stuff at the Author Talk website by going here.

Labels: Author Talk, book promotion, book video

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Not Everything You wanted to Know About Videos

WARNING: LONG blog with lots of information

I get a lot of questions about making book videos.

Most people want to know if it's hard work.
Yes. No, if you're clever enough. You'll hate me, hate WMM, hate that you ever thought you could do this thing– until you get the hang of it.

Do they take a lot of time?
They can. Or not. Depending on how fanatical you are. You don't have to be like me and do some immensely complicated piece of "art". My friend Heather Hiestand, in fact, did one in just a few hours (her second one, that is.) But her philosophy is to do short ones that don't lose the viewer's interest.

http://www.youtube.com/user/hahiestand

In her first one, Heather didn't even use music. She just narrated.
On the other hand, I figure my first one cost me about 60-80 hours, mostly because I didn't know what I was doing and didn't SAVE often enough. But here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah4oHE_YvWo&feature=related

And does it cost a lot of money?
No. But yes if you want to pay out the dough. You can get expensive music, pay actor, buy expensive photos or even videos to insert. Or not. Get creative. Get your guitar-playing cousin to do some background music for you. Hunt through family photos. Browse the royalty free sites for good bargains. Jill Monroe and Esri Rose have done some really funny things with interviews. And if you want to see funny, go look at this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_n5L3S9Jmk&feature=related Not bad, huh?

Or they want to know if it pays off as far as promo dollars is concerned.
Depends on what you want. If you think your video will go viral and suddenly your book will too, you're probably going to be disappointed. But if you want to reach a different audience, or get your name out there, good videos can really help to do that. The investment may be a longer term one than you want right now. Or maybe you want to look at both short term and long term. Personally, I love doing the frustrating artwork and assembly. It's a huge challenge. But I don't figure much of anyone will want to do my kind of

video. Which is good. I get to be unique.

And some people want me to do theirs for them.
Well maybe later when I know more. For now– I've still got too much to learn. Simplicity, for one thing...

Or if not, how about telling them how to do it.
Well..... There's not a lot of point in taking up blog space to say what other people have already said. So to begin with, go look here to learn basic book video making:

http://brendacoulter.blogspot.com/2007/06/promoting-your-novel-how-to-make-book.html

http://canblog.typepad.com/canbookmarketing/2007/02/make_a_book_tra.html

I suggest you use Windows Movie Maker. It's clunky, let's face it. But it is probably still the most versatile and easiest to use video maker available to most of us. Chances are excellent if you use Windows, you have WMM on your computer too. Mac users have an equivalent, I think.

There's one thing to say about WMM, and don't forget this: SAVE YOUR WORK EVERY STEP YOU TAKE. I MEAN IT. If you don't, you'll get deeply involved, thinking it's going along so well, and it will pack up. You could get lucky- but likely you've lost everything.

Begin with deciding what you want to say. How can you be unique? Intriguing? Well, how about your book blurb? Do you have a short, exciting, pithy one? I think for SINS OF THE HEART, I'm going to use this:

The Cornish cliffs at dawn: Two ladies, one spyglass. Two naked men cavorting in the surf. One of them is the man Juliette hoped would never find her. If she pretends to help him catch the gold-smuggling traitors, she might not die. But what if she falls in love instead?

Then think about your visual images. Videos are all about visual and audio imagery. What says your story? I've chosen a few pictures I'm pasting here. Now remember, I do historicals, so not a lot of photos are going to do it for me. Guys just don't run around wearing cravats these days. That's why I choose to "paint" my images. But usually photos are my base.

And don't forget your cover. Use it as the foundation for your little story.

Here are some good places to look for photos. Doing searches for "sexy man" can pay off here like no other place:

photos:
http://www.istockphoto.com/index.php
http://www.dreamstime.com/
http://www.gettyimages.com/Creative/RoyaltyFree.aspx

Istock and some others also sell video clips. While a photo might cost you $1-3 (get the small or extra small ones), a video clip of rippling waves like this one will cost you 10 credits, or about $20.
Here's one I'm thinking of using. My story is about smugglers and spies, so why not?

http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup/locations-and-travel/beaches/5220379-night-and-moon-at-the-sea-or-ocean.php?id=5220379

Then there's the music. Do NOT use music that is copyrighted by someone else without permission. Buying your photos or music at royalty-free sites assures you the maker is being paid for his work. But make sure you use legitimate sites. There are frauds out there.

Some great music sites:
http://www.royalty-free.tv/
http://www.shockwave-sound.com/index.html
http://www.premiumbeat.com/
http://www.opuzz.com/
http://www.productiontrax.com/index.php
http://stockmusic.net/index.cfm/page/main.home

What am I going to use for my SINS video? Don't know. There's one at Royalty-Free TV that makes me want to sing with it, and that means writing lyrics and persuading my brother to do the duet. Uhhhhh..... Maybe there's an easier one?

Where do you put videos?
YouTube. MySpace. MetaCafe. TubeMogul will give you a list of places you can use, and then will keep track of them once you have them up. Be aware, though, their site is not the easiest to figure out.
http://www.previewthebook.com/index.php This is a promotion site. There are others that want you to pay. This one you can use free, for now.
And then there's The New Covey Awards. http://thenewcoveytrailerawards.blogspot.com/
If you love your new work,

why not show it off and compete for the prize?
And some blogs and review sites will also carry your video, along with your book cover. Just ask!

If you want to join this madness with me, and need a little tutoring, just drop me a line. Or ask your questions now. There are a few things I can probably tell you about using WMM that will save you some headaches. For instance, how to change fonts. How to do transitions. How to adjust your photo frames to match better with the music. But that all takes time and space. If you want to know, though, I'm happy to share.

Labels: Aphrodite's Brew, book video, Delle Jacobs, Esri Rose, Heather Hiestand, Jill Monroe, royalty free music, royalty free photos, Sins of the Heart, Siren, Wylde Wynde