Over the years that I have been a publisher, I have come across many ways to market books, some effective, many not so effective. But, I truly believe the YourBookTube concept will become the most effective marketing tool available to authors and publishers. Often, authors ask me how to market their books. I provide many proven options to authors in my book CALLING ALL AUTHORS --- How to Publish with Your Eyes Wide Open. But, in the last year, it has become clear that the book industry is missing the single, most powerful means to marketing books available today: Social networking and viral marketing.

YourBookTube is a brand new web site offering no-cost uploads of book videos in a genre categorized format that creates an easily accessed library of book videos. Common questions from authors about book videos reveal confusion about the effectiveness of the medium.

I answer these questions every day, and have listed them here for you.

Q: What is a book video?

A: A commercial for a book.

Q: What is the purpose of a book video?

A: To sell the book.

Q: How long should a book video be?

A: Ideally one minute or less. Two minutes at the absolute longest.

Q: Where can readers most easily find my book video?

A: YourBookTube.com

Q: Why not just post my book video on YouTube?

A: You can, but there isn't even a category for books. Book Videos just get lost on YouTube, and there is no categorized way to find them.

Q: Why can't I just put my book video on my own website?

A: You can, but then your book video's audience is limited only to those who come there.

Q: Why is YourBookTube.com the BEST place for book videos.

A: Book videos get higher visibility with a targeted market of readers looking for books.

Q: Who can post on YourBookTube.com?

A: YourBookTube.com is designed for all kinds of books from all kinds of authors: self-published authors, publishers and their authors, book publicity agents and their clients, reviewers and editors and their clients, and book video developers and their clients.

Q: What qualities make a good book video?

A: Good content revealed through pictures, music, text, and voiceover.
•    Content reveals the focus of the book
•    Pictures illustrate the main point of the commercial
•    Music sets the mood
•    Voiceover talks directly to the viewer.
•    Text reinforces content suggested by the pictures and music.

Q: How long should a book video be?

A: Book videos are commercials for books. Effective commercials tease you into buying the product, and they do so in thirty to sixty seconds up to a maximum of two minutes. Take longer than that, and the viewer mentally tunes out. On the internet, spending longer than a minute is rare. If the book video doesn't capture the viewer's interest in the first five to ten seconds, the viewer clicks it off. Five to ten SECONDS! That's all the time you get to keep the viewer watching.

Q: Where can I get a book video if I don't have one?

A: There are many ways to get a book video made for your book. Just Google book video producers to get more options than you will every need. Nightengale Media also produces book videos through WEB4W.com. See details in the next article.

YourBookTube allows authors, publishers and producers to post the book videos to this truly centralized site where readers can view book videos without having to search through the vast amounts of non-book related content as they currently must do on video sharing sites. Here are the nuts and bolts of the site's benefits:
•    All uploads are FREE with most common video formats accepted.
•    YourBookTube.com is a fully optimized site with unlimited bandwidth.
•    YourBookTube.com provides fully categorized content for all common book genres. New categories will be added as necessary.
•    Full video description included.
•    Viewer voting and reviewing options included.
•    Article marketing with integrated banner ads puts your business logo and website links on all the article pages related to every video you upload.
•    Reciprocal links from the video listing on YourBookTube to author, producer and publisher websites are included at no cost.
•    Your Book Tube Shop is integrated into the site and powered by Amazon to make purchase of the book itself simple for the viewer.

I realize there are many authors who are still reluctant to really use the internet to their own benefit for book marketing. They will be missing a means to reaching their broadest market and at the same time, they will be losing sales every day by staying away from the power of the internet. YourBookTube makes it easy to tap into this power, and at no cost whatsoever.