Many people are terrified about being on a video that will be watched by thousands or even millions of people. However it’s high time that authors deal with their fear of the camera lens because soon they might have no other choice but to make video trailers if they want to promote their books effectively. There are many compelling reasons why authors should get their faces and books on their potential readers’ screens. The following are some of the reasons.

Video searches are increasing

In the past, people searching for things online didn’t care much about whether the results they got were for text, images, or videos. However, video is becoming a more indispensable component of websites and people are now specifically searching for videos. Soon you might have a better chance of being found if you use videos to promote your books.

Technology is improving

The biggest hindrance that large search engines are facing when they deal with videos is the lack of captions in videos that are posted on websites. This makes it difficult for search engines to know what the videos are about. However, Google and other tech companies are working on automatic captioning using voice recognition. When they succeed, search engines of the future will be able to recognize what is being talked about in the videos. This will therefore end the reign of text as the ultimate search criteria used by search engines.

Selling books is about making connections

It is difficult to sell books unless you make a connection with the audience and invite them into your mind to see things from your perspective. When selling a book, you need to make potential buyers experience the book the way you do before they will want to buy it. This is hard to do if you rely only on words. On the other hand, if you make a video trailer, you can convince people to buy the book because they will know exactly what to expect in the book.

Videos can drive traffic to your site

After you pique people’s interest about your book with a book trailer, you can include links to your website at the end of the video or on the website where you have posted the video. People will visit your website more readily after watching a video trailer than they would if they found out about your book and website from a social media website or a blog.

Demographics for video are surprising

You might think that the vast majority of people who watch videos on YouTube are young people who might not have a lot of interest in your book. However, the statistics for people who visit YouTube paint a completely different picture. Depending on the content you post on your channel, you might get visitors of all ages. People who have channels dedicated to reading and writing books might get many visitors aged 45-70 years. You should therefore not dismiss a video on the grounds that it will not be watched by your target audience.