Tag Archives: YouTube

Writing Wednesday with Emma Bennet: Utilising YouTube.

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I am very happy to welcome author Emma Bennet to my blog for an interesting #WritingWednesday post about utilising YouTube as a writer. Over to you, Emma …

I discovered YouTube years ago for tutorials on how to fix stuff and productivity videos (my slightly weird obsession), but it was only after watching for quite a while that I stumbled upon the little corner of YouTube known as Authortube. About six months after that, I started my own channel and haven’t looked back!

Authortube is home to videos made by writers for writers and is the most amazing free resource. It costs absolutely nothing to subscribe to any of the many channels on YouTube and yet there are many benefits to checking out at least some of them.

The most obvious sort of video that will help you as a writer is how-to videos. These can really be divided into how-to videos concerning writing craft, and how-to videos about actually publishing your book.

In terms of writing craft, Brandon Sanderson’s lecture series is probably the most famous video available on YouTube, but you’ll also find writing advice from best-selling authors on hundreds of channels. YouTube University at its finest!

How to publish your book videos are possibly the most useful resource on YouTube for aspiring authors. Authors who have been there, done that, and got the t-shirt share their wealth of knowledge in both traditional and self-publishing, with both general advice and step-by-step tutorials, helping you to avoid the many pitfalls in the industry.

The next form of videos for writers are vlogs, where other writers share their experiences, either with their actual writing or with writing-related activities like author signings for example. Writing can sometimes feel like a lonely old business, and these vlogs show you that others are going through the same things and maybe offer some ideas of stuff you can try. I particularly enjoy a good writing challenge vlog!

Finally, we have live writing sprints. These are usually scheduled so you can plan which to join, but replays can also be enjoyed. There’s generally some chat from the host and cohosts, if there are any, and then timed writing sprints take place. You can comment on live chat, and it’s a great way to get accountable for your writing.

What I love most about Authortube is the community. The support I have found there since starting my own channel, particularly during live writing streams, is unparalleled and I have made writing friends for life from all over the World. We cheer each other on and help one another out and I don’t know what I’d do without them now.

My own YouTube channel, which is a mixture of tips and tricks for writers, book recommendations, author life vlogs and live writing streams, can be found here.

About Emma’s latest book:

Sometimes life doesn’t go exactly to plan . . .

London accountant Sophie unexpectedly becomes the stand-in mum for her estranged sister’s eight-month-old baby, Alana. She didn’t even know she had a niece! She’s wildly out of her depth.

Then her life is turned upside down all over again by the appearance of a Thor lookalike on her doorstep. Apparently, six-foot surfer Samson is Alana’s father. And he also just discovered the existence of this adorable baby.

Sophie is not prepared to hand over her niece to an equally clueless stranger, so they come up with a plan: Sophie and Alana will move into Samson’s spare bedroom in Brighton until they work out what to do.

As they settle into changing nappies and nighttime feeds, Sophie finds it hard to ignore the way her heart somersaults whenever Samson looks at her. But he already has a girlfriend, who’s made it very clear that Sophie and Alana are in the way.

The more Samson and Sophie bond with little Alana, they can’t ignore the obvious attraction between them. But can they put their feelings aside and stick to the plan?

Discover more and purchase here.

About the author:

Emma grew up and lived in London, before falling in love and moving to Wales to marry her own hero. Emma now lives with her husband, four children, and many animals a few miles outside of a small Welsh market town. She can often be found in rivers attempting to control two overexcited chocolate labradors.

Discover more about Emma Bennet and her books here: website | Instagram | TikTok | Facebook | Twitter 

Thank you so much for introducing me to Authortube, Emma. I am sure other writers will benefit from your great post, too. (Oh, and I also adore Labradors; next time you stop by, I would love to hear about yours.) xx

Guest Post: Creating book trailers with Helen J Christmas

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To celebrate Helen Christmas being the Chindi Authors‘ Author of the Week, she is joining me on my blog to talk about creating book trailers for her thriller series, ‘Same Face Different Place’.

And so over to Helen …

“Making a trailer has been on my mind for a number of years, having been inspired by the YouTube trailers created by other authors, so here is the story behind my own.

“‘Beginnings’ the first book of my series ‘Same Face Different Place,’ combines a gripping crime thriller with a romantic suspense. I was trying to depict a dark and sinister atmosphere based on the criminal underworld of 1970s London.

“I took some photos in East London around the dockland area; for example one scene is a chase across the East End, where the two main characters, Jake and Eleanor, find sanctuary in a park for a while. I used this as my starting point, focusing on shady patches of trees, tunnels and bridges, just the type of places you would have to duck and dive if you had a criminal gang pursuing you. I also took photos of Waterloo Station, in which another exciting ‘ambush’ scene happens in the story.

“Next I needed a young couple to play the fated ‘Eleanor and Jake’ so asked my nieces (13 and 17 at the time) if they would step in, along with one of their male friends. Together we spent a fun afternoon doing the photo shoot. Carys wore a short black dress and boots, (just like Eleanor when she escapes with Jake from an East End brothel) and I even bought a long dark wig for effect.

“The next stage was to use photoshop, to superimpose the best shots onto a background, quite an engrossing task but worth it. Here are some of the pictures I used to make those images.

“Waterloo Station. One of the first scenes, showing ‘Eleanor’:

“My niece, Carys enacting the role (cut out using photoshop). The resulting scene of Eleanor’s capture:

“These stairs are actually from Morrison’s car park, Bognor. Scene of Eleanor escaping (I also had to create a shadow):

“So I had all my images worked out, the trailer script and the music. But the next part I struggled with. I tried using Flash to put it all together but this is old technology and the resulting YouTube video was very poor. The only solution I found was to make an image slider for my website with the same text and pictures, but this still couldn’t be published on YouTube.

“Finally, (some four years later) Carol and I met up in Haskins café and spent a most enjoyable morning creating the trailer in i-Movie.

“Carol showed me how she put together her trailer and so I’ll hand back to Carol to share the stages used to create a book trailer in iMovie …”

I use iMovie. It is easy to use on any Apple device, once you know how, and the end product is easy to download and share across social media channels.

The process (this is what works for me):

  1. Have the script prepared: A shorter version of the book blurb tends to work well as you will have already worked on that and prepared a piece of text to entice readers.
  2. Gather photographs that relate to the script: I use Istock or similar where I can create a board of pictures I think will work. I screen shot them to try them in place before I purchase them, otherwise expensive mistakes could be made. Of course you could use your own photographs (as Helen has) too, but they need to be good quality clear pictures.
  3. Have videos ready: I like to add bits of video as I think it brings the trailer to life. For the trailer for my first novel Crazy Over You, I purchased a bit of video I felt fitted well. For The Purrfect Pet  Sitter I was more prepared. I had recorded my dog running, a shot I knew I wanted to use, and had videoed the Littlehampton fireworks when researching the book. Video clips can be expensive and so using your own saves money.
  4. Select your music: There are many sites offering music suitable for trailers, search royalty free music.

Put it all into place:

  1. In iMovie select projects and movie (not trailer or theatre) and import the images and video.
  2. Once there, you can begin dragging and dropping the images into your movie; adjust the amount of time you want each to be shown and how you want them to appear, I like the movement created by using the ‘Ken Burns’ option on images. (I aim for the final trailer to be around a minute and a half).
  3. Use the text options to add captions to your photographs or to insert titles.
  4. Insert transitions to move smoothly between slides.
  5. For uploading to Amazon you need to have a still image that stays for a few seconds to start the trailer off; this will be your trailer thumbnail on your author page.
  6. Add your music and adjust timings of your clips and the piece of music to suit your trailer. You can trim the music to size, fade in and out and so forth.
  7. Having trouble? Do a Google Search for the problem you are encountering. There will be step by step guides and videos to help!
  8. Saving, downloading to your device and uploading to social media is easy with the share button.

Helen continues,

“Thus, after my cup of tea with Carol, by the end of the day, I had created my first ever book trailer for Beginnings and successfully uploaded it to YouTube.

“I had so much fun doing this and it was wonderful to get together with Carol and spend some time with her to create it. But I didn’t stop there. I was on a roll now and couldn’t wait to create another trailer for ‘Visions’, the second book of the series:

I didn’t use actors for this one but I did purchase a few stock images from 123RF.com. Eleanor is older in this story as depicted by the young woman walking up a hill and the movie is also little longer.

“Quite a few people have said the trailer makes them want to read the book which makes it a very worthwhile exercise. Book trailers are another useful marketing tool for authors and easy to share across social media as well as adding to your Amazon and Goodreads author profile.”

About Helen J. Christmas:

Helen is self employed and enjoys running the web design company, she and her husband set up from home. They have no children but enjoy the company of a faithful border collie and a fluffy white cat. Helen confesses to have got most of her ideas for writing, whilst walking Barney along the beach.

Discover more about Helen J. Christmas and the Same Face Different Place Series here: Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Instagram

To purchase books from the Same Face Different Place series: Beginnings | Visions | Pleasures | Retribution Phase One | Retribution End Game

Thank you, for sharing your experience of creating book trailers Helen and I am glad to have been able to help! Enjoy the rest of your time as Chindi Author of the Week. x