Using Video to Market Your Bookstore: Tips & Examples

Alex Beckstead Photo: 4SP Films

Alex Beckstead, the director of Paperback Dreams and owner of 4SP Films, knows just what a homemade video on the web can do to promote an indie bookstore. The documentary filmmaker recently shared that knowledge with booksellers at the seminar "Using Multimedia to Market Your Store," part of the ABA Day of Education at BookExpo America. Beckstead offered insights on why bookstores should use video and how they can send the right message (tip: think storytelling not advertising). The most popular part of the session was the new crop of bookstore videos, a growing and often very funny genre.

Beckstead has a lot of experience telling the story of bookstores. His Paperback Dreams thoroughly covers the history and struggles of Cody's Books in Berkeley and Kepler's Books in Menlo Park, California. In the session, which he said would be more accurately titled "Using Video to Market Your Store," Beckstead said a good bookstore video is a "visual postcard."

Store videos don't have to be high-production projects or present the store's whole history, he said. They can be as creative as booksellers want them to be, as long as they convey the store's personality, are entertaining, and follow a narrative arc. "Creativity matters than more than money," Beckstead said, adding that advertising is verboten. "The 'ignore' filter goes up a little bit slower if viewers don't feel like you're trying to sell them something."

Beckstead showed several bookstore videos that ranged from professionally produced to a bookseller using a Flip cam in a break room. In an example from Booksmith in San Francisco, a video highlights their local-authors month with clips from authors praising San Francisco and the store. Booksellers at Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena used a Flip cam, which the bookstore sells, to both advertise the camera and shoot a hilarious, bookselling-themed spoof of Glengarry Glen Ross.

Also good is a straightforward staff recommendation of Never Let Me Go (Kazuo Ishiguro, Vintage) at Skylight Books in Los Angeles. San Francisco's Green Apple Books, which created a funny and homegrown commercial for its first book of the month club, continues to create great original content. The store's newest spot promotes Little Bee by Chris Cleave (S&S).

Once booksellers do post video to the web, Beckstead advised including descriptive tags, and to consider YouTube and other video sites as search engines rather than TV. He recommended Vimeo for posting higher quality, longer clips, and also suggested embedding the video on the store website, blog, or newsletter instead of just linking to it. Partnering with other sites is also recommended. To find free editing software, Beckstead mentioned PC Mag.com's picks.

Beckstead said that there are no shortcuts "to getting eyeballs," and he reminded booksellers of YouTube wine guru and BEA presenter Gary Vaynerchuk's admonishment that reaching customers demands "sweat equity."

Karen Corvello of R.J. Julia Booksellers in Madison, Connecticut, came out of the multimedia session ready to put Beckstead's ideas to work immediately. "We've been thinking a lot recently about how we can use online media to talk to a wider audience, use our booksellers' diverse voices more effectively, and highlight our author events," she said. "I came out of Alex's presentation with some solid ideas, and the energy to try something new. I'm buying a Flip cam today, and plan on interviewing the authors who come to our store about both their own book, and their favorite recent read. Gary V, watch out!"

For Beckstead's primer for creating basic video, see this downloadable PDF. More information about Alex Beckstead and Paperback Dreams is available at www.paperbackdreams.com. And check out this week's story on Gary Vaynerchuk at BEA. --Karen Schechner