Marketing Fantasy Books via Facebook or YouTube

So this is admittedly a post about marketing and advertising, from the perspective of a self-published author who promotes their fantasy books usually via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, my website (fiction.charlesmoffat.com) and other websites (like this one).

But one of the things I have been meaning to do for years now is to create a YouTube channel where I can promote my writing (and to a lesser extent my paintings).

Well, I finally did it.

I created my first youtube video for my fantasy writing youtube channel.

And because it was both fun and easy, I decided to make an "unboxing video" for two Afro-Fantasy books I got for Christmas.



So why did I finally make a YouTube channel for my writing?

Honestly, I think it is partially because I am disliking the whole "advertise your book on Facebook" business model. It is a very spammy system, which I dislike, because there are tonnes of different fantasy writing facebook groups which either have a strict no spam policy or is just people spamming their books.

And there is no point promoting your books in either of the two.

I even administer two such groups:

Fantasy Writing (which admittedly I don't allow spam on and it is more geared towards fantasy writers talking to other fantasy writers)

and

Fantasy Authors and Marketing (which also doesn't allow spam, but is for fantasy writers to share their marketing techniques).

And then I have memberships in at least 30 other facebook groups for fantasy writers.

But asides from talking to other fantasy writers about writing craft, they aren't useful for marketing.

Same goes with having a "Facebook Author Page", which in my case is facebook.com/charlesmoffat.fans. It doesn't really work that well for marketing purposes. Sure, it is there. But people visiting the page are already fans. The page is not converting people into new fans of my writing (or painting). It is there just for existing fans.

This is why I think YouTube has more potential to engage new readers to my writing.

On youtube I can potentially post a variety of videos on various topics:

• Excerpts from my books, read by myself. Effectively a short audiobook sample.
• Book Reviews of other people's books.
• Unboxing videos of other people's books (or possibly my books, but usually it will be other people's books as currently only 3 of my books are available as paperbacks).
• Painting videos (I have begun a new policy of painting my own book covers).
• Details about the fantasy kingdom of Korovia, the world in which most of my books are set in.
• Audio versions of fables, myths and legends from Korovia.
• Video of book signings.
• Interviews with other fantasy writers.
• Videos about my writing process, Q and A videos, where I get my inspiration from, etc.

There is a lot of options there and I am sure I will think of more over time.

The real trick is finding time to make the videos AND not getting chewed by mosquitoes. (Last year I tried making a book review video when I was outdoors in the wilderness... and the mosquitoes were attacking me... It was a disaster. I deleted all of the footage from that failed endeavour.)

So yes, really this is a matter of time and commitment to spending that time making videos.

However if I spend half the time I usually spend on Facebook and use that time making videos for YouTube instead, I should be able to make multiple new videos each week. And I could really use a break from Facebook. Earlier this week I was tempted to remove the FB app from my phone.

So far there is only just the 1 video on YouTube, but in the meantime if you are anxious to learn more about my fantasy writing just browse over to fiction.charlesmoffat.com and check out my writing that way.

Happy Reading!