Beyond Words: Exploring AI Video for Authors

 Feeling like your book is getting lost in the sea of content? What if you could create captivating video trailers or social media snippets without needing a design team?

If you haven't heard yet, human attention span has fallen below that of a goldfish.

Sad, true, but why should you care? 

As an author, your job is to not only hold people's attention with your amazing book but to get them to your book.

That’s right. You’re in sales and marketing now! 

Now, I know some of my indie author colleagues scoff at the idea of anything related to marketing or the business of selling books. They feel it’s too corporate or you’re selling out… 

Sorry to break it to you, but once you publish that book, you are a business. 

Now that generative AI is more mainstream, you can become  smarter at the business of being an author.

It's become imperative for authors to engage or participate in book marketing. They have to be more active in breathing life into their vision. That means taking a hard look at how to leverage AI to their advantage.

 

The Power of Visual Storytelling 

As writers, we're used to the written word. “The pen is mightier than the sword…” and so on. 

But when it comes to getting our work in front of an audience, video beats pen in a way that helps readers to engage more with books. 

Here's what I mean. 

Publishers, whether they’re self/indie or traditional, spend a lot of time getting the covers right. On average, traditional publications start the cover design process at least six months before book release. 

Why? Because they're thinking about visual appeal among other factors. That cover has to tell enough of a story to compel readers to buy. 

When it comes to readers, that starts the movie of your book.

If they get that way over a cover, think about how they would feel about an actual video?

Here’s something else to consider: social reach

 

Facebook and Instagram users spend half their time watching videos and more than half a billion use Facebook stories each day. 

Whether it's a Facebook Watch program or some funny animal video, it’s enough to get the attention of half of Facebook’s daily viewership.  

Imagine if your video came up for just 500 of those viewers and a small portion reacted, shared or commented. That’s solid growth potential

As far as Pinterest (do NOT sleep on Pinterest), advertisers see more than 32% return on their Pinterest video ad spend in addition to strong engagement.

I know this because I decided to strategically optimize my boards to support my ShePrompts Youtube channel. My static pins got some views and are steadily growing over time. But my video pins were low key blowing up my stats by the hundreds. 

The pen is mightier than the sword, but video beats pen for grabbing readers' attention.

Videos increase engagement. The more emotional, compelling, or even controversial, the better.

Here’s where AI can help authors capitalize on this dynamic. 

AI: An Author's Most Powerful Tool 

There's an inherent challenge many authors face when it comes to visual storytelling. Some of us aren't graphic designers or illustrators. 

We have to hire those experts at our expense. For those in the traditional space, that cost is baked into the calculations that generate lower book royalty percentages. 

On top of that, there's the time needed to find the right images to convey the right messages. Whether you have the artistic skills or not, you bear the costs of your book.

AI can help you cut down the cost of visual storytelling while improving your ability to reach readers. 

You don’t need to find the right images on some stock photo site. You can create them at low- or no-cost with tools like Leonardo AI or Midjourney. 

You can also turn those images into videos with a bit of work because text-to-video and image-to-video are the present and future.

You already have the words. 

You already have the imagination. 

You just need the means to get started. 

I created a video that’s a quick guide on the process of turning an excerpt into a video using Pika Labs, one of the better and more popular idea-to-video platforms. You can create your book trailer or video teaser that could get you in front of hundreds, if not thousands, of potential readers.

Oh, one more thing. 

If you're interested in a more in-depth course that lays out the workflow for creating book videos, sign up to my book-to-video course waiting list. Believe me, the process is far more extensive than I could cover in my video. If interested, there’s a link in my description. 

Here’s the video: