Video Self-Publishing


HOW TO CREATE AND MARKET YOUR OWN
SPECIAL-INTEREST VIDEO PRODUCTIONS

The trouble with publishing a book, from a first-time writer's
point of view, lies with the slowness of the publishing
industry. Once written, the book has to be accepted by a
publisher, rewritten according to the editor, then scheduled,
manufactured, distributed, and marketed. Most books don't get
much in the way of marketing.

Years later, with the very best of luck, the author begins to
see some small reward for his efforts. Maybe $5,000 if he or she
is very lucky. If your first book isn't profitable for a
publisher, you may never have the opportunity of having another
published.

Self-publishing is a better route because the author typically
knows his audience and how to reach them. But the up-front costs
of a $5,000 printing can be $30,000 or more, and the marketing
costs can run quickly into five figures as well. Any books that
go unsold are "dead inventory" or wasted money.

I have written, self-published and marketed four books, all
dealing with exercise physiology and race horses (a very narrow
and specialized market). Two made money, two didn't; one of them
was a total loss and didn't even bring back publishing costs.
Still the two winners produced a net profit exceeding $200,000
over four years, and both are still selling today. The first
book, The Fit Racehorse, originally sold for $55 a copy. My most
recent book, The Racehorse Owner's Survival Manual, is the other
winner and sells for $59.95. The smaller the market, the more
specialized and valuable the information, and the bigger the
retail price.


A BETTER WAY

There's a better, easier way to make money in self-publishing. A
reasonably talented communicator with specialized knowledge of
the value to others is more likely to see big profits from his
efforts if he chooses instead the medium of video. Today, almost
everyone who has indoor plumbing has a videocassette
recorder/player (VCR). The six months to a year needed to write
a book can be condensed to six weeks of planning, writing,
taping, and editing a self-made video.

I've "published" twenty-eight videos and the monthly income from
them has been between $8,000 and $20,000 for more than four
years now. Most are still selling (four are new and just going
on the market), none have lost money, and I have never had any
inventory except for a supply of blank tapes. The unsold copies
of my two failed books, in contrast, represented some $40,000 in
unrecoverable up-front costs. From now on, I'm going to let
someone else publish and market my books, and I'm sticking to
the self-published video business, where the real profit is.


HOW IT'S DONE: THE SUBJECT

The first rule of thumb is teach what you know or what a friend
of yours knows. My most recent tape, Exercise Rider, the Good,
the Bad, and the Ugly, has returned more than $20,000 in three
months - and I don't know how to ride a horse. In fact, a friend
who likes to visit racetracks took the original footage on a
Hi-8 Cannon camcorder.

I sent videos of fifty racetrack exercise riders to several
friends who are experts in the field. They critiqued each rider,
talking into a cassette recorder as they watched the footage. I
listened to the critiques and built my voice-over from them. The
$69.95 ninety-minute tape is getting raves from buyers, all of
whom are guaranteed satisfaction. If they don't love the tape,
they can send it back within thirty days. Not one has been
returned as of this writing.

If you deliver valuable information, in quantity, in a
reasonably decent production, your production will stick. If you
go for effect, but deliver drivel, or plain erroneous or
incomplete information, the customers will be enraged. They'd
much rather buy and keep an amateur production which fills
informational needs than one that's pretty, but shallow.


HOW IT'S DONE: PRODUCTION

As I mentioned above, the raw footage for my most recent tape
was taken with a consumer-type camcorder. My first tape was
taped with an older Panasonic camera and recorder. By today's
standards, the results were blurry pictures with mumbly sound,
but the tapes did sell and most stayed sold.

At home I Have a JVC VHS editing console that cost me $5,000
new, and five JVC HQ consumer decks for making copies. I
"assembly edit" the master tape, videos first, then add voice
and sometimes music. Labels are printed by a typewriter with
memory (you can do any number of the same label with just one
command). The finished product goes back into the original box
and is shipped without further packaging.

Because I wanted to use slow motion for this last video, I took
all the footage to the racetrack video lab (a great place to get
access to expensive video equipment on the cheap) and had all
the footage moved up to one-inch tape, then dropped to standard
VHS in slow motion - all for $200. From the original HI-8 tapes,
and the converted slow motion stuff, I built my master and
dubbed in the narration and background music.

You have to keep in mind that this is a tiny business for
profit, not Walt Disney Studios. Profit will come from
delivering large bodies of valuable information, not fancy video
effects, super quality production, or beautiful packaging. Once
your customers trust you, your packaging doesn't matter at all.
Almost everyone trusts a company that gives written guarantees
and takes credit cards.


EQUIPMENT

Your original footage should be of high quality because as you
move from original to master a copy, you're going to lose some
video quality. In order to avoid paying big bucks for
professional equipment, my advice is to start with a Hi-8 or
super 8 CCD camcorder with a lux rating (low light capability)
of four or less (Your video dealer can assist you in choosing
equipment). For higher quality productions and more up-front
expense, you can rent studio equipment, studio personnel, and
even a radio announcer's voice. If you're highly organized, know
precisely what you want to shot, and how you might get by with a
one-day, or two half-day studio rental fee. That's $2,000 to
$3,000 in most cities.


SELLING: CUSTOMER AND PRICE

In your direct mail and print advertising the offer has to be
irresistible. You have to guarantee and deliver satisfaction.
You have to make the act of purchasing easy by honoring credit
cards and providing an 800 number. Your advertising should be
targeted precisely at your potential customer: it's unlikely
you'll be able to sell a gardening video in a motorcycle
magazine! Before you begin work on any video, plan your
marketing approach.

I use an computer for keeping track of my customer list and a
laser printer for producing all my fliers and the documentation
that I send along with the videos. This documentation helps the
videos "stick," providing and extra unexpected bonus for the
customer, and virtually eliminating returns. Essentially, the
documents are close-ups of the subject matter included in the
video, getting down into detail that perhaps the tape could not
deliver - sometimes charts and graphs.

One-third of my business is wholesale sales. My print ads
complete for business with those of the retail accounts I
service. When I introduce a new video, I first offer it to my
old direct mail customers at a discount in a "pre-release
special."

The prices of my videos are always high. I want to make a profit
and I want my retailers to make a profit. The lowest price I've
ever put on a single video is $39.95; the highest, $99. Thus,
when a wholesale customer orders, say a dozen $39.95 tapes,
they'll send me $240, while a dozen direct mail sales of the
same video will bring in $480.

Remember that you can always lower a price, but just try to get
away with raising it! But THINK before you lower a price. At one
time, I thought I had nearly exhausted the market for a pair of
my $99 videos since their sales had plummeted I then cut the
price in half, confident that sales would go up. That was two
years ago. The tapes are still selling, but at the same slow
rate - and now my profits are at a lot lower too. I made the
mistake by dropping the price on them.


THE MARKETPLACE

You may feel, especially after browsing through specialty video
catalogs, that everyone has beaten you to the punch. You may
think that big, sophisticated studios are producing the only
videos that consumers will buy. What you must understand is that
a whole new marketplace is out there, and there isn't nearly
enough material to satisfy it.

Information is information, no matter who delivers it. Major
studios feel they cannot waste their resources on small projects
that might require specialization outside of videography. If
they wanted to produce a video on cabinet-making, they would
have to locate a cabinetmaker, pay for his time and materials,
and using their millions of dollars worth of high-tech gear and
expensive technicians begin production. Meanwhile Joe
Cabinetmaker, on Elm Street, has made a nifty little video that
is informative and enjoyable to watch.





Back