Lights! Action! Webcams!
iReadNet launches author video blog using webcams, P2P file
sharing, and
streaming media to create a quick, easy and inexpensive
word-of-mouth platform for book authors
(Lee, New Hampshire, May 18, 2006)"Nothing sells a book like an
author
reading," says Kurt Aldag, president and founder of iReadNet
opportunity to crank up their personal buzz machines with
nothing more than
a webcam and an Internet connection."
The explosion in the availability of digital video recording
devices that can
capture smooth video motion at 30 frames per second has given
rise to new
opportunities for authors to promote their work. Using a simple
webcam or
inexpensive dvcam, for instance, an author can record sample
readings,
presentations, book reviews, and commentaries and zip them
across the
Internet to iReadNet using free file sharing software. iReadNet
edits, encodes
and uploads the videos to the AuthorCams video blog and sends a
link to the
author, who can then e-mail it to agents, editors, media,
bookstores, family
and friends.
Using a combination of search engine marketing, video-on-demand
databasing, Google AdWords, RSS feeds, and networking with
author book
blog, trade association and other industry-related sites,
iReadNet has
developed a long tail connection to a completely web-based
global community
of readers, writers, bookstores, and news journalists who all
have one thing in
commonan interest in books and authors. The
iReadNet video network registered 10,000 visitors per day on
average through
the first quarter of 2006, and scored over 1,000,000 hits per
month.
"Internet video networking is better word-of-mouth than
traditional word-of-
mouth ever was," says Aldag, a former book publicity and sales
promotion
executive at major New York publishing houses in the 80's and
90's who
moved to New Hampshire in 1996 to "think outside the box" about
ways to
promote books and authors more economically and effectively. He
launched
the first beta iteration of iReadNet in 2002 after three years
of market
research and development. "With a few targeted e-mails,
supported by
iReadNet's on-going long tail marketing campaigns and built-in
audience,"
Aldag adds, "an author can acquire a worldwide audience for less
than the
cost of a cheese, crackers and wine party at your local
bookstore."
The AuthorCams video blog is the fifth channel on the iReadNet
video book
tour and author news network. The others on the network of sites
are the
covering cookbook and children's book news and author events.
iReadNet's user-friendly, automated system of streaming media
servers,
interface host, and dynamically linked database is
custom-designed to meet
the time-critical, cost-sensitive, rich content communications
needs of
publishers and authors. In March, 2006, the pioneering video
networking
services provider adapted its own proprietary video book tour
and author
news networking system to deliver a turnkey "private label"
video streaming
platform that allows publishers and authors everywhere at any
time to easily
and cost-effectively manage and display their own video content
under their
own corporate identity or author brand and seamlessly integrate
video
content into their existing websites.
Visitors can view over 800 on-demand videos of more than 110
author
readings, lectures, interviews and autographing appearances at
major book
and author events around the world free of charge. iReadNet
posts new
videos of best-selling and emerging authors every week.
