I promised in Tuesday's post that today's film-ette would be an low or no-budget author promo that's gotten two hundred thousand-plus hits on YouTube. Well, here it is: romance author Diana Holquist's trailer for her book The Sexiest Man Alive.

A few things to notice about this brilliant feat of fearless and funny author self-promotion.

First, you'll notice that Holquist exploited both what she had and what she didn't have with extreme, almost fiendish cleverness. She had a webcam, a cat, a brain, a sense of humor, and a book cover that allowed both sex and humor to shine. She didn't (presumably) have a big budget, a high-end camera, a music composer, a make-up artist, or James Cameron to direct. She found a form that built on both. The informality, the intimacy, the amateurishness, and the silliness intrinsic to home webcam use are exactly what makes the trailer so effective.

Second, her trailer connects with viewers. It's not just about her book. And it's not just about selling that book. It's about her, and the fact that she is very much like you, me, and most of her readers. She lives in an ordinary house, she has a cat, she isn't perfectly coifed or made up: no Jackie Collins or Barbara Cartland here. She's down to earth, she's funny, and—even better—she's willing to be funny about herself and her work. You probably don't go to the site address given at the end of the piece—and I'm absolutely confident that many, many viewers have done just that—because you want to know more about the book. You go because she seems like she would be a fun, funny, and interesting person to know.

Third, and closely related to second (not sure why I'm in such a numerically precise mood today), this video does not sell the book the way romance covers and ads sell the book. I hope you're listening, because this is very important. In case you're not listening, let me say it louder: IT'S VERY IMPORTANT. Romance novels and romance ads speak to romance readers. Most YouTube viewers are not romance readers. Holquist's trailer succeeded because she was willing to meet the YouTube "tribe," to use Seth Godin's word, where they are. She paid attention to the fact that they are probably younger, probably hipper, probably not interested in reading romance, and certainly more gender-divided than the romance market. She didn't violate the integrity of herself or her book to do this, by the way. She just found an aspect of her book and brand that worked for YouTube, exactly as she found aspects of her book and brand that work for her web site.

And finally, you'll notice the most obvious thing of all: Diana Holquist ventured into the brave new world of YouTube and tried it.Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Holquist's earlier YouTube promo for this book and the one that preceded it is also very clever, and even more minimal: no live action, in fact no movement of any kind, at all.

I could have made that. You could have made that. But we didn't. Something to think about.

TOUCHY SUBJECT TUESDAYS: the times, they are a-changin'

If you're an aspiring or midlist writer, it's not easy to welcome the nine zillion changes occurring in publishing in this, our digital age. Few of them seem to be to our benefit, and even fewer seem clear or easy to comprehend. Yet like it or not, the digital future is here, changing much of what's familiar (at least to those of us of twentieth-century "vintage") about book content, book publication, book distribution, and book marketing. To reprise the Bob Dylan quote I used for the title of this post, the times, they are indeed a-changin.'

As authors, I think we ignore these changes at our peril. That's the bad news: that sticking our heads in the sand isn't going to help us build careers or force all of this scary, messy, technologically intimidating change to go away. The good news is that some of the new media now evolving do help us as writers trying to promote books. Blogs are one excellent example; for another, check back on this blog this week, when Friday's "film-ette" is a wonderful little book-promotion piece done by an author herself with a webcam, a budget of maybe ten bucks, and without even putting on her makeup. Lest all that sound unimpressive, I should add that this little book trailer has amassed over two hundred thousand hits on YouTube. Yep, that's 200,000. Name an earlier form of author book promotion that could reach an audience even a tenth that large, especially on virtually no money at all.

Another piece of good news is that we don't have to become techno-experts to survive in the "new" publishing. We do need to learn basic new skills, and/or find a kid, grandkidd, nephew, niece, intern, or unemployed twentysomething to deploy them on our behalf. And I think we also need to cultivate at least a nodding acquaintance with new technologies and trends. Otherwise, among other problems, we're submitting to agents or editors without partaking at all of the world in which they must function.

Here's an easy place to start. I've spoken about the always thought-provoking work of speaker and writer Seth Godin before (see my May 22 post, "Big Pictures and Piddlling Little Points.") He's someone who's really worth reading if you're interested either in the impact of evolving media or the way marketing really works, or really doesn't work, in the twenty-first century. He's also very generous with his work, making lots of interesting material available free. This link gives you a free listen to most of his talk on the "new dynamics of publishing," given this May to the Independent Book Publishers Association. Part of what's helpful about it is precisely the fact that it's oriented toward publishers, giving you a glimpse of their world; another useful aspect of his points is that they are created by technology, but not about it per se. (For the record, being a former Manhattanite used to folks who talk brilliantly but fast, I happen to like Seth's rapid-fire idea-rich style, but you can also take him in rather more serene style via his books; two of my favorites are Permission Marketing, a classic by now, and Tribes.) You can also visit IBPA's Publishing University 2010 site and hear two interesting talks from their gathering.

Okay. Now we can all go back to writing those beautiful things, those actual, physical books, perhaps with those beautiful things called pens.

That wasn't so bad, was it?

WRITING CRITIQUES: big pictures and piddling little points

Seth Godin's work on marketing isn't directed specifically at writers, but if you're a writer who wants help with book marketing and career building in the age of new media, you can't find a better source. His thoughts are concise and provocative. His books (the latest is Linchpin) are not just useful but also entertaining. And you've just got to love a guy whose web site tells you to click on his bald head to visit his blog.

Seth's recent Sentences, Paragraphs and Chapters post addresses a business issue, but his comments apply perfectly to writers and writing critiques as well. Too many workshops and critique groups focus on piddling little corrections rather than big questions. There's less risk of hurting the writer that way, and maybe less fear that raising those big questions will make us sound arrogant or presumptuous.

You'll notice I said big questions, not once but twice. I'm not necessarily talking about big criticisms, though sometimes they may be needed.

I'm talking about helping each other look at the totality of a book, a career, and a writer's gifts and goals as effectively as we help each other tweak the specifics of a scene, a line, or even just a word.

I also don't mean to suggest that copy-editing and proofing and general manuscript polishing aren't important. They are. But they're tasks separate from manuscript critique and revision...or at least they should be.

Let's not sit around making writerly small talk while we rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic. It's hard enough to keep little lifeboats like the S.S. First Novel afloat in these choppy seas.