I finally gave up on TV a little over a year ago, which may be part of the reason I started my own publisher TV on YouTube. I don't think I'd watched a half dozen Internet videos in my life before I went cold turkey on "the real thing", whereas now I probably average one a day, to the tune of a couple minutes. Ironically, one of the things I miss about television is the old Book TV shows (Booknotes) with Brian Lamb that I used to watch for a couple hours on the weekends if I wasn't out timber framing. It turns out that over 50% of Book TV episodes are online, but I'll admit I have yet to watch any.
My publisher TV channel has been drawing far more viewers than I expected. The stats as of this morning were:
Videos Uploaded: 13
Video Views: 7,105
Channel Views: 949
Subscribers: 15
It's gotten to the point where there are enough videos to create a custom embedded player that plays only my videos, as opposed to letting YouTube display a selection of possibly related, possibly spam videos when the current video gets to the end. I couldn't figure out how to paste the HTML code into the page without producing the player itself, but if anybody wants to add my self publishing TV channel to their blog or web page (don't ask me why you'd want to do this) drop me a line and I'll e-mail it to you. It also plays all of my videos straight through, so if you're at work on salary and want to stick it to the man, just hit the "play" button:-)
The new player led me to skip through all of my videos for the first time, and it really reminded me of the difference between self publishing and running your own business, versus working working for a trade publisher. For one thing, a trade publisher would have been highly unlikely to want me serving as the face of the corporation, especially when I forget to comb my hair. Instead of choosing a subject and ad-libbing for a few minutes, there would have been scripts, script writers, and editorial boards to determine if the script represented the corporate view. There would have been endless retakes to get it "right", and months of discussion to determine what "right" means. There would have been a media consultant, if not multiple consultants, and a budget. I doubt that a NY trade could have produced 13 videos totaling less than 45 minutes without spending more than I net in a year.
One of the joys of self publishing is the DIY aspect, do-it-yourself. Too many self publishers go into (and out of) the publishing business thinking they have to do business just like a large trade, but on a small scale. That's not just a recipe for losing money, it's a recipe for always running in the rear of the pack. In a competitive world, one of the few benefits accruing to the small is the ability to move rapidly, to venture into new areas without having to fight a corporate culture, to be able to focus on what works rather than what looks good.
So, here's looking at at me, kid.
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