Do YouTube Videos and Instagram Reels Sell Books?

A Literal Literary Loser Visually Ventures Virtually

So far, we’ve asked (and answered) the following question:

• Do Book Tours Sell Books? (Tl;dr - No)

• Do Writing Conferences Sell Books? (Tl;dr - No)

• Does Paid Marketing Sell Books? (Tl;dr - Not enough to turn a profit)

• Does “Brand Awareness” Sell Books? (Tl;dr - Absolutely not)

But would I be a real writer if I let repeated failure stop me? No! Then I’d truly be a literal literary loser.

So I am trying something else. Video! That’s what all the young people are into these days, right? (Although, when I floated the idea of posting on Tik-Tok, my 16 year old daughter advised, “That’s not where your audience is, Mother.”)

She told me to stick to the video sites patronized by old people like me. She told me to stick to YouTube and Instagram reels.

Well, if she’s such a smart, young person, then she needed to help me out. She agreed. For a price. (Her oldest brother coached her into negotiating a higher salary.)

So now, my 16 year old and I have launched a video series: Explaining USSR To My Kid - Through Books.

The twist here is that, although I was born in the USSR, and wrote two books set in the USSR, The Nesting Dolls and My Mother’s Secret: A Novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region, the books we’ll be discussing every week weren’t written by me, but by other authors.

We’ve posted two episodes so far:

The videos are up on YouTube, but we are also chopping them into shorter snippets for Instagram Reels.

So far, I can tell you that the Reels do better on IG, as far as interaction goes, then the posts with links to the videos. My daughter tells me that many hip, young people watch all their content that way, in snippets on the daily rather than in one sitting. Who knew? (Well, hip, young people did. Though I am told that’s not my audience.)

So will YouTube videos and Instagram Reels sell books where my other efforts failed? Stay tuned, as always, for my painfully honest reports.

And, in the meantime, please watch the videos above and let me know what you think. Like, share and subscribe! Just like a hip, young person!