Videos about books may sound slightly oxymoronic, but in the case of BookVideos.tv it's actually a good thing. The blog is a collaborative service of publisher Simon and Schuster and Web video company TurnHere, and is designed to host behind-the-scenes interviews with authors, publishers, editors, and book fans. Each week the site posts a new video, and the blog posts reviews and highlights almost daily. BookVideos.tv doesn't just focus on new fiction from popular authors. The service includes information about self-help books, classic literature, and non-fiction and reference books.
Book fans and people who follow their favorite authors the way other people track Britney and Lindsay will fall in love with BookVideos.tv. The site is updated regularly with blurbs and videos about books from a number of different authors, from popular novelists like Steven King to less known but still deserving writers such as Stef Penney. You'll find videos of featured authors--William Shatner, Jimmy Carter, and David McCullough, to name a few--and with each video is a blurb describing the author's latest book and why it's worth picking up. The service has a weekly newsletter, if you're looking for an easy way to keep up on all of the videos, and the blog is syndicated at TypePad, so you can subscribe to the site's RSS feed.
BookVideos.tv has a number of widgets and tools for fellow book bloggers and book lovers. You can add a mini-video player to your own Web site that rotates periodically with a new video and buttons to comment on the story at BookVideos.tv or to buy the book from Amazon.com. You can opt for a smaller widget that rotates between books and allows you to click on one that you're interested in.
The blog also partners with book publishers and merchants to promote new releases, and welcomes new authors and new publishing companies to get their work listed and featured on the site. Since BookVideos.tv is sponsored and supported by Simon and Schuster, expect to see its books featured on the site most often, if not exclusively.
BookVideos.tv's goal is to provide readers and book lovers the inside scoop on their favorite books and authors, and a way to stay on top of new releases. Readers can comment on articles and videos, and in many cases the authors respond to reader questions and concerns in the comment threads. The blog is in beta, although I'm not totally sure how a blog can be in beta. The site is remarkably polished however, and updates multiple times a week with new videos.
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