Webcasts: A Hot Marketing Tool
“I’m a performer as well as a writer,” the filmmaker and writer/director of TV’s “Starved” says. “I know a lot of people don’t like to be on camera, but I really enjoy the format.”
The Makings of a Successful
Webcast
In Schaeffer’s view, to succeed in the world of webcasts, personality is critical—an idea echoed by the Philadelphia-based American Law Institute-American Bar Association (ALI-ABA), which publishes books by and for lawyers.
After the recent release of the book “Anatomy for Litigators,” the organization decided to produce live webcasts of talks by the book’s author, Samuel Hodge, on human anatomy for trial lawyers in medical malpractice suits.
In addition to being an author, Hodge teaches trial practice and anatomy at Temple University Beasley School of Law and for continuing legal education organizations. “So he’s not just a writer, he also is a lecturer,” notes Mark Carroll, director of ALI-ABA’s electronic and print publications. Hodge’s strength in public speaking played a big role in the decision to try the webcast format with this title, Carroll says, as did the fact that this book, unlike most of its ilk, has a strong graphical component.
“There are some books that do fairly well, but I would not propose the author as a presenter for a two- or three-hour webcast because either they’re not very articulate when they’re speaking on their feet or they tend to go off in tangents,” he adds. “It really has to be the right marriage of the talent of the writer and the content of what’s presented.”
Or, in the case of HarperCollins’ “The Average American Male,” the talent of a good producer and director. Leading up to the book’s March release, executives at Harper Perennial “kind of got the feeling that no one would pay attention to it,” according to Carrie Kania, senior vice president and publisher. The book, she says, was sure to offend some with its satirical examination of the mind of the young male.
