Marketing Innovations

As writers we know the value of showing not telling. As marketers, the mantra becomes "Sharing not Selling."  We need new ways to put the message across. 

Video streaming software lets you capture both whatever is happening on your computer screen and the interest of potential readers. You can use it to video a webcam where you talk about your book, to present a slide show demonstrating writing techniques, to show how to track changes in word processing software. If you are doing it on screen, you can show it.

Sharing knowledge helps build your author platform. Talking directly to readers builds friendships, interest in your work and best of all, sales.

image screen capture by Jing

When I started to research this article on free screen capture software, I intended to use my favorite CamStudio as the software of choice but the available freeware now is amazing. What you choose will depend on the operating system you use, whether you want to download software onto your computer or use online software.

Read the reviews, then choose. This list of ten free screen recorders may be helpful and scroll down to read the comments too. 

Have a look at Jing from TechSmith. Here it is in action in a tutorial video about taking your first capture.

I made several little videos for this article, all very easy if...
you remember to turn the microphone on,
you remember not to say um,um,ummm every time you stick,
you remember to save them in the right place in the right format...obviously.

Next time I'll be scripting what to say first. And not talking/ummming for more than five minutes--the maximum time allowed for free recording with Jing.

 Anne Duguid is a freelance content editor with MuseItUp Publishing and she tries to pass on helpful writing,editing and publishing tips at Slow and Steady Writers