Online video advertising is growing and so are the uses of it - now for book advertising, according to the New York Times and MarketingVox.

"Random House, Workman Publishing, Scholastic and other publishers are running the equivalent of movie trailers on the Internet, all aimed at drawing fresh audiences to their books. The videos are not confined to sites catering to avid readers; they are also appearing on sites as general as Yahoo and YouTube. "

"Random House unit Bantam Dell ran a series in which Dean Koontz told funny stories about writing and editing. Workman’s video for Stitch’n Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker - a how-to book about crocheting - is a takeoff on West Side Story, with a rumble between a knitting gang and a crochet gang."

"…..for all but the best-known authors, it is also a cheap way to tell people about books. Companies like Expanded Books offer to film and place book videos for as little as $4,000. The Book Standard, an online publishing information service that is owned by VNU (the Dutch company that also owns Kirkus Reviews, Billboard and Adweek) has devised a contest in which film students compete to come up with book videos. "

I think what we need now, is the ability to measure the effectiveness of Online Videos - in reality - we’re just talking about another form of Multi Channel Marketing and I have already written a lot about that at Webmetricsguru.

"Other efforts could pass for music videos. Next month Tor Publishing is issuing “Variable Star,” a novel by Spider Robinson that includes lyrics from a song by David Crosby; the video will feature Mr. Crosby singing the song.

And why not?  It’s an online video - it should be entertaining and engaging.