• by P.J. Bednarski , Staff Writer @pjbtweet, October 7, 2014

The only thing harder than writing a book might be publicizing a book. The advent of Kindle hastened the decline of the book store; newspapers whacked book review sections; Oprah’s daily talk show left television.

On the other hand, e-books, fan fiction and books made into movies that turn books into icons (“Hunger Games”) creates new markets too.

Allison Stern, one of the principles of Tubular Labs, a company that does analytic work about who’s going where on YouTube, and Tubular notices that a place book promotion might be moving in YouTube, which seems almost counterintuitive because it doesn’t seem like a bookish place.

Yet, Stern notes, look at what Neil Patrick Harris’ publisher, Crown Books, is doing to promote his autobiography. He’s made a really clever YouTube video that has gotten about 125,000 views in the last two weeks -- and 1,300 Facebook shares and 1,209 Tweets.

Or perhaps look at what Random House is doing on YouTube with Lena Dunham’s memoir "Not That Kind of Girl," out just last week. She’s doing a series of videos, called “Ask Lena” in which she dispenses advice on affairs of the heart and lesser topics. Here’s the thing: This isn’t Lena in character from “Girls.” This is a kind of thoughtful, sometimes earnest Dunham, really watchable. In a short time span, these videos have nearly 700,000 views.

Okay -- a caveat. Compared to the average author, neither Harris or Dunham are going to have as hard a time attracting views to a YouTube page as a lesser-known author, which is what almost all authors are. And those numbers aren't in the viral category -- unless you're trying to sell a book.

But what Tubular Labs’ Stern sees is a trend behind the video. These are book publishers -- stuffy, hard-to-move publishers -- using YouTube to reach their intended millennial audiences who are hanging out on YouTube.

Tubular works with 3,000 online publishers, providing analytics about who’s going where and doing what on YouTube. What Stern is noticing is that “legacy media publishers are moving more quickly to adopt to YouTube than newer media -- like ESPN, for example.” The reason, she suspects, is that their backs are to the wall, and like all religious converts, they’re all in.

What could be better for engagement than YouTube? Well, I’d say, perhaps, a book -- but maybe you get the point. Stern points out that although others might be slow to figure it out, “lots of YouTube talent are getting signed into other media, and they’re getting book deals too. It’s the major market for millennials. It’s not rocket science that this is happening.”

Seventeen magazine teamed with Awesomeness TV -- both work with Tubular, too -- and now work together. Maybe YouTube is robbing women’s magazines of revenue because of all the cosmetic and beauty channels, but publishers of that venerable title also figured out that’s where their audience is. “I thought it was a genius idea,” Stern says -- and you know she’s right.

pj@mediapost.com