How can writers make the most of YouTube? Simon Whaley explores some video-content options for boosting our writing business.
Twenty years ago, three twenty-somethings officially launched a new video platform. It was called YouTube, and the first video was of one of its founders at the zoo. Since then, estimates suggest that creators have uploaded over five billion videos to the channel, and upload another two and a half million videos every day.
Despite being focussed on the video format, there are several ways writers can make use of the YouTube platform to boost our writing business. I first began creating short videos on my smartphone for research purposes, but now upload videos when I’m out and about as a travel writer. Instead of having large video files clogging up my hard drive, I let YouTube host them.
Creators can set the visibility of videos as public, unlisted, or private. Only the creator and anyone else logged into YouTube who has the private video link can access private videos. Listed videos are not available to the public, but anyone with the link can view them (they don’t need to be logged in to YouTube to do this). Anyone can find and view public videos.
Typically, people earn money from the advertisements that are played before, during, and after videos. However, to qualify for a share of this income, channels need to have over 1,000 subscribers, who have watched 4,000 hours of our videos in the past year.
Currently, I’m about halfway to meeting those advertising thresholds. However, YouTube videos are still having a positive financial impact on my writing business.
More Medium Monetisation
I write many online travel pieces for the Medium platform (medium.com). This pays me every month, depending on how many articles I have written and how many people have read them.
I’ve begun embedding some of my YouTube videos into my Medium articles because a video conveys the atmosphere of a place much more effectively than a photo. It’s so simple to copy and paste a link into the article, which also breaks up the text on the screen. But I’ve noticed something else.
Although my videos aren’t generating an income on YouTube yet, I’ve spotted that my Medium articles with embedded YouTube videos generate twice as much money as my articles with no videos.
Often after watching those embedded videos, some readers subscribe to my YouTube channel, which is helping me reach the monetisation threshold more quickly.
But YouTube is not just about video. It can also host audio too, and some writers are using YouTube to make the most of their audiobooks, reaching even more readers.
Audio Additionality
Victorine Lieske (victorinelieske.com) and (https://www.youtube.com/@VictorineLieske) is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling self-published romantic comedy author from Nebraska. Her latest book, Can’t Help Falling In Love, will be published in December 2025, and is the fourth in her Willow Shade Island series.
It was when she attended a writers’ conference that she first learned of the idea of uploading some of her audiobooks onto YouTube.
‘I got the idea from Malorie Cooper at the 20Books conference in Las Vegas,’ Victorine explains. ‘She was teaching a class on Facebook ads, and just briefly mentioned she’d put her audiobooks up on YouTube and they were doing quite well. That lit a fire under me. I started uploading my books fairly shortly after that conference, and it has been a wonderful source of income for me, as well as a great way to find new readers.’
However, authors can’t just upload a book’s audio file onto YouTube. Because it’s a visual channel, the files need to be uploaded in video format.
‘In order to upload your audiobooks, you have to create a video. That wasn’t very hard for me, because I was quite familiar with programs like Adobe Premiere Pro, so I was able to create videos pretty easily. The hardest part is trying to make a thumbnail that looks attractive. I’ve played around with several types of thumbnails over the years. I’m a graphic designer, so those aren’t super hard either. The trick is to get one that people click on and respond to.’
It’s important to use the book’s front cover within the thumbnail image, but Victorine puts other clues, such as adding a pair of headphones, within her thumbnails to show it’s an audiobook and not a video. Check out her thumbnails at www.youtube.com/@VictorineLieske. It’s simple to create a professional-looking thumbnail using free services like Canva.com.
File Formats
You may not need any expensive software to turn an audiobook file into a video file. Both the Windows and Apple operating systems come with free video-creating software (Windows Video Editor or Apple’s iMovie). Import the audio file, add the thumbnail image, and then export a video file. YouTube accepts the most common video formats, including MP4, MPEG4, MOV, WMV, and AVI files.
Once uploaded to YouTube, anyone can listen to the audiobooks for free. Authors need to think about the long game here. It can take time to build up the necessary subscribers to meet the monetisation threshold. However, because audiobooks are often several hours long, attaining the minimum number of hours watched threshold isn’t as challenging.
Of course, any new readers who discover these free audiobooks may buy your other books in print or digital format, so offering free audiobooks on YouTube can play a useful part in our marketing strategy.
When a YouTube channel meets the monetisation threshold, authors then earn a slice of the advertising revenue. However, Victorine explains that it’s not just about the money. YouTube also offers her an alternative way of engaging with her readers and gives her better control over comments and reviews that sites like Amazon don’t offer.
‘I do see quite a bit of income from ad revenue on YouTube, which is great. I also love reading the comments and getting to interact with fans. For the most part, the community there is very supportive and kind. And if I get a troll, I can delete their comment and ban them, which is nice. You can’t do that if you get a troll leaving one-star reviews all over your books, so it feels nice to have control over that on YouTube.’
Advert Adjustments
Anyone who has watched a YouTube video will know how frustrating the adverts can be at times, but it is possible to minimise the disruption to listeners by telling YouTube where to place the adverts.
‘The ads you see in the middle of a video are called Mid-Roll Ads,’ Victorine explains, ‘and you can choose where they go, which is nice. I always put them between chapters so they’re not as bothersome to listeners. I do sometimes get people who complain about the ads, but that’s the nice thing about not being exclusive. If they like the book but don’t like the ads, they can buy the audiobook from another source.’
While uploading one free audiobook can help with marketing, Victorine suggests authors in a position to upload a couple or more audiobooks may benefit from doing it over a short period of time. This encourages YouTube’s algorithm to promote your channel.
‘My best advice is to save up a few and post them three to four days apart. YouTube favours channels that post regularly, so starting out with a few books right away to get established is what made my channel take off.’
Once you’ve done that, consider uploading other book or writing-related content to your YouTube channel, too.
‘Supplement your channel with other videos,’ says Victorine. ‘Talk about why you started writing or tell people how you came up with a character or setting in your book. People like hearing behind-the-scenes stories.’
Marketing Moments
One benefit of YouTube is that it is so ubiquitous, so sharing videos elsewhere is simple. Most other social media platforms automatically embed the video’s web address, enabling anyone to watch the video directly on the platform or website they’re using.
This makes it much easier for us to add our videos to our websites, Facebook Author pages, and even to our Substack newsletters. Instead of dropping the opening page of your latest novel into your newsletter, why not create a video of you reading it out?
Writers with a paid tier service on their Substack or Patreon page can create a video and host it on YouTube, set its visibility status as unlisted, and share that link on subscriber-only services. This means that only people with the link, such as paid subscribers, can see it. This isn’t foolproof, because if a subscriber shares that unlisted link with a non-subscriber, the non-subscriber will still be able to access that content.
YouTube might not be the first media platform writers think of when it comes to making the most of our writing business. But it can be a useful marketing tool, and a great way to interact with our readers. So if you haven’t already done so, now might be the right time to create your YouTube channel.
Lights! Camera! Action!
Business Directory – Channel Creation
- Visit youtube.com
- Click on Sign In. You can sign in with a Gmail account (Google owns YouTube), or create one if you don’t already have one.
- Click your name icon (top right) and select Create Channel.
- Give your channel a name (use words like Books or author after your name if your name has already been taken).
- Choose a handle name. This begins with @ and will also form your YouTube channel web address (e.g., youtube.com/@simonwhaley).
- Save this and that your channel created.
- Go back to your name icon (top right) and then select YouTube Studio from the dropdown list.
- Head to Settings (bottom left).
- Select Community Moderation (left) and choose the Comment options you prefer. If you turn on comments, selecting the Basic moderation option will mean YouTube will filter most bot-produced spam from your comments automatically.
- That’s it! Your channel is created. Now start uploading videos!