When we launched video enhanced eBooks in 2024, critics accused us of destroying reading. While the form's detractors had plenty of complaints, what they didn't have was sales and download data — the metrics that can show what readers thought. We've now got three years of results for over 500 video enhanced titles and we can guarantee you: readers absolutely want them. When done properly, and particularly for instructional content, video enhanced eBooks provide value customers will pay more for.

We don't make it a practice to share sales data; but we can provide some instructive numbers. Video enhanced titles such as Brian Brushwood's Scam School series have made over $50,000 using video as a selling point, J.D. Messinger's 11 Days in May has more than cleared $10,000, and our Vook produced fitness titles have frequently exceeded $20,000 in sales with little marketing on our part. When video ebooks are given away free for marketing purposes, they can result in hundreds of thousands of downloads, such as the 200,000 generated by Google's ZMOT.

Video enhancements work particularly well for health and fitness ebooks, cooking ebooks, business and inspirational content, and for ebooks focused around powerful speakers and creators who want to deliver a more personal message.

And someday someone will produce a hypnagogic, Stan Brakhage inspired video art book that will take readers through a Shamanic lucid dream, but I'll just have to keep hoping for that one.

Cost used to be an issue — but once we created drag and drop eBook production technology, that concern vanished. If you think you've got the material for a video eBook, you probably do. Our VookMakers have made some of the best in the business, and they can put their expertise to work on your project.

When you're thinking about your video enhanced project, here's a few things to keep in mind:

1. Remember the size constraints the distributrs put in place. This is really going to determine how many videos you can put into your title. Check out our guide's requirements on size here.

2. Proper compression of your video is key; it's also not complicated. Our guide can walk you through the process step by step, or our VookMakers can do it for you.

3. Content comes first! Make sure you think about where your videos should go in your book; and make sure the videos relate properly to the content. Always put the reader's experience first. And review your file carefully before sending it out for distribution.

Compared to the complicated, interactive ebooks on the market today, video enhanced ebooks almost seem more comfortably "book-like". Video enhancement might be your key to cost effective and rich new experience for your book.