“It was a delight to learn that some legal publishers, including LexisNexis, upload to YouTube “Author’s Videos.” These Videos are short clips about a textbook or casebook, with the Author as presenter.

The publishers appreciate that to write a book, but not promote it energetically in dignified ways through social media — ways that in the past might have been dubbed unseemly salesmanship — is to consign the book (however good) to a dusty shelf.

It was an even greater delight to hear Mark Crabtree, can and does produce and edit these videos, upload them to a YouTube channel, and share them with legal publishers. Mark and his team does so at a modest cost that a PDA typically can cover.

Our colleague, Melanie Wilson, has a similar great Author’s Video for LexisNexis on her Criminal Law book. Criminal Procedure, Seventh Edition​

I have had the good fortune to work with Mark, and LexisNexis, on two clips, one for an International Trade Law textbook, and the other for an Islamic Law textbook.

The reach is fast and far: shortly after the uploads, I was happy to receive positive feedback from a Nigerian Professor in Malaysia, and in Singapore one of the links was posted on a FaceBook page. (Of course, there is the risk of negative criticism, but why be scared?)

Of special significance is that all such clips are more than about the book and author. They are about the institution, its students, and its overall atmosphere. So, in an age of low-cost marketing via social media, the clips are a golden opportunity for the KU Law School!”