Book Trailers

tomelle · Jul 31, 2012

What are your thoughts on book trailers? They are good to get your book out there on different outlets..etc. But how many of you actually do them.

For Example:

[link removed]

thethinker42 · Jul 31, 2012

Not exactly scientific, just my experiences and observations, but I interviewed several readers last year for my blog. One of the questions was "Do book trailers influence your buying habits?" Every last one of them answered No, and all but one said they'd never even watched one. This is consistent with every reader I've spoken to, and in fact most readers I know who are not also authors have never even heard of a book trailer.

I suppose they can't hurt, but I have yet to see any evidence that they actually have a positive effect on sales.

Coop720 · Jul 31, 2012

I find them a little bit intrusive. They sometimes ruin your first impression of a novel before you've begin to read.

I don't know about anyone else, but I love having my own image of characters/settings rather than being shown via trailer aforehand.

tomelle · Jul 31, 2012

Wow, valid points. Coop, I liked that. Having your own image of the character and settings.

Kerosene · Jul 31, 2012

Blurbs with sounds and pictures.

Why not just read a sample? I care more about the actual writing, then the advertising, cover, blurb, reviews, genre, popularity, writer name or the publisher.

If you'd post a sample of a book, on a blog or something and a link to the book; I would be more interested. That said, I hate Amazon's Kindle sampling system now (how you have to download on a kindle rather than read in the browser, which is quicker)

CatchingADragon · Jul 31, 2012

I tend to not see them, since I've never gone book hunting on video sites. When I do see them, they're embedded on the author's site, which is a sign that I'm interested in the author anyway, so I don't think they really affect what I purchase. They generally don't impress me much, as they are usually just text and pictures.

That said, from a writing perspective, I can see how it might be fun to make one.

The most interesting book trailer I saw was for a book called BLOOD AND ICE, since they actually went through the trouble of dramatizing a scene like a movie. But, I confess, it still wasn't enough for me to get the book.

Torgo · Jul 31, 2012

We do a fair few book trailers - if it's a lead title, we probably do a trailer. But then, like a lot of marketing, the return on investment is really difficult to quantify. It's a handy bit of content to seed in social networks and things - gives authors and publicity depts. something to tweet about - but who knows whether they actually influence people?

I'd say that at the very least you have to stick a link in the video description to buy the book, one that can be tracked (like a bit.ly link, say) and watch carefully to see if anyone's clicking it.

Little Anonymous Me · Jul 31, 2012

Am I the only one who gets really confused at first and thinks they're for a movie? :chair

Coop720 · Jul 31, 2012

WillSauger said:
Blurbs with sounds and pictures.

Why not just read a sample? I care more about the actual writing, then the advertising, cover, blurb, reviews, genre, popularity, writer name or the publisher.

If you'd post a sample of a book, on a blog or something and a link to the book; I would be more interested. That said, I hate Amazon's Kindle sampling system now (how you have to download on a kindle rather than read in the browser, which is quicker)

Exactly!

Literature isn't about being direct. I.E. This character definitely has green eyes.

Literature is about being enigmatic; the reader creates their own ideas. Nothing should ever be entirely certain in novels, since we never receive direct images or assertion of events/characters etc.

It's all about the words and what they create.

It's as relevant today as it has always been.

suki · Jul 31, 2012

I don't know of any scientific quantification of whether they help sell books, but I have seen anecdotally that they can build interest in the middle grade reader market - ie, kids love them. Love viewing them and making them. But, I haven't seen anywhere near that kind of reaction from teens or adults.

So, if you have a middle grade novel for 8-13 year olds, and you have a book that lends itself well to a short and tight trailer, go for it (if you can afford to make a good one).

But I'm not convinced they help at all for teen or adult books.

~suki

Amory · Jul 31, 2012

I hadn't actually seen a "book trailer" before this, and I wasn't very impressed. I have seen lots of "fanfic trailers" or "fanfic vids," but those tend to be really awesome since a) the person making them is usually someone very good at videos doing it for a "famous" fic writer and b) you already have character images to work with. I don't think this kind of trailer would make me buy a book any more than a book jacket would. It just made me think "Wow, that author's pic looks a little awkward, being all happy and smiley combined with all the stuff about death."

suki said:
So, if you have a middle grade novel for 8-13 year olds, and you have a book that lends itself well to a short and tight trailer, go for it (if you can afford to make a good one).

But I'm not convinced they help at all for teen or adult books.

~suki

As a teacher I would agree with this, but I would extend it to teens, too. Kids these days are a bit YouTube obsessed. Or maybe "addicted" would be a better description, LOL...

Amory · Jul 31, 2012

...Of course that's assuming that many middle graders and teenagers are even willing to even pick up a book when there's plenty World of Warcraft to play, hehe,

CrastersBabies · Jul 31, 2012

Why not? You never know who's going to see it. My only issue with book trailers is the sucktastic production quality for most.

Music on a background with rolling text.

Creativity is our thing here, why spend 2 years writing your novel then slap something together that looks like an animated powerpoint presentation?

VoireyLinger · Jul 31, 2012

I have trailers. My publisher links to them. I place them where I can and have had a trailer reviewed on a trailer review site. I even have one I consider my 'personal commercial' which I place on my author pages when possible. (It needs updated but I love it.) I'm planning to use them as part of a table display at a book signing, which I think will be a very good use for them... visibility and eye-catchiness in a place where it counts.

As for does it help? I don't know. They aren't really expensive for me and I don't think they can hurt, so why not?

ETA: I went back and peeked at the one tomelle originally linked and IMO, it's very poorly done. Bad pacing, reads like an ad and has no hook to it. A bad trailer is simply a waste of time. A good one Should whet the appetite and make you want to read the back cover. It's an attention-getter that leaves you saying... "Wait, what was that and where can I find it?" Keep it short, sweet and pointing to your website.

gothicangel · Jul 31, 2012

I have yet to see a trailer that has made me want to go out and buy a book.

On the contrary, of all the trailers I've seen, I think they do the books a dis-service, making them appear banal and boring.

tomelle · Jul 31, 2012

Wow, I appreciate all the input. I guess a movie trailer works because you actually get to see what it looks like. With a book trailer you really can't gauge the style.

ChaosTitan · Jul 31, 2012

Since book trailers have less to do with writing novels and more to do with promotion, I'm sending this down to the proper forum.

rebekahmichel · Jul 31, 2012

You can see my book trailer in my signature

My book is not going to be released until August so I'm not sure how much the book trailer helps yet, we'll see.

Mac H. · Aug 1, 2012

tomelle said:
What are your thoughts on book trailers? They are good to get your book out there on different outlets..etc. But how many of you actually do them.

For Example:

[link removed]

Tom - I appreciate that you want to plug your client.

But it looks kinda unethical to not mention that it is your client - your post could have misled someone into thinking that it was just an example you happened to come across.

And .. as others have mentioned ... it was an embarrassingly bad quality one. If your clients want to go down that path .. *PLEASE* get them to make sure the quality is there.

For a start - what is the image that this book trailer leaves you with? A full screen "Please like (Author name) on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Author-Firstname-Lastname/426364697413649"

Does the video creator seriously expect people to carefully type the full address into their browser? Is that really effective marketing?

Mac

nitaworm · Aug 1, 2012

Personally if a youtube video of someone teaching you how to wash your hair has over 7K in looks - then I'd say a trailer is another form of FREE exposure (excluding the cost of creation) my only advice is - get reviews of it. I've seen some really bad ones.

sarahdalton · Aug 2, 2012

I think it depends on your target audience as well. For instance, Harper Teen has an entire Youtube channel with dozens of trailers for their up and coming books which tells me that readers of YA expect a trailer.

It all adds to your image, makes you appear more professional (unless the trailer is really really bad!)

Ashurita · Aug 2, 2012

I can't say I like book trailers at all. I can see where they might be useful (as someone mentioned as background for a book signing or such venture, perhaps), but otherwise...
Of the trailers I've seen, even though some were really good quality, I wasn't impressed at all, and I was actually less inclined to give the book a chance, so now I just generally avoid them (which I guess in turn doesn't really hurt sales).
Also, I too prefer to have my own view of characters and settings than those imposed by a trailer.

Hiroko · Aug 2, 2012

I personally never watch book trailers unless I see some of interest posted here on AW - I don't go stalking YouTube for them.
Anyone making them should take in mind what makes popular/good videos on YouTube now and try applying that to trailers. This may or may not mean making your video more of a meme than a trailer, but memes apparently get more views. If an entertainment factor is present, you are more likely to get hits on the video. Just my two cents...
...Though you've all now inspired me to do more research into trailers.

Kitty27 · Aug 3, 2012

I like video trailers. My friend made one for my novel. I'd post it but she used celebs for my characters and I don't want any trouble!

But I enjoy seeing the story the writer is trying to tell.

GradyHendrix · Aug 14, 2012

Hey - my wife and I have a comic book cookbook coming out next week, linked to her restaurant, Dirt Candy. We thought long and hard about doing a book trailer because even though we're published by Clarkson Potter (a division of Random House) we'd have to pay for the trailer ourselves.

We finally decided, "What the hell?" and for about $800 ($500 to the editor, and the rest spent on pudding) we made this trailer (that you can watch here).

Was it worth it? Who knows, but it's getting a lot of attention.

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