Seen any great book trailers lately?

heidi willis · Oct 13, 2009

I'm wondering if a book trailer can really generate enough buzz to make it worth the time or money it takes to make a good one. Does anyone have examples of how it's helped sell a book - either your own or one you bought that you wouldn't have known about before?

I've done one for my book that's being released this winter. If you have the chance, could you take a peek and let me know if it's more likely to help or hurt my buzz? I've gotten great feedback, but mostly from people I know, since I haven't tried to get it "out there" yet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsuE9hG1tPk

Thanks!
Heidi

Amarie · Oct 13, 2009

It looked professional to me. I've been looking at as many as I can, and yours seems ahead of the curve. I think it will help.

heidi willis · Oct 13, 2009

Melia said:
It looked professional to me. I've been looking at as many as I can, and yours seems ahead of the curve. I think it will help.

Thanks, Melia! It's great to get an opinion of someone who doesn't know me!

MumblingSage · Oct 20, 2009

heidi willis said:
I'm wondering if a book trailer can really generate enough buzz to make it worth the time or money it takes to make a good one. Does anyone have examples of how it's helped sell a book - either your own or one you bought that you wouldn't have known about before?

I've done one for my book that's being released this winter. If you have the chance, could you take a peek and let me know if it's more likely to help or hurt my buzz? I've gotten great feedback, but mostly from people I know, since I haven't tried to get it "out there" yet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsuE9hG1tPk

Thanks!
Heidi

The music is great! (And that's important to me--so many book trailers I've seen have these gentle piano soundtracks that put me to sleep. How can I get excited about a book when the trailer's soundtrack sounds like a lullaby?) I also like how things are moving on the screen; it's not just a PowerPoint presentation of your book. The choice of pictures and also the way the pictures appear briefly or more lingeringly in time with the music and text was also effective. I don't know how much book trailers in general help sell books, but I don't think yours could HURT sales, especially if it was viewed by someone already interested in the story or topic.

It was kind of a funny coincidence that today I saw one of the anthologies I'm in has it's book trailer out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZleSgX3Vqk

I'm not certain how effective it might be to potential buyers. The main message seems to be 'book trailers are hard to do'--true, and it got a chuckle out of me, but I'm not sure if that sells books.

zpeteman · Oct 20, 2009

I've never seen a trailer that made me want to buy a book. I've seen a ton of them, however, that convinced me NOT to read the book.

That's enough to make me wary of ever doing one.

cptwentworth · Oct 20, 2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQa4oftyLSw

I like this one.

nccreative · Oct 21, 2009

Heidi, great job! I created this one last year to attract attention of agents and publishers, and it worked.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJPL1wqlV_Y

Can you guys share which programs you like the most? I noticed someone mention Swishmax; never heard of that, so I'll check it out. Animoto is nice and easy, but we have less control over it and thus, to me, the quality can be iffy. I did this in good ol' Windows Moviemaker.

Thanks in advance for suggesting other programs to work with.

Dena

www.onevoicerising.com

nitaworm · Oct 21, 2009

I liked it. Looked well done. Better than a lot I have seen.

heidi willis said:
I'm wondering if a book trailer can really generate enough buzz to make it worth the time or money it takes to make a good one. Does anyone have examples of how it's helped sell a book - either your own or one you bought that you wouldn't have known about before?

I've done one for my book that's being released this winter. If you have the chance, could you take a peek and let me know if it's more likely to help or hurt my buzz? I've gotten great feedback, but mostly from people I know, since I haven't tried to get it "out there" yet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsuE9hG1tPk

Thanks!
Heidi

nitaworm · Oct 21, 2009

Wow! You have a lot of views! What's your secret?

nccreative said:
Heidi, great job! I created this one last year to attract attention of agents and publishers, and it worked.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJPL1wqlV_Y

Can you guys share which programs you like the most? I noticed someone mention Swishmax; never heard of that, so I'll check it out. Animoto is nice and easy, but we have less control over it and thus, to me, the quality can be iffy. I did this in good ol' Windows Moviemaker.

Thanks in advance for suggesting other programs to work with.

Dena

www.onevoicerising.com

nccreative · Oct 21, 2009

nitaworm said:
Wow! You have a lot of views! What's your secret?

Hi, Nita

It's been on there for a year, but the thing is I didn't even try to promote it. It truly spread like wildfire. It wasn't even a finished product, not in my eyes. I wanted to tweak and edit some more but the hits piled up quickly, so what is there stuck.

Let's see what happens when I TRY to promote the next videos, and I'll let you know.

Making use of social networking and various grassroots marketing tools is, to me, the only way to go nowadays. The problem is those tools change monthly. Who even heard of Twitter a year ago?

It's insane...everything happens so quickly and it can all become white noise.

sknipper · Oct 21, 2009

Heidi,

I just watched your book trailer and loved it! I'd definitely read your book after watching it.

sknipper · Oct 21, 2009

nccreative,

Same thing. Loved the trailer! Good job!

Flint · Oct 24, 2009

heidi willis said:
I'm wondering if a book trailer can really generate enough buzz to make it worth the time or money it takes to make a good one. Does anyone have examples of how it's helped sell a book - either your own or one you bought that you wouldn't have known about before?

I've done one for my book that's being released this winter. If you have the chance, could you take a peek and let me know if it's more likely to help or hurt my buzz? I've gotten great feedback, but mostly from people I know, since I haven't tried to get it "out there" yet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsuE9hG1tPk

Thanks!
Heidi

I can't see how it can hurt but I don't see how it can help either. Trailers have to be excting and instantely grab your attention; and in order to do that you need alot of money to make it look professional, especially if your book is scifi/fantasy related or historical, etc. That money is likely better spent on advertising online.

LovetoWrite · Oct 24, 2009

Flint- up until a few minutes ago I would have agreed with that statement. We all learn new things.

I just watched nccreative's book trailer and I loved it. Without a doubt I would buy that book just from seeing the trailer. Its going on my list.

From what she says above, she did it in Windows Moviemaker.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJPL1wqlV_Y

nccreative · Oct 25, 2009

LovetoWrite said:
Flint- up until a few minutes ago I would have agreed with that statement. We all learn new things.

I just watched nccreative's book trailer and I loved it. Without a doubt I would buy that book just from seeing the trailer. Its going on my list.

From what she says above, she did it in Windows Moviemaker.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJPL1wqlV_Y

Many thanks, LovetoWrite. Much appreciated. :hi:

Lemmy Caution · Oct 27, 2009

On Meeting An Agent... the movie

These (totally fictional) accounts of my experiences in the world of publishing have got about 2000 hits in the first week. They are, in a round about way, a promotion for my book (someone said it was the best book trailer they had seen). They are an entertainment in themselves too. Oh, they are enacted by robots. Eight 2-minute episodes. And some bad language.

Chapters 1 to 5 here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkxdALqPkYM

Chapters 6 to 8 here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dumQ3dhl4aU

As 8 separate episodes:
http://www.beachbeneathpavement.co.uk/Site_2/On_Meeting_An_Agent.html

Roland

http://beachbeneathpavement.co.uk

nccreative · Oct 27, 2009

Lemmy Caution said:
These (totally fictional) accounts of my experiences in the world of publishing have got about 2000 hits in the first week. They are, in a round about way, a promotion for my book (someone said it was the best book trailer they had seen). They are an entertainment in themselves too. Oh, they are enacted by robots. Eight 2-minute episodes. And some bad language.

Chapters 1 to 5 here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkxdALqPkYM

Chapters 6 to 8 here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dumQ3dhl4aU

As 8 separate episodes:
http://www.beachbeneathpavement.co.uk/Site_2/On_Meeting_An_Agent.html

Roland

http://beachbeneathpavement.co.uk

Lemmy, that's BRILLIANT!!! *clapping*

Really good stuff.

I have another project -- not related to publishing whatsoever -- for which I want to make a video and have animated characters. Animation is WAY out of my league -- both skill wise and budget. Are there stock animations that one can use in some way -- similar to what Lemmy did here, with simple movements and we can do voiceovers -- that anyone knows of?

Again, really, really great job!

Doctor Shifty · Oct 28, 2009

heidi willis said:
I've done one for my book that's being released this winter. If you have the chance, could you take a peek and let me know if it's more likely to help or hurt my buzz?

Thanks!
Heidi

This one goes bit too slow for me. I'm sitting around waiting for the next line of text without having any action to hold my interest.

OTOH, remember the advertising mottos, "Half of my advertising doesn't work, but I don't know which half" and "Any publicity is good publicity'.

Lemmy Caution · Nov 3, 2009

The robots got interviewed:

http://www.publetariat.com/sell/roland-denning-and-quite-possibly-best-non-book-trailer-ever

Lemmy Caution · Nov 7, 2009

My new trailer (no robots this time):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flMNkqiu-6k

trocadero · Nov 7, 2009

Kirkus Reviews runs a book trailer competition each year for new Random House YA novels. The trailers are made my film students and they are great. I've also posted a link below to a page I found with tons of resources for making a book trailer.

The Book Thief: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95s8GlKY40o
The Forest of Hands and Teeth: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUi3Ap2ga1U&feature=related

This year's finalists (winner to be announced on the 11th November):
The Maze Runner (LOVE this book!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2-zYcD-dDs
Very LeFreak: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OxDa1fl2t0
The Fallen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsLE6bNaIrk

Great resource:http://www.darcypattison.com/marketing/book-trailers/

Seen any great book trailers lately?

heidi willis

Amarie

carpe libri

heidi willis

MumblingSage

Inarticulate Herb

zpeteman

Natural born...

cptwentworth

Did you hear that?!?

nccreative

nitaworm

AW Addict

nitaworm

AW Addict

nccreative

sknipper

sknipper

Flint

Just believe. Then work your butt off.

LovetoWrite

nccreative

Lemmy Caution

nccreative

Doctor Shifty

Press Any Key

Lemmy Caution

Lemmy Caution

trocadero