Coming Soon to a Bookstore Near You

by Robert Gregory Browne

I spent most of Saturday working on a book trailer.

For the record, I have certain reservations about them. First, I think they can be misleading in a way. And by misleading, I mean to the average YouTube viewer who stumbles across your trailer and thinks WTF is this? Is it a movie? Ooooh, it’s a BOOK.

Then he clicks away, wishing it were a movie instead, because a movie gets him excited, but a book — eh, not so much. Books require work.

Second, for those who actually like to read books and are excited by a book trailer, I think the reading experience can be ruined if the trailer in question uses faces. Once you use a face in a trailer, you take the risk that the reader has a preconceived notion of what your characters look like. Since I generally like to leave that up to the reader, showing faces — for me, at least — is a no-no.

That said, here’s a trailer that I think is VERY WELL PRODUCED, shows faces, yet makes me want to go out and buy the book:

The above trailer works very well, in my estimation. It tells the premise in a dramatic way, is fast, constantly moving, and actually gets me excited about the book.

I have seen trailers out there that are long and boring and look like they were made by someone’s twelve-year-old stepson with the beginner’s version of Flash. And authors paid money to get them made.

And that’s another reservation I have about book trailers. Many of them are poorly produced and do not reflect well on the craft. Even bad movies tend to have good trailers, and I’d say there are lot more good books than movies, so why so many bad book trailers?

Now, the following is NOT a badly produced book trailer. And I have to say the book sounds like it could be a good one. But my problem with it is that it just gives WAY too much detail. Instead of getting straight to the point, it spends too much time explaining what the story is about:

Again, WELL produced, but do I really need to know all that going in? Why not simply tease me? Yes, the artwork is nice — and apparently comes straight from the books — but, again, less is more, folks.

Finally, here’s the trailer that I made for my own book. No, it’s not a masterpiece, but it’s what I think of more as a TEASER than a trailer. No faces. A quick idea of what the book is about, a few blurbs and I’m outta there:

Now, I have no objectivity here, so I can’t say whether this is a good trailer or bad. But my publisher’s marketing people like it enough to use it, so I’m happy about that.

But then comes the next question. What do you do with a trailer once it’s done? Put it up on YouTube and its clones in hopes that someone will stumble across it? Had I not gone looking specifically for trailers, I never would have known about the above examples or the books they promote.

Do you put it up on Amazon? That’s probably a good place for it, but again, the problem is HOW DO YOU GET PEOPLE TO WATCH IT? Once they get to your Amazon page, yes, they might watch the trailer and even be compelled to buy the book, but if they’ve already gone there, they obviously already know about your book.

So, unless you can come up with some super viral gimmick, I doubt that many people WILL watch it.

Of course, that didn’t stop me from making one. Because it’s the thing to do. And it COULD help. It hopefully won’t hurt.

Because, hey — what the hell do I know?

I just work here.

35 thoughts on “Coming Soon to a Bookstore Near You

  1. Catherine

    The nice lingering shot of the book fixes the cover firmly in memory (for later purchasing decisions) and the plinking sound is very effectively disturbing…in a good way.

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  2. Kathryn Lilley

    I think there is definitely a brave new world emerging out there on the web, and book trailers will ultimately have a place there. My teenagers have introduced me to characters and subcultures that have first emerged on YouTube and the net, and then made the leap to “traditional” media outlets such as CDs, books and entertainment. It may be no coincidence that the successful book trailer you mention is targeted toward a younger audience. And I agree with you that great production values are key. (Although I have seen some of the hokiest cartoons and images “take off” on YouTube. For example, look up Octocat. Octocat’s adventures on YouTube have had thousands of views and many tributes.)

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  3. Alexandra Sokoloff

    Okay, I feel like I’ve said this so many times I should just get it tattooed on my forehead, but…

    Trailers are great to have for your website, and if you make one yourself it’s HUGELY helpful for your publisher’s marketing department – they can use the trailer to get their sales reps excited about the book, send them to bookstores and libraries, etc.

    And btw, that’s a good one, Rob – very creepy!

    But distribution is the key to making a trailer count. For that reason alone I would never rely on my own resources. The production company that makes my book trailers, Circle of Sevenhttp://cosproductions.com -invented the book trailer and it is also a full-service DISTRIBUTION company. Included in the price of their teasers and trailers is distribution to dozens of book trailer sites, Borders and B&N’s websites, and the option of distribution to all kinds of interesting markets, like Transit TV (your trailer can play on public transportation in five major cities).

    COS’s founder, Sheila Clover, acts as a publicist for her authors and is constantly coming up with new and amazing venues for trailers. There is absolutely NO WAY that I could get my own trailer out there to as many sources as she does – I’d never have time to write. And if another venue opens up, I know Sheila will be the first one in the door – if she didn’t actually make the door herself.

    My COS trailers are on my website, here: http://alexandrasokoloff.com/books.htmlhttp://alexandrasokoloff.com/books.html#price

    And I’d be happy to pass anyone on to Sheila who’s interested in talking with her.

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  4. Stacey Cochran

    Hi Rob, to answer your question about how to get people to watch it…

    One strategy is to use keywords in the title, tag, and description of your video that people already search for in high numbers, and which won’t compete with scores of other videos with the same keywords.

    YouTube videos rank very high on Google for searches, if you can develop an original keyword. Just make sure the keyword appears in your Title, Description, and Tag information.

    For example, I’ve made a lot of YouTube videos regarding literary agents.

    In fact, if you search YouTube for the phrase “Literary Agent” I produced the top seven videos returned in the search (and about seven others returned on page 1 of the search results).

    Likewise if you do a Google search for “Literary Agent Video” my YouTube videos show up in the #1 spot out of a half million websites with the same phrase associated with them.

    Similarly, I’ve made videos on YouTube with search phrases like “Podcast Novel” and “How to Publish a Book” and “Hillary Clinton Whiskey Shot” lol, which are all phrases that people have searched for in very high numbers.

    Because YouTube videos are favored by Google, it’s actually not terribly difficult to get a video seen by a few thousand people simply by using keywords that people are already searching for.

    You might try your “Kiss Her Goodbye” trailer (or doing a seperate one of the same trailer) using the title of “Book Trailer” and repeat that phrase in the description and tag section.

    Then, if someone does a search for “Book Trailer” in a broad sense, they will find your video first.

    Stacey

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  5. Louise Ure

    Great job on the teaser, Rob. I especially like the graphic treatment aligned with the piano background.

    And Alex, thanks for the distribution tips.

    I did a video for The Fault Tree (find it on my website at: http://www.louiseure.com) and will probably do one for Liars Anonymous next Spring, but like you, I’m not sure that it’s the best way to get readers’ attention.

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  6. Rob Gregory Browne

    Thanks to all for the kind comments on the video.

    Kathryn, I think teens are a great audience for this kind of thing. They’re used to watching YouTube videos and will stick with you as long as they’re entertained. Unfortunately, less and less of them read these days, but that’s another story.

    Alex, I’m not sure Circle of Seven invented book trailers (I’m pretty sure I saw a few on TV before they came around — although I could be wrong), but they’ve certainly made a big business out of it, and I think they’re very smart in having a distribution method for their videos.

    Stacey, good points all. I’ll take your advice when I post this video to YouTube.

    Louise, I taught a class earlier this year on book trailers for the MWA in Los Angeles, and your Fault Tree video was an example I used as one of the good ones…

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  7. Jake Nantz

    Mr. Browne,Wow, great trailer. Left me wanting more, which is EXACTLY what it should do. And you mentioned viral marketing. I think if it’s done right, it can be a huge boost.

    Ms. Sokoloff,Man, I absolutely despise hospitals, so the trailer for THE PRICE scared the living shit outta me. COS looks like they do really good work. Definitely something to keep in mind in the future.

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  8. John Dishon

    I think it’s folly to assume that any kind of promotion will have at least no effect, to dismiss the possibility of a promotional item hurting your sales. Because I can tell you, for me anyway, book trailers do have a negative impact.

    And I got to say right from the start, if a younger audience is the intended audience for book trailers, you guys are dreaming and out of touch with reality. Show any candid young person a book trailer and listen to how corny they tell you it is.

    Think about a movie trailer. A movie trailer takes actual images, scenes from the movie to make the trailer. So, watching the trailer is equivalent to reading sample passages from a book: you know the samples you see (or read) are going to be in the full movie (or book).

    But that’s not what a book trailer does. A book trailer creates new images which only represent the actual content. Even if the scenes represented in the first trailer you showed are in the book, they’re not the same. They won’t feel the same.

    Take Jurassic Park as an example. Here is a case of both an excellent book and an excellent movie. The basic plot is the same in both, yet they each feel completely different. Showing me scenes from the movie is not going to tell me what the book is like, the what the reading experience will be like.

    If you want to sell me something, you have to get through my initial prejudices. Bad production values makes me assume (and I think this is true for a lot of us) that the content inside the book is going to be bad as well.

    The First Trailer. If it were a movie trailer, at best it would be a made-for-TV movie, probably starring a washed-up soap star. That’s just my initial reaction, and it may be a false assumption, but I am going to assume that the content of the book is the same quality. It’s a natural reaction for me.

    The same is true of book covers. If the cover looks unprofessional, I’m going to think the story itself is the same. I may be wrong, but it’s your job as the seller to make me think differently.

    The book of the first trailer has both production value problems (though the acting is better than most book trailers, I’ll give you that)and an amateur-looking book cover.

    The Second Trailer. This one is the most interesting to me because I like adventure stories, and because the trailer doesn’t try to do too much. See, a book trailer is using cinema of the eye (images the eye processes and sends to the brain) to represent cinema of the mind (the images in our head when we read a story). That’s different from a movie or video game trailer, where actual images of the movie or game are used to make the trailer.

    So a book trailer is by nature an approximation; but they are on separate planes, because you lose something in translation when going from cinema of the mind to cinema of the eye. This is why the story in your head never comes out quite how you wanted it to when you put it on paper; you are taking infinite images (because your mind does not have to define the image, where as putting it on paper, you are forced to define it)and making finite images.

    The second trailer gives me the background of the story succinctly, yet I still haven’t been told the story. Remember, this book is about a completely fictional world, so more explanation is going to be necessary. The trailer uses animation in a more static, Monty Python-ish way to convey its scenes. It’s still not a sample of the actual content, but it’s a better representation than live actors, because the characters themselves were conjured from the mind initially, and real people are not.

    The Third Trailer uses flashy production but contains no substance. The book cover itself looks professional, but it’s on the same level as a thousand others. You have a background image with large text on top. This cookie cutter design does nothing to distinguish itself from the many other books out there, and this is important since it is the only image used in the trailer, and especially since the trailer tells me nothing about what the book is about (a fatal flaw; all movie trailers tell you at least a little about what it is about, and at least give you actual images so you can deduce something on your own).

    All this third trailer consists of is a phone conversation that sounds like it was ripped from a bad horror movie, and some blurbs. The b-movie vibe has a negative effect, and how is showing blurbs in a trailer more effective than putting them on a website or the book jacket? A website dedicated to the book would be more effective, where I can go there and not only read your blurbs (which actually mean nothing to me; I don’t trust them anymore after being grossly misled by Ken Bruen’s ejaculation over The Night Gardener, which turned out to be a mediocre at best book with very little conflict and zero tension, but I digress) but also read sample chapters, actual content that I will find in the real book. The author could also get me interested in the book by posting some articles about the creation of the book, or an interview with the author.

    But this third trailer is a waste of the medium because it offers nothing that the book itself (by way of the jacket) doesn’t already provide. The problem with getting the public to see it exists for the website as well as for the book trailer, but at least the website will have actual samples of the book.

    Anyway, I hate book trailers and that’s why. They in fact do turn me off from considering the book. To qualify my arguments, I should note I am 24 years old (so my comments about young people aren’t completely off base, at least). I hope this has been food for thought.

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  9. Pari Noskin Taichert

    Interesting discussion.

    I’m not a book trailer convert. They CAN work for some people. To me it’s a matter of having many tools in your PR/marketing kit and then being consistent about using them

    What I appreciated about your post, Rob — as well as the comments thus far — is the analytical examination of the pros and cons.

    This is very useful.

    Thank you.

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  10. ArkansasCyndi

    I cannot honestly say I’ve bought a book based on a book trailer. Never. I don’t (as a general rule) seek them out. For the ones you listed, one and three would have interested me the most, but number 2 drove me nuts.

    I have to admit, I’ve seen a couple of videos by James O Born and JA Konrath that made me laugh and made me want to read them. And neither of their videos had a thing in them about the book they were plugging. It was just humor. For me, humor sells.

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  11. Rob Gregory Browne

    John, thanks so much for your comments. It’s always nice to read an alternative point of view.

    While I won’t comment on your reaction to my own trailer, I will mention that I think St. Martin’s did a fabulous job on the book’s cover.

    While there may be some small truth to the “cookie cutter” remark, I actually think that an important part of marketing is to give the reader something he or she is comfortable with, but make it compelling enough to want to pick up the book if they see it in a book store. And in this case I think St. Martin’s has really hit the mark. Trust me, I’ve seen many horrific covers in my time and this isn’t one of them.

    Pari, I think it’s great to have trailer, but again — and for many of the reasons John states — I have my reservations.

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  12. Brett Battles

    To the public at large, I don’t think trailers really mean that much at this time. Will that change in the future? Who knows, but probably not.

    But I do think they are very useful in one way. Specifically, when done right, they can energize your publisher and their sales force. Perhaps, in this respect, you are only making it for a total of 10 or 20 people, but those are the 20 or so people you want to be fired up. As a secondary benefit…if a few readers out there see it and are intrigued enough to find out more, perhaps with a mention in the trailer to see more at the author’s website, that’s a bonus. You’re not going to appeal to most people. But that does not make it without merit.

    As a tool to get your publisher behind your book, it can be invaluable. But it has to be well done, and not look like something your friend knocked out on his computer when he was bored one night.

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  13. John Dishon

    You know, the discussion of book trailers also brings up the question: Is any book advertising effective? Aside from Oprah’s Book Club, I can’t think of any advertising for books that is effective. You only really see book ads in bookstores, or maybe in a publication about books (Publishers Weekly, New York Time Book Review, etc).

    And I’ve always wondered how a book becomes a bestseller. Take The Story of Edgar Sawtelle for example. Stephen King wrote a blurb for it, which will help it sell once people see it, but how did so many people know it existed?

    I bought my copy just a couple weeks ago, hardcover, and the jacket already had a New York Times Bestseller tag on it. Did the publisher know it was going to sell so well? How did they know that?

    So I don’t know; for me at least, book advertising is a mystery.

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  14. John Dishon

    Brett, that’s a good point. People hate junk mail, after all, yet there must be some benefit to it, otherwise companies wouldn’t invest so much money into them. Book trailers aren’t near as annoying as junk mail, though.

    I think a flash animated banner ad would be just as effective as a book trailer. You could buy ad space on a website like other companies and reach more people, without having to create a whole trailer; banner ads would also take up less space.

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  15. Rob Gregory Browne

    John, I agree about the flash banner ads. But again, are they effective? Hard to say. I mean, I suppose you could also do Google Ads, but I’m not sure anyone ever clicks on those either.

    I think Brett’s point is probably the most valid one here, today. That much of this stuff is done to energize the marketing people. It never hurts to have them excited about promoting your book and giving them tools that will help make their job easier. God knows, they work their asses off.

    As for how a book gets noticed in general, I think most of that has to do with placement. What stores is it in? WHERE is it placed in the store? If your book is front and center, a lot of people will see it. And that, unfortunately, is mostly out of the author’s hands. It’s up to the publisher to buy that space, and I’m sure it isn’t cheap.

    One thing an author CAN do is drive-by signings. Go to as many bookstores as you can, sign the stock, and those books will automatically go to the front of the store. Free co-op, if you don’t count travel time and money.

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  16. Sandra Tooley

    Great job. The gravelly whisper, the spine “tinkling” tunes as the reviews are displayed, and that dramatic flash of white background at the end are enough to entice me to want to read it. Like someone else on this thread mentioned, I too used COS Productions for CHASING GHOSTS. I didn’t have the deep pockets for actors and moving scenes. They just focused on various parts of the book cover. By signing onto Google Alert, Google lets me know which sites now are displaying the video. I also did a 1000 postcard mailing of the book cover which also gave a link to YouTube and my web site (www.sdtooley.com) where the trailer can be seen. I thought it was money well spent.

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  17. Jolie

    You’re completely right about that second trailer. Thirty seconds in, I felt so bombarded with details and information, I stopped watching. It’s too much setting and exposition up front, and that’s not how a prospective reader wants you to approach them (at least, it’s not how I want to be approached). They should have put the hook/conflict/MC at the beginning, and then I might have kept watching.

    I LOVE your teaser trailer! The tidbit you chose to give us was the just right. Now I want to read the book. And where did the music come from? It’s great.

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  18. Zoë Sharp

    Hi Rob

    This post highlighted the book trailer problem for me. We’re in rural area with slooooooow broadband. The constant rebuffering makes anything like this a total pain to watch.

    Having said that, your trailer, although it took a couple of minutes to load, played in one hit – and was very effective when it did. Less is definitely more in this case. Plus, it wasn’t trying to be a movie trailer, which always leads to a sense of disappointment when you think you’re being sold one thing, only to find it’s another.

    I looked into doing a book trailer for SECOND SHOT before it came out in the US last year – I had the whole thing storyboarded in my head, but the costs were going to be horrific. Maybe I just wasn’t talking to the right people.

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  19. Rob Gregory Browne

    Thanks Sandra and Jolie. Sandra, I use Google Alerts, but find it often spotty, giving me notification of stuff that was posted over a year ago…

    Jolie, I did the music for it. After I assembled the trailer, I fired up my “orchestra in a box” (Logic 8) and played along with it on my trusty keyboard. It took me several passes to get all the parts, orchestra, timpani, piano licks, but I was pretty happy with the result. Thanks again.

    Zoe, video production is VERY expensive. If I actually had to pay for these things, I’d probably not bother. Fortunately, I have a video and music background.

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  20. Catherine

    Although I’ve already mentioned the elements that appealed to me in the ‘Whisper in the Dark’ teaser, I think what increased the effectiveness… was your placement of the teaser here. The analysis of what does/doesn’t work re:trailers helped me to be more receptive.

    For the most part I avoid trailers like the plague for a lot the reasons you mentioned in the post and additional comments.

    The key difference of why I opened it and watched it, was I knew this particular teaser came from the same mind that created the story. That’s a much bigger hook for me.Maybe it’s also why reading an extract chapter is an integral part of my purchasing process.

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  21. Rob Gregory Browne

    You have a good point there, Catherine. If I knew that, say, Michael Connelly had a hand in his latest book trailer, I might be more inclined to watch it.

    As for chapter extracts, I often have trouble with those because I have to read them online in a format that doesn’t look like a book. That’s distracting to me.

    I do, however, love excerpts of the author’s next book at the back of his current release, which is why I was so happy when St. Martin’s put an excerpt of Whisper in the back of the Kiss Her Goodbye paperback.

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  22. Fiona

    I love book trailers. I agree that it can be distracting if there are faces of people/characters in them.

    I have that problem with movies (one of the MANY problems I have with books made into movies) because the character does not look or sound like the character in my mind—–and the character in my mind is the RIGHT one. LOL

    I do so love the “teaser” chapter at the end of another book, too. I often get books by new-to-me authors at the library and it saves me checking out another book before I get a peek.

    I have seen book trailers linked on either B&N or Borders’ website.

    One very cool thing Neil Gaiman has on his website is a widget that “counts down” to his next release, with a cover of the book. It is instant anticipation for a fan.

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  23. Fiona

    One other thing I enjoy is a link on the website of the author reading the prologue or first chapter of a book. Hearing the author’s pacing and emphasis can stay with me when I’m reading their books and helps me feel more connected to the characters.

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  24. Michelle Gagnon

    Great trailer, Rob! Really impressed with it. I paid for a trailer to be produced for my latest book, and I definitely didn’t regret it. It made a difference with my publisher’s marketing department, and I also think that in this day and age, people are more likely to watch it on Amazon before reading the reviews and blurbs- and since amazon does send readers to other authors’ pages, someone who bounced over from Jeffery Deaver might watch the trailer and feel compelled to buy the book. Or that’s my hope. It also ended up as a favorite for a few days on Gather, and I got a lot of feedback from that. I also used COS productions (mainly because I thought they did such an incredible job with Alex’s trailers) and was thrilled with both the production quality and their distribution.

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  25. Michelle Gagnon

    A couple of other things- I think that ironically both the most and least successful book trailer I have ever seen was the book launch 2.0 one on You tube. 40,000 hits and counting, I watched it three times and laughed out loud each time, forwarded it to friends and saw it posted everywhere on the boards…and I could not tell you the author’s name, book title, or describe the cover to save my life. Classic example of a missed opportunity.Also, chiming in on drop-in signings, I remain unconvinced that they make a whit of difference, at least at the big box stores (indies are a different story). I did over a hundred last summer, and felt like ninety percent of the time I was dealing with a bored teenage salesclerk working his/her summer job who then put the books back on the shelf, in a place where shoppers generally didn’t care whether or not the book was signed. And my publisher didn’t seem to care whether or not I did it or not, so in the end I thought it was a lot of time, effort, and gas spent with very little return. But I’d be curious to hear what others think…

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  26. Pat Brown

    I agree with you wholeheartedly about trailers. I don’t generally watch them and the ones I do are almost always disappointing. They do the opposite of making me want to read the book they’re promoting. An amateurish trailer is far worse in my opinion than no trailer at all. I haven’t produced any for my books. If my publisher wants to, I’m game, but I hope it’s a good one, or I wouldn’t be inclined to use it anywhere.

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  27. Hadrian

    It’s great to read everyone’s views on book trails! I believe the medium is still in its early stages and has an enormous amount of potential.

    Book trailers share the same motivations, and strengths, as the coveted art of the “elevator pitch.” It is an opportunity for the writer to grab a reader and say, “this is what my book is all about.” To be successful, it must capture the mood of the book through both its images and music, introduce the reader to the initial conflict, and most importantly, leave the reader wanting more.

    Rod, to answer your question about what to do with your trailer now that it is finished… Due to an uncomfortable amount of extra time on my hands I put together a site devoted to trailers: http://www.bookscreening.com

    I’d be happy to post your video. And, if any of the other Murderati have trailers, contact me and I’ll post them as well. (Come to think of it, Alexandra’s “The Price” was the very first trailer I posted!)

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  28. Sheila English

    Wow! Great post and comments!

    I could write a book about how to make a trailer effective, wait, I did write a book about it. lol But in a nutshell, trailers are not meant to be commercials.

    Commercials inform.Trailers (also known as viral videos) entertain.

    I thought the trailers shown here were good for different reasons. I do think the Whisper in the Dark video is good. Excellent commercial, good trailer. The fact that an author made it and it looks that good deserves some kudos to be sure! Not saying that authors can’t be creative, but they don’t normally make videos.

    Since our videos started playing on Transit TV (as Alex mentioned) we have been contacted by other off line venues. This week we were asked to provide trailer for high school kiosks that are in the high school library. A couple of months ago we signed a contract to supply trailer to a group of libraries (5000 of them). Over 10 million people will see one of our videos that go to Transit TV.

    You need the trailer to get to a place where people are more likely to care about it. Our videos go out to over 300 booksellers. We post to GoodReads, BookScreening, Watch the Book and dozens of other niche or micro markets. And there are over 400 social media sites that will accept book trailers (YouTube, MySpace, Bebo, Facebook, etc.)

    Stacey talked about keywords and that’s so important. Your SEO goes up dramatically with video. People pay for that kind of placement, yet those with video can get it organically if they know anything about video SEO or keywords.

    I listed about 60-70 sites you can post to if anyone is interested.http://booktrailers.blogspot.com/2008/06/book-video-distribution.html

    For those of you who make your own, you can get them put on Reader’s Entertainment TV for free. http://www.readersentertainment.tv

    Thanks for those of you who mentioned COS!I can’t say for sure that COS invented book trailers, but what was seen on tv before 2003 were actually commercials, not trailers. COS was the first to put trailers on tv and in movie theaters. And we did trademark the term back in the day. Not that we can police that anymore.

    Great discussion! Cheers!Sheila

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  29. Rob Gregory Browne

    Thanks again, all, for your kind comments about the Whisper trailer.

    Hadrian, I’d love to post the video on your site. Will check it out asap, but will hold off on posting for a couple months because the book doesn’t come out until February of next year.

    RJ, I think that answers your question… 🙂

    And Sheila, thanks for stopping by and offering us the list of trailer distribution sites. That’s a real help.

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  30. Pam Claughton

    I’m somewhat torn on book trailers. I have bought books because of them, (Allison Brennan). But 90% I find annoying because they are usually too long, clunky and as Rob said, often give too much info.

    The one for GONE totally sold me though, I want to read that book. Rob, I think yours worked well too, but the blank black screen with the voiceover at the beginning was a little jarring…still, end result is I want to read it. 🙂

    Here’s the best trailer I’ve seen yet, and I like the way it’s on the author’s home page, and right next to the trailer is a link to an excerpt….this is what sold me. Any time I buy a book, whether it first gets my attention via trailer or other means, I always read an excerpt before buying. The writing sells me….the trailer just gets me there.

    This trailer is very slick…and perfectly captures the book, which was a very fun read. Just heard that it may be going to be a TV series, very high concept.

    http://www.thefidelityfiles.com/

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  31. Pam Claughton

    Meant to also add that Twitter could be a great way to get the word out virally for a new trailer, plenty of room in those little posts for a link to your site/trailer.

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  32. Rob Gregory Browne

    I briefly met Jessica Brody at the RWA St. Martin’s signing and picked up the book because it sounded like an interesting one to me.

    While I appreciate the slick trailer, I have to say that — even though I KNEW it was for a book — I was wondering if they were using scenes from the TV series you mentioned. Then, at the end, when it says, A BOOK BY JESSICA BRODY, I felt that moment of let down I spoke of in my post. Again, EVEN THOUGH I KNEW ALL ALONG IT WAS A BOOK.

    Obviously, not everyone sees it the way I do. But most of the time I think we’re better off going with something simple.

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