by Mary Eason
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, or perhaps hiding out in the same cave as Osma, the chances are you’ve seen one book trailer at the very least. If you are an author, you may have tried your hand at creating one, or if your talents don’t tend to gravitate in that direction, then you may have paid someone to turn your book into a video trailer.
What the heck is a video book trailer and why should I care?
Most authors will tell you, finding a surefire promotional tool that works 100% of the time is like finding the goose that laid the golden egg. It just doesn’t happen, folks. In fact, for the most part, promotion can be a game of trial and error.
As an author mystelf, I’ve created my own book trailer for Thirty Lessons – available now at Samhain Publishing and I’ve paid paid a professional to create a video for my first romantic suspense release through Cerridwen Press entitled, Don’t Close Your Eyes. You can be the judge of which is best. You can see all of my videos on you tube:
www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=maryeason&p=r
Authors such as Barbar Freethy, Brenda Novak, Syliva Day have turned their bestsellers into videos. Marketing expert and author M.J. Rose has been using book videos to promote her books since 2001 because, “The impact of imagery is greater than the impact of words.”
But Does It Work?
Christine Feehan’s web traffic has increased 700 percent since she started showing the videos on her site.
“Several booksellers have told me they enjoyed them,” JoAnn Ross (No Safe Place) said. “Did that make them order more books? Again, who knows? I can foresee the day when chain bookstores will run book videos in their stores, the way Blockbuster runs movie trailers. If I were an independent bookseller, I’d have a computer monitor set up on my checkout counter, running all the book videos I could find today. What better way to get customers talking to you about what kind of books they like to read? Which, of course, opens up the opportunity to hand-sell more books! And isn’t that what we all want?”
As the book video market as grown, so has the notice of industry professionals. The Book Standard highlights five book videos every week, including author interviews, book teasers, and more. They also now host the annual Book Video Awards with entries from U.S. film schools. Publishers have also jumped on the bandwagon and commission book videos on a steady basis.
So, recently, I decided to put on my investigative garb and conduct a little survey on the subject. I did a flash poll where I asked both readers and writers alike to comment on these two questions:
Are book trailers an important factor in your purchasing of a particular book?
Or
Do they matter at all to you.
And the results?
Well, they are as wide and varied as most things are in the publishing world.
Of those who responded to my poll, I learned that most would watch a video if it is easy to access and if they had the correct connection (if you are trying to view a video with dial up it can be very frustrating).
But did it make a difference in whether or not a possible reader would buy the book? From the responses I received, I would have to say, no.
So what have I learned from all this?
For me, I’ve learned that book trailers are useful, and yes, there is a target audience for them, but I wouldn’t put all of my promotional money or efforts into that single basket.
The most successful form of promotion for any writer starts first when an author sits down to write their book. Write the best book you possibly can, write what’s in your heart and the chances are you will find your target audience.
All the best…
Mary Eason
http://www.maryeason.bravehost.com/
Check out my character blog at: http://www.maryeason.blogspot.com/
Silent Witness – Available now at Cerridwen Press
The Things You Think You Want – Available now at Samhain Publishing
Thirty Lessons – Available now at Samhain Publishing
Survivor – Available now at Samhain Publishing
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I agree. It’s very difficult to know what works promotion-wise, and how to spend your money wisely. I think every new thing suddenly becomes a “must have” even if there is no proof that it works.
Book trailers don’t impress me. I don’t have time to watch them, and have never bought a book based on one. Could they help a reader remember your name? Maybe.
I do think that the best thing you can do as a writer is get your publisher behind you and excited about your work. They have a lot more money than we do and can pay for things that definitely work, such as store placement.
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I love to create book trailers, but they are very time consuming. Still it’s nice seeing your book in pictures..
Mary
This is so funny, because I literally woke up this morning with the idea for a commercial playing in my head.
I’ve made book trailers and can’t honestly say I’ve sold even one additional book because of them. What I CAN say is that they help provide avenues and methods of getting my name into people’s heads that wouldn’t be possible otherwise. By being able to post on video sites, I instantly have access to a wider variety of markets. By offering music and imagery to accompany my advertisting blurbs, I employ more of an audience’s senses to help them remember who I am and what I do. Things that hopefully, in the future, will pay off.
Meanwhile, may I say I LOVE the idea of booksellers running book trailers in their stores!! Why aren’t they all doing this? I’ve bought CD’s and movies on the spot, solely because the store was playing a clip.
I don’t think a book trailer has ever impressed me much. I can think of one book I was thinking of getting until I saw a hideously amateur trailer with illegally used images, and decided I wouldn’t support that author. So, like any promo, they can also have negative effects.
Would I be archaic if I said I’ve never seen a book trailer? :aww
Promo dollars are so limited I’d want to make sure I’m getting extra sales if I were to go down that route…now, must broaden my horizons and go check a few out!!!
Nicola, you needn’t spend a cent on those trailers. Check out my website, click on the workshops link, and there I have DIY trailer tutorial…SO easy you wouldn’t believe it. Fun, too.
Nicola – that’s the thing. I don’t watch book trailers, either. Are we typical? I don’t know. I recently heard one author go on and on about all the online promotion she does in My Space and various other communities. By the time she finished talking, I was flabbergasted by the amount of time she must put into her online presence. Does it work for her? Probably, since she writes Young Adult, and a lot of young people are on line. But there is NO WAY I could spend hours every day doing what she does. I don’t even think it would particularly benefit me.
So I think part of the question is what are your reader demographics? And what are you comfortable doing? I recently saw a very funny interview online with an author, and liked it so much that I now remember her name. I still haven’t bought one of her books, but I remember her name. But that wasn’t a typical book trailer. I’ve seen a few book trailers and while they were nice and glitzy, I don’t remember the authors or the books. But again, that’s me. There could be readers out there that love book trailers. Since I don’t watch them myself, I am not particularly interested in making one. Now a funny interview……
By the way, where’s our Monday check in? I have a burning and fierce need to waggle my word count!
Go ahead, Lisa! I’m here! :disco I’m not doing much writing today. I spent most of the afternoon on my deck watching the mother robin feed insects to the three babies in the nest overhead. I really needed a kick-back kind of day. I spent all weekend finishing the edits for my November book and I am drained….. And the deck simply tempted me. :deil I’ll get back to work tomorrow….
Ah, sounds like heaven, Gail!! It’s a bit chill and threatening rain here, but I’d rather be on the deck than where I’m headed shortly…work! You’d think the hospital would have the courtesy to close on holidays so employees could get a day off. Go figure. heh.
SO I FINISHED yesterday!! Book and word count is done. Final total was 27139 words. Not bad considering I had no plot. ::end brag:: LOL
:dance Lisa!!!!
And thanks for the link!
Gail, I think you summed it up perfectly.
You need to know your reader demographics.
And it’s the time factor. With limited writing time, I need to do just that, write
I spend about an hour a day doing online promo stuff (eg. updating blog, MySpace, etc…) and that’s about all I can afford time-wise.
Would be interesting to hear how many readers actually went out and bought books because of a trailer…a good article for someone to do
Lisa, Congratulations!!! WOOHOO!
Had a nice day here, high in the low 80s which is hot for Wisconsin at this time of year. Breeze blew up around 8 p.m. when we were outside and it dropped 20 degrees just like that. Brrr. high of 53 tomorrow.
Isabel
I guess I’ll check in here too…
For today: 1,073
Total: 25,029
I’m done! Well, not really. I’m probably only about half done with this book, but I’ve made my word count for the challenge. :cooldance I’ll keep going and see how many words I make by May 31.
I’m really pleased that I was able to do this, especially during such a crazy month at the day job. There were a few days when I honestly thought I wouldn’t make it.
Congrats to Lisa for making your wc! :partyhat