Ten years ago, book trailers were all the rage, but you rarely see them now unless you go digging in YouTube. And that's a major issue with advertising. You can't make your readers look for your advertising.
There's only one book trailer that ever spurred me to buy the book. And it was shown on a local Houston channel's late night ads--the same place and time the local new age shop and comic book shop aired their ads.
Have any of you seen a good book trailer lately?
IMO "good book trailer" is an oxymoron. [wry smile]
ReplyDeleteMovie trailers work because the trailer gives you a sample of the experience you'll have watching the movie. You get to see a few snippets of the visuals, you hear some of the music, and you usually (although not always) hear some of the dialogue. Plus there's often some kind of voiceover to explain the set-up, if the visuals/dialogue can't do the job in that length of time. But if you like the trailer, there's a decent chance you'll like the movie.
Book trailers give you a completely different experience from that of reading a book. There are visuals, which aren't in the book. There's music, which isn't in the book. The more elaborate the production, the less the book trailer is like the book, which means the less sure you are that liking the trailer will correspond with liking the movie. The two experiences just don't overlap anywhere near enough. You might love the book trailer and still end up hating or being bored by the book.
So, movies are to movie trailers as books are to...?
Actually, it's the marketing text that's generally present on a mass market paperback. The excerpt on the first facing page gives you a sample of the experience of reading the book. The marketing blurb on the back is the equivalent of the movie trailer voiceover giving you the story set-up. If you find those things intriguing, you might like the book.
Book trailers sounded pointless to me from the first time I heard of them. The only people who make any significant money directly from the book trailers are, most likely, the people writers pay to produce them.
But, Angie, tell us how you really feel? LOL I totally understand what you mean.
DeleteThere's a couple of other new-shinies the indie world is latching on to, and they reminded me of the book trailers. And it reminded me of the zombie-Star Trek mash-up, and. . .
Well, I re-posted the book trailer from Night of the Living Trekkies because it's funny as hell.