Let’s face it: writers can no longer hide in their garrets; they must get out and promote their work before it will find an audience. While hand-holding publishers are scarce, new avenues to promotion offer intriguing options for writers.
BOOK TRAILERS are suddenly hot. I learned about them at the Murder Must Advertise Yahoo group. Modelled after movie trailers, these range from simple self-produced slideshows with text to elaborate infomercials.
Los Angeles literary agent/movie producer Ken Atchity, for example, often prepares book trailers which serve as entry points into author websites. For David Angsten’s Dark Gold, he created a slideshow with text that illustrates just how captivating such a simple presentation can be. But to view it, you must solve a mystery: how to open it? HINT: click on the bikini top. Take a look and discover not only a book, but also this intriguing avenue to promotion.
There are other ways of approaching this new promotional device. To see more options, read on.
Many writers make their own Book Trailers. Lisa Logan created a trailer for her novel Visions, which is posted at her website and on YouTube. She found the task relatively simple, using Microsoft’s Movie Maker, which is bundled in Windows XP. So many writers have commented on her trailer that Lisa is considering putting together a tutorial to help others create their own. Perhaps the biggest challenge is finding copyright-free illustrations and music.
YouTube within months has developed into a remarkable avenue for writers. Book Trailers and other promotional video can be posted there for free. Other writers are taking advantage of this outlet. A look at these will broaden your understanding of how these trailers look — note that most run for about two minutes: Stark Knight by J. R. Turner and Beneath the Morvan Moon by Courtney Mrock.
Some writers, of course, are technologically challenged or just don’t have the time to play with Movie Maker. Vicki Taylor turned to fellow writer Julie Darcy to create two trailers for her recent books. These are posted at MySpace, in addition to her website and YouTube.
Writers are also reaching beyond MovieMaker slideshows. The agent for Margaret Atwood has placed excerpts from a video interview and a lecture on YouTube, including her appearance on Canada’s Book Lounge.
Some writers are uploading brief readings from their work. Melanie Lynn Hauser offers a particularly engaging and well-produced reading from her book Confessions of a Super Mom. Such readings can easily be made with home video equipment. It is critical, however, that one thinks carefully about setting, lighting and mic’ing the voice. A poorly produced reading will turn off potential fans.
Most elaborate of all, however, are the emerging infomercials showing up on YouTube. Modelled on those longish late-night TV and cable commercials that show you how to use some indispensible product, infomercials are now within reach of writers who are willing to take aggressive steps to promote their work.
Take a look, for instance, at this over-the-top promotion of How To Write A Book, Get Pubished and Become A Writer. GOSH! Yet this YouTube video really intrigues me — it sells! This promo piece grew out of the new how-to services offered via the Infomercial Toolkit. It’s expensive, but it does seem to offer real value to the writer bold enough to follow this path. I’m not at all sure this is a REAL promo for a REAL book, however. It may just be an advertising gimmick for the Toolkit people. Still it’s an interesting view of what is possible. I’ll write more about this Toolkit and the company behind it in the future.
Sorry, comments are closed.
Comment by
Raquel Soto
18 Mar 2008
great article.
i just started to do book trailers. i was appalled to find out how much they cost (in my mind, i could pull it off for less). i did two for myself and just did one for a friend. now, some other people have been asking me to do theirs, so i might branch out a bit and do it for others for like 80% less (the market value of what i do is about $1500; i can’t wrap my head around that one! i guess it can be worth it – to pay $1500 –, but i just can’t see paying for that when you are just starting out). the kind i like the best are the mini-teasers that run 2 minutes or less, so that’s what i’m doing.
http://youtube.com/user/acts1614
is the link for the three i did with music. the first one was pretty good, but i fixed what i wanted to recently.
i say: use whatever medium you can to get the word out on what you wrote. book trailers are just one more way of marketing, so might as well add it to the pot. you just need to use a bit of wisdom when doing so.
-r
Comment by
Dave Diotalevi
29 Mar 2008
Jury’s still out on the effectiveness of book trailers. We can’t tell if they’re being watched or watched all the way to the end where most of the contact/sales info is located.
Still, they fulfill the purpose of giving the viewer an awareness of the book even if it takes a few more impressions to make the final sale.
Here’s mine for my mystery, MIRACLE MYX:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9kaWeWekwQ#
Comment by
Tom Colvin
29 Mar 2008
Dave, you’ve certainly put together a gripping trailer. What software did you use to create it?
I agree with you that the jury is still out about this form of promotion. I haven’t seen anyone yet report great success from a trailer, though I’m sure there must be some good results out there.