Wednesday 11 May 2011

Book Trailers - Watch out for the Duck!

Okay, so this post is mostly to discuss book trailers. In the 30 Days of Genre meme (which I need to get right back to) we were asked our favourite book trailer. I realised that I haven't yet really invested in the world of book trailers.

Do you watch book trailers?

Do they sway your decision to buy a book?

If a blog post includes a book trailer, do you ever watch them or do you concentrate on the words of the blog post?

Do you have a preference for a certain type of book trailer? One that aims to bring you elements of the novel, or one that shows the author talking, or something different?

One of the reasons behind my asking these questions is the fact I was sent the following book trailer, which I urge you to watch...



Watched it?

What did you think? Did it make you any more or less eager to read this novel? And what sort of impact do you think that book trailers will have on the careers of self-published authors? A necessary tool of the trade to get the word out? Or something that might discourage people even further from reading their novels.

Now check out this book trailer:



What are your thoughts on this one? Compare and contrast your respective feelings for the two book trailers, if you please, for my interest!

I have ended up watching a few book trailers in the process of composing this blog post, and I am starting to warm to them as a fun extra in the process of marketing novels. Do you have any favourite book trailers that you can share with me?

8 comments:

  1. I thought the second one was charming and atmospheric, and made me want to find out more about the book. It probably helps that I have a soft spot for wolves :)

    The first one (I didn't need to rewatch it, it was burned into my memory during Eastercon!) tried to hard to explain/sell the story, and the mingling of potentially interesting text with bizarre, seemingly random imagery (like the inexplicable rubber duck!) just didn't work.

    I don't have any favourites of my own to share, but it's given me food for thought as to what I might do for my own book trailer (if I make one)...

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  2. Honestly, I never watch book trailers, not even when they're in blog posts. I've always found them cheesy and painful to watch, and they usually make me less likely to read a book. I would much rather read a description than watch something about the book. But of course, I'm more into reading than watching things.

    I did, however, watch this one because I know the author in person. It's rather cute, but I don't know what you'll think of it. -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_AtZkqMGMc

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  3. I preferred the second trailer. I'm not sure it would make me any more or less likely to read the book, but I could see that it was a piece of art in its own right.
    The first trailer was far too long and looked pretty amateurish in comparison to the second.

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  4. The first one? You know my thoughts.

    The second one? It was advertising a book? It was all very nice and everything, but told me nothing about the product it was advertising.

    I tried to find book trailers that people considered to be good and found the one for Graceling....

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7jwHLDpxFM

    Apparently it's a good example. I think it looks about on par with Hawk the Slayer.

    I remain convinced that book trailers are pointless and for most part downright embarrassing.

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  5. The first one - the writing in places went way to fast for me to read, no I can honestly say it didn't tempt me to find out more about the book. The second one - just gorgeous in it's own right. I am now going to google the book so I think it did it's job.

    I think book trailers are a bit hit and miss. I either love them or hate them. My very favourite one ever - yet to be beaten is this one. http://youtu.be/MyO2k-jApng I still go back now and again to just watch and enjoy it. It did tempt me to get the book which I also love as a result.

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  6. On my booktrailermanual.com blog, I have post about 3 different aesthetics about book trailers:
    http://booktrailermanual.com/3-aesthetics/

    Depending on the aesthetic you want, they can be successful or not.

    Darcy
    www.darcypattison.com
    www.booktrailermanual.com
    www.facebook.com/DarcyPattisonAuthor

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  7. Coming from someone who has watched over a thousand book trailers, I think both of these make the mistake of being too long. Very few trailers hold my interest past 30 seconds.

    I think the first one tries too hard to describe everything about the book using lengthy blocks of text whereas the second one does nothing to tell you about the book at all.

    I think book trailers can be incredibly effective as long as they have great soundtrack, and interesting visuals. But I think authors have to be careful to limit the length and maintain interest in the video. Check out http://www.vabbler.com to see more videos!

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  8. Well, I've shared my thoughts on book trailers before on my blog, but in short they are, no I don't really care for them, because it is too easy for them to be cheesy and look cheap and amateurish is you know what I mean. That being said, I did like the second book trailer you posted because I adored that animation :-)

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