Ever heard of “book trailers”?
Toby Buckell points me to a service that creates “online book trailers” to help authors advertise and virally promote their books. Starting at $250, they make a video where the text of the description is fed on to the view pane while the pane pans over the cover of the book. Scaling up to the far end, $50,000 gets you a fully scripted, shot and edited “mini-movie” a few minutes long. Costs also include distribution to many of the social media sites, like YouTube and MySpace, allowing for lots of folks to see the book.
I have mixed feelings about this service. The site doesn’t seem to make any outrageous claims and puts everything up front — you will be paying them to do some work for you. But the lower end of the spectrum, where I’m guessing that they do most of their business, there’s nothing that they are doing that a motivated author could not do for his or herself. Maybe I’m just a DIY kinda guy. And yes, I do have some experience in the multimedia production world. That’s why I know this stuff ain’t hard.
Still, there is a need for the DIFM (Do It For Me) movement as well. Many authors would rather just be authors and leave the messy promotion stuff to someone else. Fine. I get that. And if you fall into that category, rock on. Heck, I could change my own oil, but I don’t. Maybe this is the same thing? But then again, I know how to do it and just choose not to. Perhaps that’s a part of the equation, too,,,
March 14th, 2007 at 8:24 am
You see these book trailers all the time on Skiffy and USA Networks for James Patterson novels (and that must be part of his contract because he’s the only author I’ve seen a publisher do this for), but they appear at first glance like movie trailers and then you get a a look at the book at the end of the commercial. They are very slick, very sharp, and well produced.
Book trailers are nothing new. A friend of the Dragon Page (and really nice guy to boot), Mitchell Graham, did this for his first novel The Fifth Ring. I did this myself for MOREVI…although if I posted it on YouTube or some place else, I would have the pants sued off me as I used movie clips from other Fantasy and epic history films for the trailer. (I did it for myself and Lisa, so it was for fun as opposed to promotion.) I know a couple of authors who have invested in Book Trailer services. They’re a lot of fun and an interesting way to package books…
…but as a marketing tool. For the same price, you could produce one hell of a podiobook with that.
(SIDE NOTE: Patterson’s book trailers annoy me to no end on account that these books are billed as “James Patterson’s latest thriller…” but when you get your first glance at the book cover you might notice there are TWO authors billed on the cover. The end shot of the book cover, the longest look at the featured title, conveniently crops out the second author’s name. What does that tell you.)
March 14th, 2007 at 4:54 pm
Book Trailers have indeed been around for a long time. COS Productions started making them in 2002. And, in the interest of full disclosure here, I am the CEO of COS Productions.
The evolution of Book Trailers (I trademarked that term in 2003, when no one cared about it and most people laughed at the idea) has been an interesting one. With 4 years of experience and statistics, I can honestly say that these do sell books.
It was difficult, in the beginning, when there really was no market for the trailers. I was lucky enough to have someone at Borders Group become interested in them and they used them occassionally. Now they’re used quite a bit and you can find them on Borders new “Borders Media” which recently went live.
We started playing them on television, then in movie theaters. This has been more successful than anyone in the industry would have believed. But, the big change happened in early 2006. User-generated video sites…ah….gotta love them! We now include distribution with ALL of our videos, whether they are the $250 video or the $50,000 video. Our videos are also automatically sent to big name booksellers and book distributers who have, over time, watched our progress. So, though an author can make one themself, it is in the distribution that our company really excels. In Feb of 2006 we commissioned a study on what social sites are best for book video. And, then we started identifying genre-specific sites. Some sites, such as MySpace, for example, are GREAT for anything horror or fantasy. That site isn’t as accepting of contemporary novels. It’s those little details that really pay off in the end.
An interesting stat that I can share, since I know other book video makers have the same information, so you can check out what I’m telling you, is that the click through rate (when a person views the video and immediately clicks the “to buy” button and purchases the video) has gone from 10% in 2005 to 50% in 2006. That number can vary according to where the video is actually placed, but there’s no denying that the trend is an evolution and not a gimmick.
The next step is online television. And yes, we have alrady purchased a channel. LOL
BTW- I have the same issue with the Patterson thing.
July 11th, 2007 at 10:27 am
I know many people who have a hard time believing that they can do some things for themselves. I also know of some people who think they can do some things that they shouldn’t be doing. (Not everyone who sings on American Idol is a good singer.) I created my own book trailer. I didn’t spend a lot of time on it, but I think it is passing. http://www.timothyfish.net/Articles/Article.asp?ID=60