Scary, Creepy Music + Book Cover = Good Trailer

Just watched this book trailer. I’ve been avoiding romance trailers, not because I don’t read romance (I do!), but because I don’t need to hear sappy music and see half naked men. This romance book trailer has neither – but it does have creepy music (especially when you’re home all alone, and it’s dark, and it surprises you) and shows the author and her book cover.

I think showing the cover of the book is the most effective aspect of book trailers – it’s what’s going to make readers connect the video to the physical item in the store.

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Graceling Book Trailer…Yeah…

I loved this book, Graceling by Kristin Cashore, but this trailer leaves something to be desired. Regardless, though, still enjoyed it. 😛

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Kevin Sampsell’s Book “Trailer”

So, I love book trailers. They’re my new favorite thing, and I love this video by Kevin Sampsell for his new book A Common Pornography. While this “trailer” doesn’t actually say much about the book, it’s quirky and fun. The 1950’s appliance commercial music, combined with Sampsell’s easy, homemade remedies on how to read the book in public without embarrassment, were so campy and creative that I want to read the book now – despite the fact that I have no idea what the plot is (though, I’m told it’s a memoir).

And if that’s not awesome enough, I know the guy who filmed it! Yay for the small Portland literary community.

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Author Marketing Tools

I’ve already shown that I’m a fan of traditional publishing, but that doesn’t mean I don’t think that authors have a responsibility to market their own books. Books are increasingly associated with their authors – to the point that people buy books based on their author’s presence online or in the media. And while publishers are creating press kits and setting up interviews and events, there are other avenues that only the author can explore.

So, for all authors, here’s a list of things you can do to increase your visibility to readers:

1) Create a website/blog/Facebook account/Twitter  account (or all of the above)
2) Enter contests of all types
3) Publish articles in print and online about anything in your book. For example, if your mystery novel takes place in Eastern Oregon, write a fun travel article about the locations you used, send it to a travel site, and add just a little hook at the end about your book.
4) Give dynamic “readings,” interviews, and presentations. Reading from your book isn’t enough – you need to give an audience a good show. (See this article)
5) Send book to reviewers (ones that your publisher might not be considering)
6) Try to get a book club to read your work. Even if you have to create such a group, word of mouth is an amazing marketing tool.
7) If it’s applicable (which it often is for fiction books), create a book trailer and post it online.

These are all just ideas – but they can all work to your advantage. So go forth and market!

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Some Publishing Predictions

I was reading Booksquare today, and I noticed an old post from Nov. 2009 called Trendwatching 2010, and I wanted to add my two cents (per usual). Here’s a couple predictions about how publishing will evolve in the next couple years or so.

1) E-books will be huge (duh!) and BOTH the Kindle and the iPad will continue to be popular.
2) E-book prices will actually get higher – some will be at $9.99 or below for a while, but publishers will probably make $14.99 the standard, and some books will be even more expensive as time goes on. Publishers will realize that people will pay these prices.
3) A lot more small presses will use on-demand publishing. And on-demand publishing will eventually become the standard (I’m talking about 5 years from now, not right away) because it doesn’t require such a commitment of time or money.
4) Sales to China will increase exponentially, and all foreign rights will be a much more important money-maker for publishers.
5) Self-publishing will be increasingly more accepted, and publishers will actually find some of their bestselling books from among these authors. And we will see a Self-Published section in many bookstores.
6) Almost every big book or author will have book trailers, websites, and blogs. Some already do, but book trailers will be a HUGE marketing tool – much more important to marketing plans than they are now.
7) Independent bookstores will all have Book Espresso Machines.
8) The hottest genres will be Young Adult, Horror, and Paranormal Romance.

Some of these are pretty obvious, but I think it’s good to remember that publishing isn’t a stagnant industry – it’s changing so much that we all need to grow with it, quickly.

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Book Trailers

For my Book Marketing class this term, I’ve decided to create a book trailer. I’m one of those people who always wants to be at the movies early so I won’t possibly miss any of the trailers, because I really like trailers and I am often impressed by how they are cut and manipulated from the movie footage to show just enough of the story to be intriguing.

My trailer will be for the YA book The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley. This is one of my top five favorite books, and definitely my favorite McKinley book, though Spindle’s End and Beauty are also amazing (especially if you, like me, enjoy the retelling of fairy tales).

So I wanted to get an idea about how to do a book trailer. I looked at several, including The Graveyard Book , The Hunger Games, and The Lightning Thief.

From what I can tell, the best book trailers do the following:

1) Don’t usually show real people. I’m guessing that this is to distinguish the book trailer from movie trailers, to not hinder people’s imaginations, and to make production costs less.

2) Flash the cover of the books repeatedly. This is to make sure that people will remember the cover and buy it when they see online or in stores.

3) Offer much more text to read than movie trailers. Sometimes this text is also narrated, but sometimes there is just epic music.

I even found this site, which will probably help me: How to Create the BEST Book Trailer EVER.

Now, I will start storyboarding. Wish me luck!

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