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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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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