The Book Trailer Manual

Two interesting trailers out this week. Both professionally done, but they succeed for different reasons.

1. This one from Allergic Girl is interesting partly because on her website, she shows outtakes from creating the trailer. For some reason, I find it interesting to see these works-in-progress sort of photos and films.

   Yes, I watched this movie-aesthetic trailer all the way through. Great script.
   
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2. Here’s a fun video about Allison Pearson’s new book, I Think I Love You, a teen book all about those first crushes on famous people. What’s fun here is the author’s accent and stage-presence, combined with brief input from various editors at the publishing house. They are all different ages, so we get a cross section of famous-hotties across the years.

   Not quite a You-Tube aesthetic because the clips are all so professionally lit, but it leans that direction. I only watched 1:30/3:01, though. Great idea, just too long.
   
   *|YouTube:o0N-q5FtcDY|*

Finally, you might want to peek at the winners from the African American Literature Book Club trailer contest.

Over on YA Bookshelf, Melissa is talking about teen book trailers and wondering if budget matters? She shows two book trailers, both for Hold Still by Nina LaCour. She argues that the bigger-budget, publisher-produced video did worse in spite of a bigger budget than the author-produced video.

I would argue that it’s more a matter of Aesthetics. As I’ve argued before, there are three types of aesthetics we can apply to book trailers: movie aesthetic, powerpoint aesthetic and YouTube aesthetic.

Here, the publisher went for a movie aesthetic: light piano music, pristine audio/video. But the author went for the YouTube aesthetic: “. . .made on a rainy day with a Super 8 camera and a lot love by the author and her friends.” The voice-over sounds great and the video has an air of authenticity that is true to this aesthetic.

Author Produced: 10,235 Views

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Publisher Produced: 2337 Views

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Other Factors Affecting # of Views

The difference in aesthetic alone doesn’t tell the whole story, though.

Catch My Attention

Here are 9 recent book trailer videos and my reactions to them, including the $64,000 question: How long did you watch?

Remember, I’m looking for a reason to click off the book trailer and am not your usual audience. But, maybe I AM your usual audience. The key here is that I want something new and different, constantly changing, interesting. Never lose my attention, never keep anything constant for more than a second or two.

• We Are Not Eaten by Yaks: An Accidental Adventure, by C. Alexander London – 9780399254871 45 seconds/1:59. Nice contrast of b/w cartoons and the author talking. But the script didn’t keep me interested. Should be half as long.
• Blessed by Cynthia Leitich Smith Official Book Trailer 20 seconds/1:37. Well done, of course, but nothing new here to keep my attention.
• Don’t Kill the Birthday Girl by Sandra Beasley – Book Trailer 25 seconds/2:46 Interesting at first with the concept of allergies making it lethal to kiss a kid on her birthday. But the endless list of allergies lost me.
• 13 Words by Lemony Snicket book trailer 10 seconds/3:28. Hello, Lemony Snicket. Thanks for introducing yourself and telling me you are EXCRUTIATING proud. Good-bye.
• Adryenn Ashley’s Book Trailer 1:18/2:38. Author Adryenn Ashley talks about her book giving advice to newly engaged folks and the conversations they should have. She’s got charisma, the cuts are great, and she has a snappy spiel. It was just too long.
• Tairen Soul – Book Trailer 13 seconds/2:32. This trailer begins with “An Award Winning Debut from Author C.L. Wilson.” OK, I never heard of Wilson and wonder, what award? THAT took 5 precious seconds and I’m almost gone. This is a fantasy, so the mood needs to be set quickly and it is. Unfortunately, there’s nothing new here.
• One Last Good Time by Michael Kardos (Blooper Reel) 32 seconds/59 seconds. OK, this could be funny, a blooper reel. And the stick figure cartoons are different. But slapstick only keeps my interest for a certain amount of time and after that, I want to know if there’s a point to this.
• The Chinese Dream Book Trailer v.2 . 56 seconds/1:59. This book trailer for an adult non-fiction does a good job of laying out the premise of the book with interesting text, images and music; it’s just too long.
• Patti Lacy – Rhythm of Secrets Book Trailer 8 seconds/2:09. Way too slow. Text/images/music are so slow paced that I want to shake the monitor and say, “Hurry up!”

YouTube Trends has identified Pummelvision as one of the up and coming trends. It pulls your photos off Facebook, Flickr, etc and makes a fast-paced video of those photos. No choices of music, just this pulsing music. Made at http://pummelvision.com/

What is you did a couple hundred shots at a book signing? It’s a canned program, sure, but fun. How else could you use this for book promotion?

These are photos from my Novel Revision Retreats of 2010.

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So, do you like Pummelvision or Animoto better? Pummelvision is fast and fun, but no options. Animoto is a bit slower to do, but you have great transitions between photos and can redo it until you’re happy. Two different tools: when would you use one or the other?

What’s Popular on YouTube?

Media Bistro this week interviewed Kevin Allocca about YouTube’s new Trends Dashboard, which lets you see what’s popular in different areas, and by age, gender. YouTube Trends Blog also points out interesting videos or topics.

If you’re doing book trailers, you should check out what’s popular with your audience!

• Age: Break down the most watched and most shared by age category.
• Gender: Break down popular videos by gender.
• Geographical location: There’s a fascinating option to compare the most popular or most viewed in up to 3 locations. What’s popular in Atlanta, Georgia is different from Dallas, TX or Honolulu, HI. Or is it? This option shows you the videos in common or what’s unique to each area.

How will this information influence what you do in a book trailer?

I recently saw this comment about a book trailer: “If you like the trailer, you’ll love the book!” Really?

What if I don’t like the trailer? Does that mean I won’t love the book? Because I often don’t like the trailer. I get Google Alerts on the topic of book trailers and I took a recent day and checked out five trailers. Here’s why I didn’t watch the entire trailer for any of them. Yes, I’m tough. But honest. (But so honest that I don’t want to identify the specific trailers.)

Why I Turn Off a Trailer

1. Lack of specifics. Romance. I watched 11/31 seconds. The setup was cliched. You meet that special someone, but something goes wrong. Duh. So, what’s so special about this book? What’s so special about this guy and what went so wrong? Give me specifics! Why should I read THIS book?
2. Cliched. Science Fiction. I watched 10/1:07. The year was XXX, and in the Aztec Empire. . . Nothing new here, or exciting.
3. Trashy Character–Wrong Emphasis.
   Contemporary. I watched 11/2:14. It starts with “NEW from Award-Winning Author “(what a cliche THAT is!). But I’ve no knowledge of this author, so it’s wasted words for me. Sure–if I was into this genre from this publisher, it might make sense. But if I know nothing about this author, it’s wasted time. There was 8 seconds of credits (author/publisher), then cut to a trash can and the words, “Character X is a throwaway.” Wow. That makes me really want to read a couple thousand words about this character! A throwaway, trashed out character. Yeah, I want to spend time there.
4. Too much time on one thing; needs variety.Spy Thriller. 20/1:01 This book trailer almost had me: words on the first slide set up an interesting story, a thrumming beat in the music and an intriguing map that was all in shadow. So, I watched, even though it was a Slideshow Aesthetic trailer , not my favorite aesthetic. But after 20 seconds, there was still the same map, still the same music, still the same slides going on and on. I clicked off.
5. Too much time on one thing; needs variety. Comic Book. 20/1:53. This trailer promoted a new comic and showed scenes from the comic. There was a nice mix of images and sounds. For example, they showed a lightning bolt (a cliche of comics, but it still worked) and appropriate sound effects of thunder and crack of lightning. But after 20 seconds, they were still doing the same thing, I knew nothing new, except this was a comic.

Love in the Age of Amazon

Every day, I get a Google Alert listing the posts that day about book trailers. Every day, I look at 5-10 new trailers. And every day, I’m disappointed by the lack of creativity. It’s the same overdone Movie Aesthetic, or worse, the Silent Movie Aesthetic. So, today, I was pleasantly surprised by a trailer with some humor and creativity.

In this spoof on Amazon sales ranking, husband-and-wife authors, John Yunker and Midge Raymond start buying each others’ books to raise the sales rank. And it snowballs! There’s even an interesting cameo (so to speak) in the last few seconds of the video, so, it’s one to watch all the way through.

Great concept, well executed. Humorous. Short (well, it could have been even shorter, my only complaint).

YouTube’s info on the trailer:

A cautionary tale about husband-and-wife authors, “Love in the Time of Amazon.com,” by John Yunker and Midge Raymond.

And a book trailer (of sorts) for The Tourist Trail by John Yunker and Forgetting English by Midge Raymond.

www.TouristTrail.com
www.ForgettingEnglish.com

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Production Note: This trailer was made from video taken on an iPhone.

Need to know where to post book trailers? Sign up for The Book Trailer Manual Newsletter and, as a special thank-you, you’ll receive a free Special Report: 43 Sites to Post Trailers.

Moviemaker is available on most Windows machines, or she gives a link to download it free. MovieMaker is certainly a good program for beginners and Draper’s tutorial is easy to understand and well-illustrated with screen captures.

How to Make a Book Trailer, Part I: The Music

Join The Book Trailer Manual Newsletter and receive a free Special Report: 43 Sites to Post Trailers.

It works because the images are in constant movement, the music is noble to match the story’s theme and it’s short. 57 seconds. It’s a great teaser.

The problem? The last ten seconds are all credits for Dan Yaccarino Studios and Random House. Stop watching at 47 seconds. That’s all you need to see.

How long do you think the credits should run for a book trailer?

Join The Book Trailer Manual Newsletter and receive a free Special Report: 43 Sites to Post Trailers.

Find Your Audience Online: Then Post

The great thing about book trailers is that you can find your audience online somewhere. As an ongoing feature, I’ll be profiling different sites that use book trailers somewhere on their sites. Please only submit to them if you have something that fits their audience. Go and look at the site, study it to see what audience they reach. Then, follow their guidelines for submitting.

Urban Fantasy, Paranormal Romance, and Historical Romance at Escape Between the Pages Blog

Lori can you tell us about your website?

I love to escape between the pages of a good book. I made my blog, so I can share my love of books with anyone interested in knowing, what I consider a great read. Since I love reading, talking about books, and surfing the internet, what better way to enjoy and express myself at the same time, then to have my own blog? Escape Between The Pages is an extension of my feelings and thoughts. It also provides me with the opportunity to connect with others, who enjoy reading as much as I do. It’s a great way to make new friends and keep informed with the world of books. While it is primarily a book review blog, I try to be versatile, such as weekly memes, trailers, internal articles, discussions, etc… I should also mention, I am not a professional critic…I am just a wife, mother, dog owner and avid book reader. I make many grammatical snafus, I swear alot, and I am not always the most tactful. But, I am an honest reviewer, I have common sense, and I am pretty easy going. I hope that it reflects in my postings.

What types of books do you feature on your site? Which are your favorite?

The books I feature are mostly Urban Fantasy, Paranormal Romance, and Historical Romance. They are the Big 3 on my list of favorite genres. On occasion, I will read and review other books that have a crossover appeal, provided they contain a supernatural, paranormal or urban fantasy element.

What’s your favorite book you read this year?

There were many books I loved reading this year, thus far. Many are from seasoned authors, such as: Ilona Andrews, Laurell K. Hamilton, and Julie Garwood. But, I think it has been the debut authors that have stood out the most. A few books that come to mind are:

• Three Days To Dead by Kelly Medding
• Proof By Seduction by Courtney Milan
• Mind Games by Carolyn Crane
• Spider’s Bite by Jennifer Estep

What’s the best way for someone to submit a book trailer to you and your site?

If someone has a book trailer (Author, Publisher, fan-based, etc) that consist of my genre preferences, they can feel free to email me: ladyrogue@ymail.com and I will consider them.

Anything else you want those with book trailers to know about you or your site?

I love watching book trailers. I find them informative and visually entertaining. I appreciate the talent, creativity, and patience that goes into making them. If I could post them all on my blog, I would. But I can’t. So, I rotate the trailers out of my sidebar about every 3-5 days.