I understand it is a marketing tool and it is important to reach a wider audience when promoting. But someone who picks trailer over blurb, forgive me if I sin here, is probably not a potential reader to start with. He/she would wait for the film to come out. All right. I'm probably being a little bit too unfair. All joking aside, is there science behind book trailers? Is there really potential readers who wouldn't be reached if we didn't have book trailers? Has there been a book trailer that makes justice to its book or that makes a better job than the blurb?
Do you care about book trailers? Have you ever bought a book thanks to its trailer?
I'm glad it's not just me! I don't get them either. At all.
ReplyDeleteI generally hate them. The one for The Black Prism everyone was saying was the best book trailer was still ridiculous and I thought made the book look even less intriguing. Yeah it had actors and magic, but it still looked bad even while being good for a book.
ReplyDeleteLike the "extras" at the end of many books - maps, glossaries, interviews, excerpts from the next installment, etc - I see a book trailer as an added feature rather than a short description like the blurb and when done well with good music and animation or live scenes, I enjoy it quite a lot in itself or if you want as an addition to the book, rather than an inducement to buy it.
ReplyDeleteAs for buying a book based on a trailer, sure Court of the Air by Stephen Hunt is an example where I was undecided (tempted but saw mixed reviews) and the trailer pushed me to the get side, but overall excerpts are much more important.
I've seen a couple trailers that got me more interested in the book. The trailer my publisher made for my first book was awesome and seemed to spur interest. Hoping the one for my second book is just as cool.
ReplyDeleteThe only book trailers I've liked are the ones for Catherynne Valente books. And i think that's because I love her stuff.
ReplyDeletebut other than that, I'm 100% with you. I don't get book trailers. they feel like tv show promos, and i don't want to watch a tv show, i want to read a book. give me a well written blurb anyday.
As a film editor, writer and marketer of the two, I have to mention that book trailers are only one more tool in the marketing toolbox. It takes about seven mentions of an author's name/book title for a consumer to even notice. And if a well done book trailer provides one of those "made you looks" so much the better!
ReplyDeleteYou're not the only one who doesn't get them. I can understand the idea behind them, that people might be more inclined to purchase books if they get a good visual display to hook them, and that movies and TV shows shouldn't really be the only forms of media to get trailers, but meh, they really don't hold my interest.
ReplyDeleteI've never bought of not-bought a book based on a trailer. I don't really watch them. I figure that a book's got to sell me based on the writing, the premise, not a flashy trailer featuring images that I probably won't end up holding in my head as I read the book anyway. But that's just my cynical opinion. I do hear that they work quite well as a marketing tool, and that a lot of avid readers tend to enjoy them anyway.