Mystery Lovers! discussion

Have you ever bought a book because of its trailer? Do you even look at book trailers?

My (malleable) position is trailers might be fun to make, but I question whether the time might better be spent working on the next book, or a short story.

Any thoughts?

I tend to ignore them! They give scanty, hyped up info.

I have seen some real stinker book trailers. Ones that have deterred any possible interest in the book. There is one that me and my friends reference for the utter hilarity of it's crapiness.

A good book trailer does make me look into the book, check reviews and such. For example, the book trailer for Sherrilyn Kenyon's Acheron
It was wonderfully done. Fabulous, actually, absolutely fabulous. Check it out at this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-mQoC...

Book Trailers are much like movie trailers, the good trailer will promote, and the bad will deter.

I feel the same about the book video banner ads. Last year I saw a great video banner ad for Ariana Franklin's Mistress of the Art of Death, and promptly ordered it from the library. And now I am hooked to her books.

Hi Gary, I agree that book trailers would be a lot of fun to make. Though I wouldn't worry that your fav authors are wasting valuable writing time on trailer making. That's what their PR people are for.

In addition to being a book-a-holic, I'm a video editor, and I would love to get work making book trailers. Especially when I see bad ones. Really bad book trailers make me cringe and wave my arms about my head as I yell to my computer, "What were they thinking!?"

Hi Barbara, I feel the same way about a lot of book jackets. Lately the little info they give are hyped up descriptions that leave me underwhelmed when I read the book. I've stopped trusting the blurbs on the books, and instead I look up reviews on Amazon or here on GR.

Hi Barbara, yes, that appears to be a common opinion about trailers.

Jessica, that Acheron trailer is very professional!

I like Mistress of the Art of Death too. It also has a great cover!

I must admit I tend to avoid book trailers - and the publicity blurbs on the backs of books too. I'd rather read reviews from people whose opinions I trust than take the word of a trailer or blurb writer. I know from bitter experience that movie trailers often have little resemblance to the movie they're promoting and I presume the same is (or will soon be) the same for book trailers.

Bernadette, yes, that's the power of Goodreads and places like it, where you can get the opinion of real people.

One knowledgable reader beats anything else, and the Goodreads people know what they're talking about.

I'd never seen a book trailer until clicking on the link provided by Jessica. Trailers are so much about visuals, I think they'd put images in my head that I wouldn't want there when reading a book. Rather conjure up my own images.

T.C. wrote: "I'd never seen a book trailer until clicking on the link provided by Jessica. Trailers are so much about visuals, I think they'd put images in my head that I wouldn't want there when reading a book..."

That's a good point T.C. . Though, personally, I'm not too worried about a short trailer spoiling it for my imagination.

But with that point in mind, and venturing a bit off topic, I find that I can't quite like the movies they make off of my fav books because they don't compare with my the images in my imagination. The best, and first, example was Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. I really loved this book, when I read it in high school. In addition to it being a great story and all, I fell in love with the picture 'painted' of Savannah (I still have plans for a road trip to the south, inspired by that book). But when they made the movie...I found I was very underwhelmed. Same with all the Nora Roberts' book-to-movies. It seems these filmakers just can't manage to compare with my own imagination.
And over in the Janet Evanovich Group, everyone is proposing actors for her based-on-book movies...but there aren't any actors that match what I've imagined while reading her books.

T.C., trailers only ever appear on author websites and youtube, so it's very easy to never see any. If you want to see a zillion book trailers, just go to youtube and search the term.

Jessica, yep, I have the same problem. It's unusual for me to like a movie based on a book I love, even if the movie is considered great.

The difference with a trailer of course is it provides images before anyone reads the book. In some ways it's a bit like music videos.

I know what you mean, Jessica. Hope you do take that road trip - and don't miss New Orleans if you haven't been there!

Sometimes the cast of a movie made from a book is so NOT like the cast of characters I've imagined that I just can't get into it. I think casting would be a great job though!

Speaking of trailers, Gary - I just saw the one for SHUTTER ISLAND in the theater and it makes me want to see the film even more than I did after seeing the trailer online. In this case, the casting, visuals, and mood really match what I imagined when reading the book. The soundtrack seems perfect. Can't wait to see this one!

I was just on J.R. Wards website(Black Dagger Brotherhood paranormal series) and there was a trailer (hard to tell absolutely, as the video was having trouble streaming to play consistently). But, I have to say that this is a perfect example of poor casting choice for a voice over. I mean, think about all the great movie trailer and announcer voices, and how they are rumbling and deep. Not high and squeaky-like. 5 seconds of listening to this guy narrate and I was over this trailer. Why, oh why, would someone settle for such a narrator!? Yeah. Bad trailers aren't just about the visual content. Bleah!

An awful lot of book trailers are actually made by the authors, not the publisher. Authors might be great writers, but they're not movie directors.

You know of authors that actually try to make their own trailers!? Who? (I guess that could explain some of the really bad trailers I've seen).
All the authors that I read, I am fairly certain, hire a professional. Like Circle of Seven Productions (www.cosproductions.com).

I believe most authors fund their own.

I'm fairly sure Bill Cameron for example puts together his own, and does a pretty reasonable job. Here's his trailer for Day One.

I understand Christa Faust funded this trailer for Money Shot for a relatively small amount of money.

The slick ones for bestselling authors come from publishers using PR money. The others are funded by authors and/or are own efforts.

Gary wrote: "I believe most authors fund their own.

I'm fairly sure Bill Cameron for example puts together his own, and does a pretty reasonable job. Here's his trailer for Day One.

I understand Christa F..."

Glad to know Bill Cameron has a new book coming out. I will have to watch for it.

I recently got two book trailers done and I was really, really happy with the job the producer did. He wrote the script, sourced the music and didn't use voiceover (sometimes I think the voiceover can make it a little crass). They're also short, and personally I think less is more :)

Kiss of Death: www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCLEtXV4SlY
The Killing Hands: www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGo8fHdKAM0

Phillipa

Wow Phillipa, they look great! I have to agree less is more. These are just the right length to get me interested.

Thanks, Gary. Yeah...one and a half minutes, bad voiceover, etc. and I wonder if it's almost bad PR!

P.D. wrote: "I recently got two book trailers done and I was really, really happy with the job the producer did. He wrote the script, sourced the music and didn't use voiceover (sometimes I think the voiceover ..."

Your trailers look great Phillipa. I especially like the second trailer, and the audio really makes these trailers.
I agree that sometimes less is more with trailers, and that sometimes a VO is the death of a trailer. Unless you actually hear the voice, for approval, to know it would do it justice...I'd say a trailer may be better without. But a really great voice will do wonders.

Who did you hire? Are they freelance, or do they have a company (website?)?

I occasionally look at book trailers, but they rarely influence my decision to buy. In fact, most of them scare me enough to keep me away from the book.

So I haven't made up my mind. I created a book trailer for my first novel, THE SEX CLUB, but I don't think it's helped me enough to justify spending the money for my second novel, SECRETS TO DIE FOR.

http://ljsellers.com/

Hi L.J., yes that's pretty much the conclusion I came to. It's very hard to justify the money & time.