Comments on: Book trailers – What do you think?

By: Glenda Larke

Glenda Larke — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 18:24:08 +0000

It's interesting – from here and elsewhere, they don't really seem to be getting a thumbs up from sff readers (whom you'd think would love all things innovative!). However it could just be that the people who like them aren't fussed enough to post opinions.

I think they would be really, really great with non-fiction. You could see the same sort of thing that you would see when you flip through the book – chapter headings maybe, or photos, maps, etc.

Dave, chose to link to you because you had a great selection of different trailers up. However, folks, Dave's site is more than that: interesting sff reviews, news and interviews can also be found!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 11:47:05 +0000

Wow Glenda, thanks for the link! 🙂 Caught me totally by surprise!

I quite enjoy book trailers, though I usually check them out after reading the book – I'm not really scared of the visuals influencing my read, but the book is a damn sight more important than the trailer, and it's fun seeing books break into a visual medium. If it gets more readers, then great, but I still think that word of mouth, booksellers, blogs and sites like Amazon will still pull in more readers than book trailers. Oh, and I s'pose I have to mention Oprah, too… 😉

By: Tsana Dolichva

Tsana Dolichva — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 06:18:26 +0000

Oh, I forgot to add, I've been hearing about book trailers for a few years now, but I'd say that's because I spend a lot of time around writer sites/blogs. I've yet to see one be successful virally.

By: Tsana Dolichva

Tsana Dolichva — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 06:18:25 +0000

Oh, I forgot to add, I've been hearing about book trailers for a few years now, but I'd say that's because I spend a lot of time around writer sites/blogs. I've yet to see one be successful virally.

By: Tsana Dolichva

Tsana Dolichva — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 06:17:09 +0000

Mostly, I can't be bothered watching book trailers (if I'm at the computer not working, I'm probably watching TV at the same time and hence, can't be bothered pausing to watch youtube). BUT if somehow I did see one about a book that looked interesting and whatnot, I probably would be encouraged to buy it. Mind you, it doesn't take all that much to encourage me to buy a book…

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 20:27:07 +0000

since you were wondering about the younger generation 🙂

I think I may have heard mention of book trailers before (probably here), but I've certainly never looked into them. I guess they might be useful if you were considering buying a book online and the website you were buying from didn't have that much information. On the other had, there's probly plenty of written information out there about most books, but I've never bothered googling that.

My guess would be that maybe book trailers started as an attempt to gain interest from/exposure to the massive youtube audience? And they probly have a limited audience. But if you managed to create one which made everyone think "that is so cool/funny/cute" and want to share it with their friends (as a piece of art in itself), I could see it being an effective marketing tool.

inkpawprints

By: Satima Flavell

Satima Flavell — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 06:40:42 +0000

ROTFL! Yes, I would take a look at that book on the strength of the trailer. And if any of my fave authors point me at theirs, I will take a look. However, I would not go looking for book trailers. i might as well just look in the bookshop to see what the book is about.

By: Jo

Jo — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 05:12:54 +0000

OK will do Glenda thanks.

Not having thought it through I do agree with Amy and Imagine Me, I don't think I would bother to find myself a book trailer, but if I came across one I would certainly watch it.

By: glenda larke

glenda larke — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 04:33:42 +0000

Jo – is it a sff series? Because, if so, the best way to go is to post it on a sff oriented egroup. If you don't belong to one, send me an email of the synopsis and I will put it up for you and get back to you if there are an answers.

By: glenda larke

glenda larke — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 04:31:53 +0000

I agree that it is a bit odd to think that visual images will do better job of selling a book than words can. But I guess that's the way the world is going.

Maybe this is something that the younger generation understands better than old fogeys like me…