JACK'S BLOG
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WritingThe first installment of Star Wars to be released, Episode IV, was hugely popular. Arguably, it is one of the best science fiction films ever made, and better than the other five episodes. Fortunately for George Lucas, word of mouth drove audiences to theaters. I don't think that the trailer they released in advance of the film helped very much. Audiences laughed at it. I think that the problem with it was that it didn't tell a story. Obviously, a film trailer can't tell the same story as the film it promotes, but it has to at least tell a story about the story. Book trailers should do the same. Have you ever seen a book trailer? Probably not, unless you're one of the many authors and publishers who are trying to figure out how to sell books in this market. We spend a lot of time looking at each other's work. Theater goers are used to seeing trailers on the screen before the feature they've paid to see. Film trailers also get plenty of air time on television and the Internet. There are websites devoted to them, such as Trailer Addict. Unfortunately, there is no practical way of attaching book trailers to books and publishers don't have advertising budgets to pay for them on television. You would think that someone at Amazon might think of attaching links to them on their website. Maybe they have. I haven't seen them. Surely someone could create a website for book trailers as Trailer Addict did for movie trailers. Then again, why doesn't Trailer Addict include a category for them. (I'm just thinking out loud here.) I started to make a trailer for Rebels on the Mountain, but got distracted. I decided instead to recreate the experience that readers enjoy when authors visit bookstores and read from their own novels. Don't get excited if you're an author. My idea didn't sell my book any better than your trailer sold yours. I'm not sure if a book trailer would have worked better than a book reading. The reason is that I didn't do any better than other authors and publishers at cracking the real problem. Distribution. Sure, I embedded it in my website and it's available on YouTube, but those media don't attract nearly enough viewers to have an impact.
You can search for “book trailers” on YouTube. Their website will return more than a half-million results! Not very helpful, is it? They're divided into categories which may help readers, but it doesn't help authors and publishers sell a specific product. That leaves us with the ultimate question. Assuming that book trailers or videos of book readings will help sell novels, how can authors and publishers put theirs in front of the right audiences?
9 Comments
1/22/2013 02:28:47 pm
Hello Jack!
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Jack Durish
1/22/2013 02:31:40 pm
Thanks for stopping by. Although I don't post as frequently as I used to, there is plenty here (more than 500 posts on a variety of subjects).
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1/23/2013 02:17:55 am
Yes, this website is very informitive. 1/22/2013 05:46:15 pm
Jack,
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Jack Durish
1/23/2013 02:04:21 am
A "friend" encouraged me to read the intro and setup, too. However, I feared that would have been too much of "me".
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1/23/2013 12:36:33 am
I don't have time for book trailers. If I read the blog, that's all I'm going to do. I have seen a book trailer or two, but none have ever persuaded me to buy the book. Then again, I'm an old curmudgeon, and my opinion doesn't really mean anything in the mainstream.
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Jack Durish
1/23/2013 02:03:19 am
We've come to accept trailers in the theater before the movies we paid to see. I doubt if anyone would hang around for them if they came after. Also, I sort of resent trailers and other commercial messages appended to the DVDs that I purchase. I already paid good money for them and I'll be seeing their commercial messages everytime I play the DVD. I suspect the same would be true if we found a way of appending trailers to books.
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1/26/2013 06:48:26 am
A friend of mine persuaded me to try for a book trailer, & I was well up for it! I bribed the two sons to come with me to the local woods, and we parked up. #1 son suited & booted London gangster style read the intro of the story - where a two bit player gets his comeuppance - in the background the younger son emerges from the wood, with a shovel slung over his shoulder, and places the shovel in the car's boot just as the eldest recites the last two words: "Sorry Charlie!" And it went beautifully - couldn't not have asked for better. Except before I could turn off the video you can clearly hear my dad (who insisted on tagging along and interfering) say 'Is that it? Can we go home now?'
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Jack Durish
1/26/2013 07:06:34 am
Did you say "Cut!"?
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