I don't think I've ever seen a book trailer that wasn't awful, to be honest. And it's nothing to do with the quality of the book, or even the skill of the filmmaker or artists involved. I just don't think that books and movie-style trailers are compatible. Books happen to be read with your eyes (usually), but they're not a visual thing. Translating that into a video trailer is always going to be extremely awkward.
There might be exceptions of course - children's picture books have strong visuals built-in, which could theoretically be adapted into something fun. But even then, you're really talking about adapting the book into a cartoon, if you want it to be good, and translating a picture book into animation is no minor endeavour.
To take advantage of video, instead of pretending to be a movie it's probably better (and likely cheaper) to do a high quality video reading of the opening chapter, or some sort of behind-the-scenes segment. Not sure that'd move the sales needle either, but I reckon it'd be a more useful bit of awareness-raising at least.
Great info. I've been curious--and skeptical--about book trailers since I first learned about the concept. It's good to hear from someone with some firsthand experience of them. A book is very deliberately a different experience from a film, and that's not something I want to evoke from a reading audience. I agree with Simon that there is something awkward about the pairing of book and video that, for me, seems forced and unnatural--perhaps even detrimental to the experience of the book.
I don't think I've ever seen a book trailer that wasn't awful, to be honest. And it's nothing to do with the quality of the book, or even the skill of the filmmaker or artists involved. I just don't think that books and movie-style trailers are compatible. Books happen to be read with your eyes (usually), but they're not a visual thing. Translating that into a video trailer is always going to be extremely awkward.
There might be exceptions of course - children's picture books have strong visuals built-in, which could theoretically be adapted into something fun. But even then, you're really talking about adapting the book into a cartoon, if you want it to be good, and translating a picture book into animation is no minor endeavour.
To take advantage of video, instead of pretending to be a movie it's probably better (and likely cheaper) to do a high quality video reading of the opening chapter, or some sort of behind-the-scenes segment. Not sure that'd move the sales needle either, but I reckon it'd be a more useful bit of awareness-raising at least.
Great info. I've been curious--and skeptical--about book trailers since I first learned about the concept. It's good to hear from someone with some firsthand experience of them. A book is very deliberately a different experience from a film, and that's not something I want to evoke from a reading audience. I agree with Simon that there is something awkward about the pairing of book and video that, for me, seems forced and unnatural--perhaps even detrimental to the experience of the book.