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.
I agree. I think a book trailer boils down to being an unnecessary marketing gimmick foisted on indie authors with the promise it will grab a reader's attention. The reality is that a good cover, blurb, and well-written story will go much further than a video trailer in generating sales for an author.
I learnt how to do montages from scratch using screenpal. Pixabay, unsplash and pexels all have free to use images, video and music. A voice over and moving images do wonders for interest
That's cool. It's much more cost effective to learn these skills yourself. I'm quite certain a lot of these folks hawking professional book trailers to unsuspecting indie authors are not using video editing software that's more sophisticated than anything you can use on your own.
It's also better to create your own book videos, if you choose to go that route, because you know what your book is about better than some random self-styled self-publishing marketing guru. You know what mix of images, video, and music works best to convey what your book is about to a reader from your target audience than they ever will.
Great insight as always, John. I made one as a video pin for pinterest. It did ok, but it was more about building my Pinterest presence than selling books. I used canva for everything, and it's by no means what you'd get from a professional, but I like it. I don't think people who read books would be enticed by a video. Some might, but generally, it's not something I'd want to dunk lots of time and money into.
I like Canva (and Book Brush) for doing creative experiments. Basic yearly plans for those sites are inexpensive, so that makes it a little easier to spend time trying out new things. I use them to create book covers, book ads, sales promo banners, etc. Much easier to roll the dice, create a short book video for a Facebook or Instagram reel, and see how it goes because the end products from Canva and Book Brush are usually high quality.
I'm definitely with you on the effectiveness of book videos in general. Readers want to read books, not watch videos about reading books.
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.
You're totally right. Concepts that work for movies, like a trailer, don't work that well for books. Reading is a visual medium, but its visual in the sense of letting the reader be a co-creator and imagine what is written in their mind. A book trailer takes that away in a ham-fisted ineffective way.
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.
I agree. I think a book trailer boils down to being an unnecessary marketing gimmick foisted on indie authors with the promise it will grab a reader's attention. The reality is that a good cover, blurb, and well-written story will go much further than a video trailer in generating sales for an author.
I learnt how to do montages from scratch using screenpal. Pixabay, unsplash and pexels all have free to use images, video and music. A voice over and moving images do wonders for interest
That's cool. It's much more cost effective to learn these skills yourself. I'm quite certain a lot of these folks hawking professional book trailers to unsuspecting indie authors are not using video editing software that's more sophisticated than anything you can use on your own.
It's also better to create your own book videos, if you choose to go that route, because you know what your book is about better than some random self-styled self-publishing marketing guru. You know what mix of images, video, and music works best to convey what your book is about to a reader from your target audience than they ever will.
Great insight as always, John. I made one as a video pin for pinterest. It did ok, but it was more about building my Pinterest presence than selling books. I used canva for everything, and it's by no means what you'd get from a professional, but I like it. I don't think people who read books would be enticed by a video. Some might, but generally, it's not something I'd want to dunk lots of time and money into.
I like Canva (and Book Brush) for doing creative experiments. Basic yearly plans for those sites are inexpensive, so that makes it a little easier to spend time trying out new things. I use them to create book covers, book ads, sales promo banners, etc. Much easier to roll the dice, create a short book video for a Facebook or Instagram reel, and see how it goes because the end products from Canva and Book Brush are usually high quality.
I'm definitely with you on the effectiveness of book videos in general. Readers want to read books, not watch videos about reading books.
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.
You're totally right. Concepts that work for movies, like a trailer, don't work that well for books. Reading is a visual medium, but its visual in the sense of letting the reader be a co-creator and imagine what is written in their mind. A book trailer takes that away in a ham-fisted ineffective way.