What is Your Opinion of Book Trailers?

[RobertLCollins]

There's not a good place for readers to find book trailers; I wonder if that's part of the problem. Authors can put them onto their pages at Goodreads, Amazon, Smashwords, and Facebook. But it seems if you're not a fan or a friend of said author you're not likely to come across them. You can upload them to YouTube, but are readers going there to look at book trailers? I've done them and posted them, but it doesn't seem like they've helped me.

[BRONZEAGE]

Previous threads here (among several):

Would you be more likely to read a book because it has a book video trailer?

Has a Book Trailer ever made you buy the book?

The search page can be your friend.

Good points, NogDog.

As a reader, for me the trailers usually do little or nothing to add appeal to that title or persuade me to purchase it. Few are unique or inherently interesting, so it appears the trailer has gone the route of most covers: play it safe.

[Guardian]

Personally I don't like them. Reason; Media Maker picture slideshows with some text is not a true trailer. Stock pictures, bad music mix, text fade in and outs... a trailer used to be something else. I've made some CGI trailer and additional 2D and 3D promo material in the past and maybe I've turned to a damned snob, but I wouldn't release most of the book trailers at all. In my opinion they're just causing much more harm than any good. Of course the friends of the creator will support the author who took the time to put the trailer together, they will put plenty likes under the video, but good words, likes and friends won't make a trailer good. But unfortunately honesty is out of fashion these days.

[DH_Sayer]

I'm pretty baffled by them, but could see how they'd incite excitement for the book if done right. The only way to do it right, however, would seem to require more of a budget than most books have.

...I just remembered that I was pretty pumped for a book trailer once: the one for Inherent Vice. But that's only after learning the not-so-secret info that Pynchon was the one narrating it.

[flipside]

My problem with book trailers is that conceptually, they're hard to pull-off (i.e. create a convincing book trailer), and in addition to that, have (relatively) high production costs compared to other methods of marketing.

While book trailers are more uncommon than others (i.e. not every author has a book trailer, although most might have a blurb, review, etc.), few actually impress me.

Here's one video that I liked: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPP7f5DoaGg

But obviously, book is a bit unique so it warranted that kind of video, and the appeal can't quite be replicated.

[Michael Horton]

The trailer posted above is an example of one that's done well, though it's an obvious exception. There's very little most book trailers do that a simple blurb can't do on its own, which makes them feel unnecessary. It has to be unique in some way, or else it just looks like every other slideshow set to public domain music.

I'm neutral on them overall. A bad book trailer won't discourage a purchase from me if I'm already interested, but I've never bought a book based on one either, however tempting. And I watch an embarrassing number of the things.

[patrickt]

Ooohhhh. I thought book trailers were little red wagons that you use to haul books around--before ebooks, of course.

[Attebery]

I can never get through them. They just seem pointless to me.

[Steverino]

I've never bought a book based on a trailer.  Most of the ones I see are ineffective, if not a little sad.

If I was going to make one or have one made, I'd go great guns on it so that it kicked tail.  Otherwise, pass.

[Chrystalla]

I like them if they're short and to the point: they can give me a good idea of what the book is about (I know the blurb will do that, but it's different. Trailers give me more of a feeling, an atmosphere).

[Darlene Jones]

Trailers are for movies. I'd rather read the book synopsis or a review.

[MadCityWriter]

As a reader: I like them if they are done well.  I don't like photos of real people (I like to create my own mental images) or live action. I'm okay with excerpts of text, since I'm a reader, after all.  But just as I like movie trailers when they are done well, a book trailer can entice me to read a particular book.

[Jeroen Steenbeeke]

I must admit I have seen only three or so, but they just feel wrong to me. In one particular case it was a trailer for a book I had already read, and the trailer in no way reflected the actual story. It did not feature any of the characters or the struggle going in the book. It was at best a failed attempt to capture the gloomy atmosphere of the book.

[Sean Patrick Fox]

Unless they are very, very, very well done, AND offer something more than the synopsis of the book (which I can read in 10 seconds on Amazon), then I don't think they're worth the time - the reader's or the author's. A book trailer can be an excellent marketing tool when done well and used correctly, but the only ones that I've seen that have done this are for big name authors with sizable advertising budgets.

[Steph H]

Personally, I don't think books and book trailers go hand-in-hand.  They're two totally different media.  A trailer for a movie being made from a book, yeah.  But just a book?  Not so much.  I kinda think authors in general are just thinking "Internet...video...shiny..." and going with it, without really *thinking* about whether it's really a good concept.

Someone upthread seemed to compare it to trailers for video games.  Well, yeah, video games are VIDEO, so trailers for those make sense. You can do outtakes and whatever, just like with movies.  But as others have said, books play out in our minds, not on video (notwithstanding the aforesaid movies-from-books), and trailers just don't make sense.

[Wren Emerson]

I've seen exactly one because someone asked me to look at theirs. To be honest, I didn't even know such a thing existed before then. I don't see how it would help convince me to buy a book. I'd prefer to come up with my own mental images for the characters and settings rather than whatever actors or pictures they choose to use to represent their book.