Would a Book Trailer Get You to Buy a Book?
By John DeNardo |
Monday, October 15th, 2007 at
12:51 am
I found this trailer for M. John Harrison’s book Nova Swing on YouTube:
I don’t normally see many book trailers in my day-to-day web surfing. Does anyone find these effective beyond letting you know that a book is available? Have you ever bought a book based on a book trailer?
Related posts:
- Book Store Splurge
- Does a Book’s Popularity Entice You to Read it?
- A Scanner Darkly: Full Trailer Online
- Don’t Drop Your Bookmark in the Shower
- Book Trailers
Filed under: Books
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
I probably would buy it based on the trailer if it piqued my interest. But this one did not. Quite the opposite.
I’m not a fan of jazz, so any trailer which tries to appeal to the jazz fan in me is doomed to failure. (I’m not even sure whether the book has anything to do with music, or whether it’s just a riff on the ‘Swing’ in the title. Unfortunately the trailer doesn’t even tell me that much.)
Much easier to read a review. Like, say, this one:
http://www.andromedaspaceways.com/book_0006.htm
I rely on reviews more than anything. I’ve been tempted to click on a link for a banner ad now and again. Word of mouth, though, I find a much more reliable barometer.
Would this make me buy a book? Nope, not at all. My process usually is: Scan “Locus” for what’s coming and reviews of what is out. Look in bookstore or recommendations at Amazon. If it is an author I know and like, I’ll buy it. If it is an author that I am unfamiliar with, I’ll read reviews or ask friends.
But a trailer? Nah. Hasn’t helped yet, and the same applies for radio ads, TV ads and the like. It is more who is the writer and what people that I trust are saying about the author and the book.
Shimmer, a fantasy zine, has some trailers for its issues on YouTube:
http://www.shimmerzine.com/
This is really interesting, and I think it is a potential way of drawing in new readers, but I’m not sure if it will work for books. Maybe because of the relatively higher price. Still, I doubt this or any such trailer are all that costly to produce, so even if it only brings in a small handful of new readers it’s probably worth it. And other books (like the James Pattersons and Danielle Steeles of the world) do sometimes get television commercials, so why not the occasional science fiction novel?
So no, it wouldn’t get *me* to buy the book, but then it’s not *aimed* at me.
It’s almost there but book trailers could go a bit futher by taking some of the best moments of the book by providing us with animation snippets. Maybe animation snippets of characters discussing their fates in the book. It all boils down to hooking the reader and this did nothing to hook me into buying the book. Animation and voice overs would do a lot more to hook me. The technology is there. Video games do it all the time.
I’ll be entirely honest, the only thing that makes me really buy a book is going to the book store and holding it in my hands. The only time I buy books online is when I know it’s a book I really want or if someone whose judgment I trust recommends something–or if it is for school, which doesn’t really count. Otherwise, I have to go to the store. You could hype up a book all you want, but until I hold that book in my hand, I most likely won’t buy it. I need to see the cover, need to read the back, need to feel it in my hands. I feel that maybe there is a greater connection with the writer that way, or maybe I’m just foolish.
So, you could make commercials or billboards, or whatever, but it won’t make me buy the book. Actually, in a lot of cases it will make me avoid your book to have that kind of publicity. I think I’m just abnormal though. I hate anything to do with commercials. I don’t buy products in radio commercials because the commercials are horrible and extremely annoying and I walk away from the TV whenever the commercials come on no matter how entertaining the show I was watching is. Once those commercials come on I’ve lost all interest in the show itself. So, I don’t really listen to the radio, and I don’t watch TV very often unless it’s recorded and I can skip the commercials.
On a side note though, thanks so much for the links. I was looking at my site traffic the other day and I was just so happy to see that someone actually linked to me and people were hopping over. It’s really cool. I really appreciate it and I’m glad you liked those two articles
.
There seems to be two main groups of people out there. Not so much those who like book videos and those who do not, but, more so, those who are traditional readers and those who are not.
Traditional readers are the ones most likely to use the back cover blurb, an excerpt or reviews to choose a book. They are established readers. They don’t need a video to get them to pick up a book. Although, many will watch them to see what’s coming up. And, to them, some videos are really just announcements that the book is out. The reader will buy it regardless.
Non-traditional readers are those who usually watch TV, go to the movies, play video games and spend far too much time downloading to their iPod.
You have to really reel them in to get them to pick up a book.
With more and more competition for the entertainment dollar, the publishing industry must expand their thinking beyond traditional advertising and marketing. The main focus of industry marketing needs to be expanded to encompass more than just a limited set of known factors (i.e. traditional readers). As an industry, we must reach beyond what is our known demographic and into the unknown. We must evolve to create and nurture new readers.
Get them while they’re young! But, in order to do so, you must speak to them via a medium to which they have grown accustomed. That medium is a visual one. Games, movies, and special effects are all becoming bigger and better with each passing year across every segment of the entertainment industry. How is the publishing industry supposed to compete with that?
Now, there is a tool that utilizes this, the most popular medium, and it is being used to sell books.
Whether or not you like them, or even use them, if book videos bring in more new readers, aren’t they a wonderful tool?
Of course, there will always be those of us who love to go to our local bookstore, touch the pages, read the back copy, and enjoy the unique smell of coffee and books.