What Is A Book Trailer?
The newest way to promote your book is with a video! They are called Book Trailers. They are similar to a movie trailer, in that they are designed to build interest and get people to buy.
The main difference is that a movie trailer already has visual images to work with - clips from the film. With a book trailer, the maker (either the author themselves or a professional videographer) has to convert the written words into visual images. The trick is to convey a sense of what the book is about without giving anything away - and without really clearly defining what the characters look like, as most readers prefer to visualize what they are reading about as they imagine it themselves.
Most book trailers run from one to three minutes. They can be anything from the author reading a passage from the book, to an elaborate mini-movie.
Below, you will find links about this exciting new way of advertising and promoting your book.
The term "Book Trailer" is a US Registered Trademark term to Circle of Seven Productions - CEO Sheila Clover English.
Learn About Book Trailers
- Wikipedia - Book Trailers
- A book trailer is a film or video advertisement for a book which employs techniques similar to those of movie trailers. They have been used increasingly in recent years. Since 2002, the term has been a US-registered trademark of Circle of Seven Productions, who began using it connection with their advertising campaigns starting with that for Mind Game, by Christine Feehan.
There is a very fine line between producing a trailer which allows the reader the freedom to create their own mental images of the characters and locations and one which goes too far and looks more like a trailer for a movie. This is a design issue unique to the book trailer genre.
Like anything else the skill consists of finding the right balance, the happy medium between cinematic over-production and an uninspiring series of stills and straplines.
Another fatal mistake is to produce a cinematic book trailer which looks and sounds more like a music video interspersed with short pieces of text and no voice-over. This seems to provide very little impulse to read anything let alone read the book that is meant to be the main reason behind creating the trailer. - The Guardian - On a Screen Near You
- Read the book? No, but I loved the trailer
The days of judging a book by its cover are drawing to a close. Publishers have finally tapped into the MTV generation, and now it is possible to make your literary choices in advance online by watching a sequence of rapid-fire images accompanied by a thumping score, big flashing words and, if you're lucky, a deep-voiced American talking about 'one man' and 'his quest to find meaning in a world gone mad'. Yes: there are now trailers for books and soon, according to Steve Osgoode, director of online marketing at HarperCollins Canada, they will be everywhere.
Turning literature into moving pictures is a risky business. So how does one go about representing a 400-page tome with delicate themes and complex characterization in a 40-second video? - Newsweek
- Seen Any Good Books Lately?
The movie rights for "The Thieves of Heaven," a new thriller about a secret Vatican treasure, have only just been sold, but you can already view a trailer online. Of course, it's not teasing anything that can be seen in theaters-the trailer's for the novel. Publishers and authors are increasingly commissioning trailers for books-some with dramatizations by actors that could easily be mistaken for movie trailers-that can be viewed on their Web sites and even aired on TV and in movie theaters. "We've seen a huge increase in interest [for book trailers]," says Sheila Clover, whose company, Circle of Seven Productions, pioneered the concept in 2002 and has trademarked the term "book trailer." "We're already booked solid this year." Other companies are now producing "book videos." HarperCollins Canada started offering book trai-sorry, videos-on its Web site in February, and The Book Standard last week announced the winners of a contest in which film students created videos for three new Bantam Dell titles. - SF Gate
- Seeking readers via 'book trailer'
In his quest to bring literature to the masses, Jeffrey Lependorf turned to an unlikely ally: YouTube.
Lependorf, executive director of the Literary Ventures Fund in New York, recently invested $10,000 to help promote a French memoir on the verge of being published. Instead of the usual press releases or book tours, his money was
used to create a short video about the book that was distributed on the popular online video site that attracts an estimated 20 million visitors per month.
The "book trailer," as the promotional video is called, is living up to its name. Complete with actors, arty cinematography and a noirish voice-over, it's the closest the book industry has come to a movie-style preview for a new title. - Big Bad Book Blog
- Book Trailers: Now Showing at a Bookstore Near You
By Dede Schatz
We all love movie trailers. They pull us in with drama, comedy, even fear, and get us longing to go to the theater. Now publishers are joining the act and producing "book trailers"-short previews to show off how books will keep their audiences on the edge of their seats. But how can a book trailer reach the number of people who see movie trailers?
Actually, a good book trailer can reach more people. Thanks to popular sites like YouTube.com-which has 900,000 unique visitors a day-iTunes, Google Video, and Yahoo, publishers and authors can post their trailers for the world to see. The key is to create a video that people want to pass on to their friends and connections. To add more punch and make the trailer viral, use special offers, humor, or suspense.
How to Make a Book Trailer
Storyboard your ideas out. Since you only have a couple of minutes to work with, think carefully about the length of time each image or section of video or animation uses.The first thing you want to consider is how to convey the idea of your book, and get people excited about it - excited enough to want to buy it!
Watch several book trailers at YouTube (there are some on this lens). Think about whether you want something simple, such as you, the author reading a passage of your book? If you are uncomfortable with the idea of dong a reading, take another approach.
Perhaps a video compiled of still images. Or a mixture of stills and video. Some trailers use animation.
A musical background will add interest and emotion.
What method of changing from one scene to the next do you want to employ? Do you want to fade to black? Or use some kind of manipulation that gives the impression of a page turning, or a spiraled fade?
Think about good movie trailers, since most people are more familiar with those. What made you want to go see the movie? Did the intensity build as the trailer progressed? Did the music quicken, or become foreboding?
Here's a good tutorial
Don't trust your own technical skills? Try asking a friend who has experience making YouTube videos.
Maybe you could run a contest on your blog or website, offering a free copy of your book or a monetary prize for someone making a book trailer for you. Judge for yourself what the best entry is, or let readers decide.
You can even hire a professional.
Equipment for Making Your Own
What Can You Expect From Professionals?
What do the pros charge? What can you expect?Circle of Seven Costs and Examples
COS Productions wants to reach out to all authors. Whether you're a NY Times best-selling author or a new eBook author.
We now have over 200 book videos in our vault. As we update the COS Production website those videos will be available to watch. Many are there now! Many of our clients are repeat customers. Some use only online distribution and some use television. Some of our clients have a budget of under $300 and some have over $10,000.
Here is a breakdown of our prices, note that all of our video products come with distribution.
Best Professional Book Trailer Production
Scrap Fairy Designs
MySpace Profile - BookPeek, 39 years old, Female, more...1 point
The New Era of Book Marketing! Bestseller Trailers
Perhaps the best and affordable company producing more...1 point
Jim Minton Design Studio
Design, Illustration, Cover Design, Book Trailers, more...0 points
Helpful Book on Video Production
Making Videos for Money: Planning and Producing Information Videos, Commercials, and Infomercials
From the planning process through the shoot, to post-production business methods, the book is filled with pearls of wisdom. It is flexible enough to serve as a handy guide in the field or as an instructional text in the classroom. Teens considering a career in commercial video as well as those who make videos as a hobby will benefit from this presentation.
Amazon Price: (as of 07/26/2008)
YouTube Book Trailers
Book Trailer Info
Google News
Book Video Awards
Book Trailers® win Davey AwardsBook video marketing gets international recognition
Of the over 3500 commercials sent in from all over the world, Circle of Seven Productions walked away with an award for every entry they submitted. The small, specialty production company has put book video in the forefront of the entertainment industry with four International Davey Awards.
The Davey Awards are judged by the International Academy of Visual Arts (IAVA) and honors the finest creative works from small businesses around the world. IAVA represents acclaimed media and advertising firms such as: Yahoo!, Wired, MTV, MySpace, The Ellen Degeneres Show, HBO, ADWEEK and many others. The award competition was sponsored by The Creative Group, ADWEEK, Fortune Small Business Magazine and OnRequest.
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Book Standard Video Awards
You can also download the videos on iTunes.
The hottest new filmmakers at top U.S. film schools have created Book Videos for three of the hottest debut titles of Summer 2006. Winning Book Videos are being streamed over Billboard.com, Bebo.com, YouTube, The Book Standard, BantamDell.com, this event website and over Sprint cell phones via MSpot, our exclusive mobile communications partner.
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More Book Trailers
Flickr Photos
Adventures of the lo...
We found a copy of a...
I thought I heard th...
063: I've got the To...
Did I make a mistake...
Pirating in the Guil...
Curses to this Mirag...
Gary's book presenta...
Epigraph
The 2004 Utica Torna...
postcards by annie p...
Story Corps
More Book Trailer Sites
- JABBIT
- Judging a Book by its Trailer
BookVideos.tv
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Let me know what you think of this lens or just post a note to say hello.
Thanks for visiting,
~ Crystal Booth
Just finished a book trailer for my debut novel, "Calbraith." Please check it out and let me know what you think:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iqgoc_3aRxA
Posted July 18, 2008
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tandemonimom
How cool is this? I just saw a page a book trailer yesterday for the first time and was thinking "what is THIS?" and here is your lens, getting me all up to speed. Thanks for the info and a great page! {5 stars} Posted July 16, 2008 |
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qlcoach
This is wonderful information for authors and writers--Five Stars! Please feel free to get the word out about it at my club. Also how about adding your awesome Authors on Squidoo? Posted July 14, 2008 |
This scifi book trailer for Exit, Pursued by a Bee, is amazing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnr-135u84c
Posted July 01, 2008
http://www.cosproductions.com have really cool book trailers. Some of them have actors and real scenes. Many of Christine Feehan's does that I have seen.
Posted June 20, 2008
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