I’ll be blunt: I don’t get book videos.

As a reader, they generally do nothing for me. And as a web designer involved with author promotion, I’ve been struggling to understand the value vs. the cost of them. So in an effort to educate myself and perhaps shed some light on the situation, I’d like to take a closer look at this promotional tool, from my perspectives as a reader and as an industry professional. (And I want to note that I don’t offer book videos as part of my services, never have and probably never will, so these are my unbiased observations.)

AS A READER

The reader in me agrees with author Brenda Coulter’s opinions on book videos, as written in her July 2006 blog entry Those boring book trailers:

Lately I’ve been seeing an awful lot of book trailers, which means I’ve seen a lot of awful book trailers. What’s a book trailer? Nothing more than a 30-second hyped-up slide show with a soundtrack.

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Listen, I’m no marketing expert, but I am a bookbuyer, and one who uses the internet daily. That means book trailers are aimed at me. So when I say they aren’t impressing me, maybe some of the authors and publishers who are so excited about the things ought to pay some attention.

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Frankly, the trailers just aren’t clever enough to induce anyone to link to them and make them go “viral.” As I mentioned earlier, they’re just slide shows. They suggest movement by jiggling the photos and spinning them and zooming in and out, but those of us with broadband are used to watching real video clips on the internet, so we’re a hard bunch to impress.

Most of the videos I’ve seen contain still photos, so the “slide show with a soundtrack” bit sums up pretty well why those don’t interest the reader in me. There’s nothing that grabs my attention about the zooming in and sliding back and forth on stock photos, set to what I’m assuming is a stock audio track, and text that amounts to just a slow, agonizing presentation of the cover blurb of the book.

The next tier of videos, those containing stock footage (i.e. video clips instead of still photos) aren’t much better. It’s basically just a slight upgrade, and their ability to hold my attention is just slightly higher. The final and most advanced kind of video is the one using live actors and original footage. One example of this is L.A. Banks’ trailer for her Vampire Huntress series. If I were into vampire books, this one might piqué my interest, but I have one major problem with it: it’s way too long.

Here’s the deal. I have a short attention span. And I don’t think I’m the only one. Authors are advised that they have to hook their readers’ attention with the first paragraphs of a book. If you apply that mentality to a book video, then it has to do some major attention grabbing in the first scene. And then with each second that passes, keeping the viewer’s attention just becomes exponentially more difficult. IMHO, a great book video is only 30 seconds long. If it goes on for more than 60 seconds, you’ve lost me. It takes me 30-60 seconds to read a cover blurb, so if a video drags on for longer than that and doesn’t offer me anything the blurb doesn’t, then it’s a waste of my time.

Besides length, my other beef is with the cover blurb aspect I just mentioned, the “slide show with a soundtrack.” In most videos, there’s just too much text. And the pace of the text is much slower than the pace at which I read, so half of the time I’m just watching the zooming and fading effects of the photos and said text while I’m waiting for something new to appear. What I liked the most about the Vampire Huntress trailer I linked to above was the narration by the protagonist. It gave a fresh perspective, and it wasn’t just an abbreviated version of the cover blurb. Another good example is Sandra Hill’s Pearl Jinx. This one is way too long as well, but the banter between the hero and heroine is fun and unique. It didn’t make me want to read the book, but it came very, very close. Bottom line is, I don’t want to read the blurb in the form of a slow book video. I’d be surprised if there are any readers who do.

So what kind of video would work for me? Well, like I said, make it short. Super short. Tease me with a quick, delicious taste of the story that makes me want to have more. Be mysterious. Don’t give away too much information. Just give me something snappy, something that’s just long enough to hook me, reel me in, and make me go to the author’s website for more information. If the video intrigues me, I’ll check out the book. If it bores me, I won’t.

I also want something that sets the mood. If the book is a dark and chilling paranormal or thriller, give me a dark and scary video. If the book is funny, the video should make me laugh. If it’s a historical, transport me back in time. Don’t hold back. Forget telling me the details about the book and focus on showing me how reading it will make me feel. The best mood-setting trailer I’ve seen, hands down, is for Jackie Kessler’s The Road to Hell. It contains all the elements I complained about above, but the pace is pretty quick and the creators chose just the perfect combination of text, photos, and music to set the mood. This video makes me want to read the book, and that’s despite the fact that paranormals aren’t really my cuppa.

Finally, another concept is the kind of video that doesn’t focus on the details of the book at all but is aimed purely at intriguing the reader with a unique concept. Lisa Gardner’s trailer for her book Hide is the perfect example. I’m a big Gardner fan and had already pre-ordered this book by the time I saw the video, so it’s hard to judge what impact it would have made if I knew nothing about her, but I can say one thing for sure: the video is not boring. I watched intently the whole thing, eagerly awaiting the punch line. It could also prompt readers to pass the link around purely for the entertainment value of the video itself. That’s when you’ve got the potential of a video going viral, and that’s when people start paying attention.

AS AN INDUSTRY PROFESSIONAL

Ask any author, and I’m sure she’d tell you that self-promotion is a maddening undertaking. It’s almost impossible to know what works and what doesn’t—well, besides writing a fantastic book, that is. The promotional value of book videos has always struck me as dubious at best, and I’ve honestly wondered if it wasn’t mostly about “everyone’s doing it, and so should I” and some sort of peer status symbol. As in, the fancy book trailer is the publishing world’s equivalent of an expensive car or designer clothes meant to impress your co-workers.

While I do still think that there’s a bandwagon involved, authors and other industry professionals are singing its praises too loudly as a wonderful promotional tool for me to dismiss it only as an issue of status. So I did some poking around to try and understand why the book video is such a Big Deal these days.

Going back to Brenda Coulter’s blog post, one commenter said,

My vote is wait and see. Why write them off? They aren’t hurting anyone.

Which brought about my thought that, no, of course they aren’t hurting anyone. But they might be hurting some things, namely these struggling authors’ wallets. Unless you create them yourself or talk your Friendly Neighborhood Geek into helping you, book videos aren’t cheap. And as with anything that costs a chunk of money, the value has to be considered. So, are they worth it?

I’m guessing the answer is, it depends on what you do with it. I recently saw my very first book video on TV, for Stephen King’s Duma Key (high res, low res). This is a great video. It’s exactly 30 seconds long (I knew I was on to something with that number!), it’s mysterious, and it sets the mood. The thing is, while I’m sure the cost of creating it and advertising it on television amounted to pocket change for someone like King, it would be prohibitive to the average Suzy Author. Ditto on advertising in movie theaters. It would be great, and it would sell books, but who can afford it?

So what do you do with a trailer? Authors put it on their website, of course, and on networking sites like YouTube and MySpace. Which is great and fun, but it doesn’t exactly expose the author’s name or the book to anyone who wasn’t already looking for it. I’m guessing that means the sales impact of those methods is minimal. If I’m wrong about that, anyone can feel free to correct me, but I’d need some solid proof to believe it.

What I didn’t consider before I started Googling this is that there are other venues for showcasing these videos. Chris Marie Green’s post about this on Dionne Galace’s blog offers some illumination:

“I posted this on my blog as well as my other sites, then passed it to people I thought might be interested, such as fellow authors, my agent, and my editor. The production began to pop up on other blogs, too, but, best of all, the marketing department at Penguin liked it and gave the trailer its own space on their Web page.

Honestly, I believe this justified every penny I spent.”

And according to this post on big bad book blog:

To distribute a book trailer, the publisher simply has to upload the trailer to the sites listed above; email friends, family, and targeted email lists; and ask them to view the video and vote. Publishers are sending trailers to bloggers to post on their sites as well. What other ways are publishers using boook trailers?

• On plasma screens at airport bookstores

•On their book’s Amazon.com page

•In email pitches to bookstore buyers and media

•In author press rooms

A feature on Amazon? A spotlight on a TV screen in a bookstore? Exposure to booksellers? A spot on the publisher’s website? Aha! I get it now. Combined with a snazzy video, this would sell books.

But how many of the trailers made actually get this kind of exposure? How many authors are educating themselves on all of these opportunities? My guess is that for many authors, the money they spend on a video is wasted because they don’t know how to or don’t manage to take full advantage of them.

When I asked her about it, promo savvy author Jackie Kessler shared her opinions and experiences with book trailers:

Why do trailers? A good trailer can get people excited about a book — just like a good trailer can get people excited about a movie, or about a television show.

“Wait,” you shout, “television and film are visual media, and books for adults aren’t. Apples and oranges!”

But why not cross media? Books get promoted on the radio and on television. So why not make book trailers? Especially in a world where author websites are essential, authors are already moving beyond words to include images andeven music (MySpace, anyone?) — so why not go the next step and do a trailer?

Done right, a trailer can really convey the **feeling** of your book –which, when combined with an excerpt and good reviews, may be enough to convince readers to buy the book. And it’s not just about readers: think about how an exciting trailer could inspire the sales force when they pitch
your novel to booksellers. (I am forever grateful to Toni McGee Causey (BOBBIE FAYE’S VERY (VERY, VERY, VERY) BAD DAY) for sharing this wisdom.)

The trick is doing a trailer right. You don’t want a trailer to be too slow, or God forbid, too long. You don’t want to bore the viewer. And you don’t want to tell the whole story of your book. Again, you want to convey a feeling, make people excited about the book. To me, the right music is essential. And that needs to be paired with the right images and the right words.

Along with Toni’s live-action video trailer, I highly recommend Colleen Gleason’s trailer for THE REST FALLS AWAY. Brilliant stuff.

(By the way — if you’re making your own video, keep in mind that Shockwave doesn’t play nicely with YouTube.)

I asked Jackie about the distribution thing, wondering if she thought of the trailer mostly as a companion to the blurb and excerpt, something to spark extra excitement and interest in the reader. This was her response:

That’s how I see it. The combination of the trailer, plus reviews/blurbs and excerpts, may help potential readers decide whether or not to try the book.

And again, there’s the possibility of the trailer drumming up interest internally at the publisher. This happened to Toni McGee Causey, and I think it’s brilliant: give the trailer to your publicist, and let the publicist share it with the sales force.

Also, my local paper found my book trailer and blogged about it. Seriously.

In conclusion, to make a book video work for you, the author, I think it’s imperative that you either learn what to do with it or hire someone who can help. It needs to “wow” people and it needs distribution. Without those two factors, it’s highly unlikely that it’s worth it.

So, what do you think?

Readers, how do you feel about book videos? Have any of them made you buy a book? What works for you and what doesn’t?

And authors who do trailers, what are you doing to make sure your video gets exposure and works as the promotional tool it’s meant to be?

I’m looking forward to hearing your opinions!

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This article was originally posted on Romancing the Blog.