All the major publishers use them to promote their books – Penguin, Random House, Harper Collins, and others…
And self-published authors now follow suit, with trailers of their own.
Book trailers simply make sense when it comes to book promotion…
- People are much more likely to buy a product when they see a video about it
- Trailers are visually exciting and entice readers more easily than text
- They can be used effectively on all the social media platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, Twitter, Instagram, etc.
- They act as a great centerpiece to an author website
- Unlike paid ads, they live forever, garnering more and more organic views over time
As an art form, book trailers are just beginning, but already it’s easy to see what separates the great ones from the lackluster. A great book trailer is cinematic. They are filmed and edited by talented professionals – often with original footage, talented actors, professional voiceover, and exceptional filmmaking. A great book trailer piques a reader’s interest and makes them want to see more!
Even celebrities and Hollywood heavyweights have taken notice of this new art form and its power to attract an audience…
Check out this trailer for Neil Patrick Harris’ Choose Your Own Autobiography, starring none other than NPH himself.
Or this trailer for One More Thing by B.J. Novak, starring B.J. Novak (“The Office”) and Mindy Kaling (“The Office”, “The Mindy Project”).
And then there’s some cinematic book trailers that rival those of big-budget movies, shot using 4K technology and including heavy CGI.
The point is, there are no limits to what you can include in a book trailer or who can be involved!
Just like his book, Neil Patrick Harris takes center stage and creates an interactive experience with his trailer to successfully captivate viewers. B.J. Novak on the other hand, chose a self-promotional route with a cleverly executed meta-reference aided by other Hollywood actors. And the third trailer is an experiential take on Savage Drift, thrusting viewers into the post-apocalyptic world.
Clearly, each of these trailers is vastly different from one another, but they are all incredibly enticing. That’s because of the professional degree of planning and execution that went into creating them. When the same care and attention put into writing and publishing a book continues through promotional efforts, people take notice – Both Choose Your Own Autobiography and One More Thing landed on the New York Times Best Sellers list!
So to roundup this post (and take it one step further), if you’ve ever thought that your book would make a great movie or show (or even if you’ve never dreamed of that as a possibility), a well made book trailer can be an excellent step in that direction. It can attract readers to your book, build your web presence and personal brand, and perhaps even get the attention of a Hollywood producer looking for the next big adaptation!