Loves Book Trailers Here are Three

I love book trailers! And in a nice piece of serendipity, I happen to have a new one for my latest Best Seller, Star Cruise: Marooned, just off an exclusive reveal at USA Today:




My first ever book trailer in 2012 was purely a treat to myself because it was like a mini scifi movie of my book  Wreck of the Nebula Dream. I think everyone knows my fondest dream is to have my books made into movies or TV, so this video was the next best thing at the time LOL. Some of the stock photos have since been used a zillion times for other authors' book covers and trailers so I won't include the Wreck video here. (It's at  https://youtu.be/0oA3NpmxTZI )

When I was ready to have a couple trailers done for my historical fantasy series set in ancient Egypt, I had to find a new provider, since the first person had moved on to to other career pursuits. I'm not at all tech-y so there was no question of my doing a video by myself. My new contractor wanted me to be much more involved in all the choices, but the collaborative process was fun, selecting just the right stock music and finding photos to try to fit the mood (and represent the hero and heroine). We had lively conversations and unusual challenges, such as electric lights in an otherwise great photo of an  ancient tomb! I certainly looked at a LOT of stock photos of people and places. We did several book trailers together. Here are two:




For my latest trailer, the one at the top of the post, I went with Circle of Seven Productions, in part because my individual contractor had pretty much stepped away from the trailer-making, and also because I'd seen a topnotch trailer for one of Christine Feehan's books, Viper Game, that really impressed me. I also like the idea of working with a company whose primary focus is making book teasers and trailers, not a sideline to their higher priorities. I was fortunate enough to work with the same producer at CoS who did Ms. Feehan's trailer, Michel Miller. I love the result on Star Cruise: Marooned. I'll definitely work with them again. Another advantage from CoS is that they include other distribution channels besides youtube in the fees.

I'd love to have them make a full-on live action book trailer for me but that's way above my budget at this stage.

So why do I have book trailers:
1. They make me happy. Plain and simple.
2. They're excellent promo tools, not in and of themselves but because it gives me something else to tweet relating to the books, Share on FB, add to my Amazon Author Central page, my blog...two have been recommended on USAT/Happily Ever After. (Full disclosure, I am a biweekly contributor there with my SciFi Encounters column.)
3. With several of the books, I definitely saw an upswing in sales after the trailers were revealed.
4. A video always has that potential to go REALLY BIG and viral....

I heard what fellow Word Whore Marshall said on Thursday, about book trailers "lacking any sense of the filmic language" and "trailers are not good advertising for what books really are..." I respectfully submit that different folks have different standards, I also think a good book trailer does do what a movie trailer does - it distills the essence of the story and makes you feel you really want to read that book or see that movie.

And further, in this multimedia world we have today, I think it's a good idea to use the video to promote the written word. It works for me!


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