Book Trailers

cw gortner · Post by **cw gortner** » Thu October 16th, 2008, 10:15 pm

Thanks, Catherine. I think they did an excellent job, too. The marketing director at Ballantine, Expanded Books, and I decided we wanted to try a more mini-History Channel approach than what you usually see in book trailers; I think the editing and flow of imagery helped soften the scholary feel to just the right level. The filming of my interview took place in 108 degree heat on a closed set; the makeup guy worked his buns off, because I was sweating like a Trojan and he kept having to powder me up to hide it.

Yours is quite lovely. PumpUp Your Book Promotion did a similiar onefor me, too. I quite like it, and one viewer who saw it wrote to tell me he lives in Valladolid, near the castle where Juana stayed for a time. That was cool.

Any visibility is good, and videos just add to it. Publishers can be so cagey about things they believe won't sell books, but in my opinion Dutton is behind the times on this. Simon & Schuster has its own video production company devoted to producing in-house video trailers for their authors, as does HarperCollins. And Random House contracts them out quite a bit. They may not sell as many copies as publishers would prefer but I think that in the future, more and more people will discover books via these videos. We've become such a visual society, it's inevitable. And YouTube is a marketing paradise. Look at the amount of hits it gets on an hourly basis

!

EC2 · Post by **EC2** » Thu October 16th, 2008, 11:56 pm

[quote=""Catherine Delors""]Well, CW, you are lucky! My publisher takes the position that those things don't work, so if I want to spend my money on them, fine, but I shouldn't expect them to chip in. They may be quite right, I don't know.
I loved your trailer, by the way. It looked totally cool, scholarly but not too scholarly. Sigh...[/quote]

Mine are the same Catherine. When I told them how much Michelle's cost my editor just said 'Good Grief' and was horrified - no matter that it's an excellent product and may well sell screeds of books. But this is the UK and video trailers haven't hit the road here much at all. Mine, home-made with movie maker are seen as cutting edge here in the UK. The USA does seem to be very much ahead of the rest of the world with this type of promo thing.

michellemoran · Post by **michellemoran** » Fri October 17th, 2008, 1:11 am

Catherine: My publisher takes the position that those things don't work, so if I want to spend my money on them, fine, but I shouldn't expect them to chip in.

This does happen to be true, because most authors park them on their website or post them on YouTube and hope for the best. For an expensive trailer to be useful, the author has to think outside the box. Will it be used for theatre ads, commercials, will it be posted on Borders.com once the author goes through the right channels? Most authors aren't willing to put in the effort to make their trailer work for them, in which case, an expensive trailer is indeed a waste of money. I think it's all in how it's used.

When I told them how much Michelle's cost my editor just said 'Good Grief' and was horrified - no matter that it's an excellent product and may well sell screeds of books.

HA! I'm not surprised. I didn't even bother asking mine. I don't ask for anything I haven't tried first and can't back up with click-thrus balanced against CPM. If I can come with the proof that it works, then they're interested...

So in order to "prove" a trailer works, I will need to incorporate it into my ads and study the click-thrus. I haven't seen it done before with books, but I plan on trying and seeing how it goes.

diamondlil · Post by **diamondlil** » Fri October 17th, 2008, 2:43 am

[quote=""cw gortner""]My publisher did mine through ExpandedBooks. I had to go to LA to shoot the sections where I'm talking; I helped write the script, select the images, select the voice-overs (there were auditions via mp3 files), and they then did their magic.

I've heard from a few readers that they found my book because of the trailer, so I guess that means these things work to some extent. There was a recent interview with a well-known publisher who didn't believe book trailers actually increased book sales much, though they're all the rage.

I have no idea what mine cost. If I had to guess, I'd say between $3 and 4K. They had a few people on "set" when I went, including a make-up artist, which can't be cheap. And the camera and lights were all professional - the company is run by a producer who won an Emmy for the tv show Friends.[/quote]

I just watched yours last night CW and really liked it!

Catherine Delors · Post by **Catherine Delors** » Fri October 17th, 2008, 8:37 am

I guess I am guilty of what Michelle says: I parked my trailer on my blog and YouTube... But then I didn't pay for ads, at least for the hardcover.

The paperback version is coming out in March 09, and then I will invest in some (internet) ads. Same thing: my publisher says they don't work either, so it's my call to decide whether I want to spend my $$$ on them.

michellemoran · Post by **michellemoran** » Fri October 17th, 2008, 3:01 pm

Catherine, I love your book video, and given the great price you got, you certainly don't need to put it anywhere else!

My publisher says [ads] don't work either, so it's my call to decide whether I want to spend my $$$ on them.

Oh my gosh, do they really say that? I have about 15 excel sheets that could prove them very wrong! You should have a chat with MJ Rose at Author Buzz.

Catherine Delors · Post by **Catherine Delors** » Fri October 17th, 2008, 4:53 pm

Michelle, I believe you are right. I am in the process of hiring MJ and picking the sites where we think the ads might work for Mistress.

michellemoran · Post by **michellemoran** » Fri October 17th, 2008, 7:13 pm

Good for you!!!! She's a marketing guru.

Catherine Delors · Post by **Catherine Delors** » Fri October 17th, 2008, 8:31 pm

I know she advertises herself, so it must work!

cw gortner · Post by **cw gortner** » Fri October 17th, 2008, 9:37 pm

[quote=""diamondlil""]I just watched yours last night CW and really liked it![/quote]

Thank you! That's always nice to hear.

ExpandedBooks put it everywhere (in response to Michelle's very savvy remarks) including Barnes and Noble.com Studio. I was amazed at how well they distributed it. I'm sure Ballantine was happy, too.