The book trailer is a relatively new thing in our modern era of social media and book marketing. I understand why publishers and marketers do it. I’m not sure, but, from the standpoint of exposure, book trailers might actually work.
But that doesn’t mean I have to like them.
Movie trailers work. They make sense. They take a visual medium to promote another form of visual medium. They’re highly effective. And, for me, a movie’s trailer can be a huge factor in whether or not I go to see said movie.
But book trailers?
They range from the extremely dull, low-budget, sleep-inducing version…
to the extremely hokey….
to the inexplicably bad book trailers that could have much better production value yet seemed more like the 60-second intro video the tour guide shows you before you enter the mineral exhibit at your local science museum.
To everything in between.
When book trailers first appeared several years ago, I watched several of them simply because the idea of a book trailer seemed so foreign. I’ve never watched a book trailer that actually made me want to read the book. In fact, I never watch them at all anymore because I feel like it’s such a waste of a valuable two or three minutes of my life.
Are there good ones? Sure.
That said, do books trailers work? I’d be interested to find out how much impact they really make. From my standpoint, they’re just more social media and marketing noise I can do without.
But what do you think? Has a book trailer ever convinced you to buy a book? Do you even watch them?
Previous Bookish Pet Peeves
#9: Snobby Authors
#8: Preachy Authors
#7: Buying Books I Don’t Read
#6: Speed Reading
#5: The Book Borrower
#4: The One Upper
#3: The Book Snob
#2: The Nosey Over-The-Shoulder Reader
#1: Bookstore Cellphone Blabbermouth
