Tag Archive for: bookcovers

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Book Trailers

By Saralyn Richard

 

I’m not sure when book trailers became “a thing,” but now the internet is flooded with video teasers that make prospective readers want to buy books in all genres. Some are professionally done; others are created with easy-to-use software, such as Canva, MovieMaker, and VistaCreate.

What I like about successful book trailers is that they crystallize the essence of the book into short, pithy artistic statements. The selected text, graphics, and video make the book description come alive with aesthetics, movement, action, sound, and emotional appeals.

The cover is hot, but the trailer is even hotter.

The advertising potential is vast, and, assuming the trailer is widely viewed, it becomes a valuable marketing tool for the book.

A lesser realized, but no less important outcome is what the trailer does for the author. In writing seven novels and one children’s book, I’ve found it easier to write a hundred-thousand-word work of fiction than to write a book description or blurb. Condensing the book into its essential parts and highlighting its purpose is extremely difficult and frustrating. What to include? What to leave out, because it’s a spoiler? What to emphasize?

Brevity may be the soul of wit, but for a novelist, brevity can suffocate. Figuring out what to put into a book trailer, both in images and words, simplifies the task. While writing is a left-brain activity, movie-making is right-brain.

Even if the trailer is “hired out,” the author must give the artist the basic information: characters, setting, and plot. If the book is a mystery, the trailer needs to capture the elements of suspense, suspects, clues, and mood, all provided by the author

. The trailer requires a script and storyboard, and a great hook at the beginning.

The video for my book, CRYSTAL BLUE MURDER, is an example of a trailer that helps the audience get a feel for the book. It also helps me clarify the important plot points and messages of the book. You can currently view the trailer here:

Crystal Blue Murder Book Trailer v2

Does it make you want to read the book? Do book trailers in general appeal to you when you are deciding what to read next? I love hearing from you!

Saralyn

Death and the Lit Chick

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G. M. Malliet worked as a journalist and copywriter for national and international news publications and public broadcasters. Winner of the Malice Domestic Grant (Death of a Cozy Writer) and the Romance Writers of America’s Stiletto Award, Malliet attended Oxford University and holds a graduate degree from the University of Cambridge.She and her husband live in Virginia. For a description of Death and the Lit Chick, see http://gmmalliet.com/

Several years ago, my husband and I belonged to a neighborhood book club. It lasted only about two years, then the group dissolved: attrition, conflicting and busy schedules, and all the rest made it too difficult to meet. What was slightly unusual about this club was that it was comprised of three men and three women. I don’t have statistics to back this up, but I imagine most book clubs are female only or predominantly female.

What was also unusual was that, about eighteen months into our monthly meetings, we realized we had read only books by male authors. I don’t remember the books now, except for Peace Like a River (lovely writing) and some god-awful attempt at imitating the Travis McGee books. My point is: We may have come a long way, baby, but somehow, without even realizing it, the women had gone along with choosing the more muscular books they thought the men might like, rather than making the men struggle through something like Sex and the City. I guess we knew they would flat-out refuse and that would be the end of that.

This is a pathetic confession to have to make; to this day I can’t believe we women behaved like this, without even realizing we were doing so. The whole episode has been in my mind now that the ramp-up to my second novel in the St. Just mystery series has begun. A key–nay, a crucial–part of this ramp-up is the unveiling of the book cover, which, rightly or wrongly, can raise or sink a book. The first book was called Death of a Cozy Writer, and it was beautifully illustrated, I thought, by a fountain pen dripping blood (trust me, it sounds awful but it looks great). The second book is called Death and the Lit Chick, the cover for which appears above.

My first reaction on seeing this cover was that I loved it–I thought it was clever and impactful, looking like the spilled contents of a woman’s purse (although it did portray many items not mentioned in the plot–a subject many authors over the centuries have ranted about so there’s no need for me to repeat the rantings here). But my husband took one look and declared that no man would be caught dead buying that book unless it came supplied with a brown paper wrapper.

Worriedly, I reported the findings of my two-person survey to my editor, fearing I was going to lose the male audience that I knew existed for the first book. The second book was in the identical, traditional British mystery vein (there is nothing chick litty about the plot). But would I lose the men forever with this one? She told me that my audience would largely be female, anyway, and female was the target audience.

Is this true? I hate to lose the guys over a cover. Perhaps Death and the Lit Chick can be a litmus test, the way my book club was. If challenged, will “real men” buy a girly looking pink-and-red book with lipstick on the cover?

We shall see come April.

G.M. Malliet
http://gmmalliet.com/