How Effective Are Book Trailers?

Book trailers, a fairly new form of book promotion, are here to stay. High profile, bestselling authors even use book trailers. A 2008 Wall Street Journal article discussed the lengths to which authors like Meg Cabot and Jodi Picoult will go to focus attention on their books, some staging puppet shows, posting home movies, or conducting mock interviews with characters from their books. Even so, the article admits that "there is scant evidence...that the average book trailer actually has much impact on book sales."

That may be true for bestselling authors. Even if a book trailer leads to thousands of new sales, those sales are insignificant when you are hoping to sell millions of books.

However, the majority of book trailers are made by first-time or relatively unknown authors hoping to spread the word about their book. When you are speaking in terms of book sales in the hundreds, not millions, book trailers may be highly effective.

How effective are book trailers? Well, they have become so popular that it seems every author is posting a book trailer on YouTube. Chances are, your book trailer may get lost among the sea of others' efforts, ranging in quality from artistic and creative to sloppy and downright cringe-worthy.

When it comes to book trailers, certain criteria must be met in order to help, rather than hinder, your book's success. In promoting your book, book trailers can be most effective IF...

You can produce the book trailer cheaply. Professionally-crafted book trailers can cost thousands of dollars, a sum not available for the promotion of many first-time authors' books. In fact, spending any money at all making a book trailer may cut drastically any profit you make from your book. Your best bet is to make your own book trailer. If you own a PC, it is most likely equipped with Windows MovieMaker (or iMovie for Mac users). Guides on how to make a book trailer abound on the Internet-as do excellent examples, of both good and bad book trailers. Search YouTube for "book trailer" or view the first annual Moby Awards 2010 list of Best and Worst Book Trailers.

You can create a quality book trailer. Once you've viewed a few examples out there, consider what makes a successful book trailer. That is, one that will make viewers go out and buy your book. The best book trailers are usually short, from 30 seconds to definitely less than three minutes. The book trailer must be compelling, interesting, and many are funny or surprising. The content must be legal, i.e., do not use copyrighted photos, videos, or music for your book trailer. YouTube will remove it, and worse, you will look unprofessional. Most importantly, the book trailer must successfully reflect the book it is promoting. You can create a thrilling, visually stunning video, but if it has nothing to do with your book, you're not likely to convince people to buy many copies.

You promote the book trailer. A book trailer isn't going to do much good just sitting on your website or YouTube unless you make others aware of its existence. The good news is that book trailers are easier to distribute and more entertaining to potential readers than, say, sending out sample chapters or a synopsis. In fact, this ease and entertainment factor are likely the key as to why book trailers have become so popular. After you have created a quality book trailer and uploaded it to YouTube and your website, start linking to it through Twitter and Facebook, and everywhere else you happen to have a presence on the Internet.

Carefully consider these criteria before creating a book trailer. After all, many other book promotion tools exist, from blogs to bookstore signings to speaking engagements. But if you can create a book trailer cheaply, with quality, and make others aware of it...then why not give it a try?

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