COS Productions said:
Statistically speaking, book trailers sell books and are popular with a certain type of viewer.
The RWR article that someone referred to has a bookseller come right out to say that readers like them. The top trailers for Borders group that got people to buy?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyoLjSjMRWg
and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDh9IMY_NZ4
Traditional readers, which most of the commenting here seem to be, are more likely to use reviews, back cover copy and a friend's recommendation than a trailer.
Traditional readers are not the prime target audience of book trailers. "Potential" or "Occasional" readers are. And young adult readers. These are people who see books as a form of entertainment, but may not read on a regular basis.
A survey of over 200 readers showed that the biggest thing that would make them pick up a book after seeing the trailer is - genre. So in the end, it is still personal preference that ruled the day.
TV spots are not as expensive anymore and are within the budget of many mid-list authors. Not a lot of people know about this recent turn of events, but those who do tend to utilize it.
If the trailer is good enough and has some entertainment value to it many people will take it as content.
The trailer is, in my opinion, is less important than the distribution of the trailer. Yes, it has to be good. But it can be just "okay" and still be quite effective.
The trailers we make come with distribution. Both online and offline. Starting in April we'll be able to have our trailers played in buses in 5 major cities. That's 10 million impression and costs our clients $175 (formatting fee). That doesn't even count the fact that they are put up on around 50 social sites, several book marking sites, sent out to 300 booksellers and 5000 libraries.
I know there are a lot of people who are new to book trailers. And to digital media or online marketing. If you're not getting more use out of a trailer than putting it on your website and up on YouTube, why bother? Just having it does nothing for your sales. What you do with it does.
2 comments:
Hi!
I was thrilled to see you put this quote up.
I would like to share one more little bit of information that was a surprise even to me.
Schools and libraries are using book trailers as well to help encourage reading. They have found great success with it and it is becoming a very useful educational tool.
Here's an article about it that I wrote that references other articles or sites from teachers and libraries-
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977295405
One teacher pointed out that students who are not doing well with reading, but do well with technology, use the trailers as a confidence builder, resulting in that student becoming a better reader. It never occurred to me that anyone would use book trailers like this, but I hope they continue to do so with success! I love the idea of encouraging young people to read!
Sheila
Sheila,
Thank you for taking the time to provide this information.
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