Book Trailers; do they work?

I've just finished the trailer for my book. I have no idea if it well help me sell books but it was a lot of fun to make.

Here's the link
trailer

I think book trailers can work, but it depends on the reader. Some people love them, and some people hate them.

I would never pay someone to do a book trailer for me simply because I haven't seen anyone flocking to buy my book after watching a trailer. I make my own. They aren't the fanciest, but they are free to make and only take me a few minutes to put together. I figure the trailers are available if someone wants to view them. If not, no big deal.

The decision is really up to the author, but I don't think they are needed. Like I said though, I wouldn't pay big bucks to get one made. I know someone who paid $500 for a book trailer. The quality is about the same as mine. Crazy if you ask me!

My trailers:
The Wild Side - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eB4NDqXaWo8
Lessons My Mother Taught Me - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCgI55hKmPU

I've only recently started seeing book trailers more and more. I originally saw trailers for fan fiction, but it seems I see them more for books. Like the person above me wrote, sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. I mean it is a bit weird to watch for me simply because when I see "trailer" I expect things besides print to move kind of still. Again, it really depends on how well it's done whether or not it has a good or bad effect.

I think book trailers are more and more becoming part of the marketing plan for major and indie publishers. And some of the professional trailers I've seen recently look more like promotions for major motion pictures!

This one really made me go wow:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVegDhDxLeU

Makes it hard to compete with this kind of stuff when you're just a little guy trying to get your name and book out there.

I dislike the vast majority I've seen for two reasons:
1. They are poorly made and turn me off. I'm afraid the book will be poorly written, too.
2. They reveal too much of the plot. Especially if it's a book with important twists, I don't WANT to know about them ahead of time. They seem like spoilers.

Omnigon said:

I think book trailers are more and more becoming part of the marketing plan for major and indie publishers. And some of the professional trailers I've seen recently look more like promotions for major motion pictures!

This one really made me go wow:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVegDhDxLeU

Makes it hard to compete with this kind of stuff when you're just a little guy trying to get your name and book out there.

Click to expand...

That trailer was amazing. It freaked me out a little toward the end, but I have to admit it was good.

So I realise I am resurrecting a rather old thread, but I contributed a fair bit to this discussion and hinted at the amount of work I was putting into my trailer, so I thought I should actually post the final result (it went up about an hour ago ): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xs5rXZrglf4

Some thoughts: It was a lot of work for an unpredictable result. The reason I did it was more for me to stretch my creative muscle, not necessarily because I thought it would sell thousands of books (though that would be nice too ). I am also an actor and have a lot of connections (and friends) in the industry, so this trailer cost a fraction of the amount it would have had I not had the connections I had. I definitely don't think the amount I would have had to pay would have been worth the expense for an author.

That being said, I love having the trailer now to augment my social media. Also because it was such a kick butt trailer (and it really was, my friends are AWESOME) MTV featured it on their blog: http://hollywoodcrush.mtv.com/2012/12/13/the-friday-society-book-trailer/

It has also been very useful for my publishers to send internally, around the house and to book buyers etc. So even if it winds up not getting the views from the public it was still great for building industry buzz.

So there we go! I hope people like it (if you do, please do share it )!

Toothpaste said:

So I realise I am resurrecting a rather old thread, but I contributed a fair bit to this discussion and hinted at the amount of work I was putting into my trailer, so I thought I should actually post the final result (it went up about an hour ago ): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xs5rXZrglf4

Click to expand...

It seems so cheesy, and yet... it did it's job. Before I'd been looking at the book and thinking "I want to read this eventually." And now I've bumped it up on the "I definitly want to read it" category. I like how it introduces each of the main characters, too. It makes them stand out in my mind, and I think it works well with connecting to the book cover (which is awesome, by the way). :-D

Anyways, I'm fascinated by book trailers. Some don't really seem that great, while others do a good job of capturing my interest. I hope to do a book trailer for the stories I'm writing once I find a publisher for them, and I enjoy imagining possible options of how to do it. Then again, I'm also fascinated by the different movie-type trailers.

I bowed out of this discussion quite a while ago because I'd stated my opinion--I don't watch book trailers, I don't think they're effective, and I've never bought a book based on one.

As of today, I've changed my mind.

I just saw the cutest book trailer ever, and I found the book and ordered it right after seeing the trailer. So, it worked exactly as designed .

The trailer was for The Bedtime Book for Dogs.
http://www.dogwork.com/bbd8