Sharon's Muse.... Let's chat over coffee while I ponder some things
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Sharon's Muse.... Let's chat over coffee while I ponder some things |
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Name::Sharon Cullars
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Monday, September 05, 2005 Marketing books through trailers As my novel goes through the publishing mill, I am doing some serious brain-panning about how to effectively market it. I know that books languish all the time with little or inadequate marketing and I am determined not to go down that road. One of the venues I know I will be using is the Internet (thus this blog), but as the web is already glutted with blogs and authors' websites, I am seeking ways for my humble little site to stand out. This brings me to the issue of whether to use a book trailer (is this term trademarkable, BTW? - according to Sheila Clover of Circle of Seven (COS) Productions, it is and she has the right to the term). I had been pondering something along the line of a trailer for my book when I read that romance/suspense author M. J. Rose had gotten a book trailer created through Vidlit for her book Halo Effect. In her blog, Rose addressed the question about how marketable a trailer really is if it didn't receive mass exposure. She answered the question by launching a two-week campaign in July, securing $5 pledges to Reading is Fundamental from various friends, family and acquaintances for each website that linked to the trailer. Her goal was to have links on 500 websites and to raise $2,500. The result of her campaign was a reported 100 blog links with over 10,000 eyeviews of her trailer. More important 10% of the 10,000 clicked on her "Buy This Book" button. Other readers indicated through emails that they bought her book after viewing the trailer. In a recent column at Romancing the Blog, romance author Beth Ciotta wondered whether the book trailer was the future wave of book marketing. Only time will tell. So far, only a few companies offer trailers, including the above Vidlit and COS Productions; COS created book trailers for authors Heather Graham and Douglass Klegg, among others. Another company is Writers-in-Motion. I have checked out some of these trailers; some were impressive, others weren't. At $500 minimum for a short video (prices range from $500 to $5000 at COS), I know that I would need extensive input. A trailer should be short, to the point and above all professional looking. Overacting by wannabe actors can kill the effect, so I think I would just stick with male and female voice overs reading pivotal (and dramatic) quotes from the book over the cover, or something like that. In the coming weeks, I will have to decide whether I'm going to dip into my increasingly diminishing book budget for this. And if I decide to go this route, I also have to decide how I will broadcast the book trailer - or whatever I will need to call it to avoid possible trademark infringement. I'll let you know.
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