Book Trailers
Are book trailers really worth it? What do they provide for the author? What about the publisher? Do they really catch the attention of readers?
These questions are asked each and every time someone either makes, views, or thinks about a book trailer. The easy answer to all of it is yes but no.
If the trailer is done well, it can go viral. It could reach an audience of thousands in minutes. But if its done poorly, it has the opposite effect.
So what makes a book trailer good?
For starters, you need to keep the trailer under about a minute and a half. Anything longer and you’ve lost the attention of the viewer. Then you need music that appeals to the viewer AND that fits your book. Don’t go looking for random music from your favorite artist or instrumental music. Look for what’s big and going on in both Hollywood and the music industry. Chances are, if you tag your video right, you will see a major cross over which is good. Helps your video go viral. Make sure the trailer isn’t just a bunch of pictures thrown together in 30 minutes. Viewers can tell this and are most often put off by it. Cluttered feelings are not cozy feelings (cozy as in makes you want to watch type feeling). Spend time (or money) on the trailer.
The pay off is….?
There is no direct correlation (or formula for that fact) to how much money you put in will give you x times the profit. If there were, everyone would be on that bandwagon like the Beverly Hillbilly’s going to Hollywood (sorry Grandma, no rocking chair tied to the roof this time). What I CAN tell you is that you will notice a bump in traffic and even sales; whether that bump is a speed bump size or the size of Mt Everest, it still counts as something. Generally speaking, and I do mean generally, a book trailer can get get anywhere from 10 to 1000 hits. That’s 1000 people looking at your trailer. If the return is say 10% going to your website, that’s 100 people and if 10% of those buy something, that’s 10 books sold! Average price of an ebook is… 3.99, that’s 39.90! Not to bad. If you paid $50.00 for the trailer, you are almost there for paying it off. Now we all create them with the intent that they will strike it big. But that’s where the best part comes in… Word of mouth. If half of the 1000 viewers tell 1 person, that’s 500 people that will eventually watch it or check out the book. If they each tell 1 friend, that’s another 500 people. So now we are at 2000 people in the course of the trailers lifetime. Which would add up to, oh say… $70.00 in book sales. Combined with other forms of marketing, I would say that book trailers are a cost effective and different approach to marketing.
So that’s my rant for the night. I leave you with a book trailer not from a Breathless Press book (which there will be some coming soon!) but from a Lycaon Press future release. Consider this a teaser video for the real thing.
The music on this video is Evanescence – Lost in Paradise. No Copyright Infringement intended.
Justyn Perry
Publisher
Breathless Press / Lycaon Press
