Marketing magic happens long before the final product lands on the shelf. They want us all hooked, compelled and decided to buy the book before we can even touch or smell the pages, slide our fingers down adroitly designed covers, feel the weight or whatever our fetish is. They need us to love the concept before many of the details are revealed. Early readers’ attention secure sales. Book trailers, growing in popularity, come in aid and work in favour of teasing one’s appetite. Here is what we think is essential when creating one.
Finding and maintaining this throughout the video is crucial, especially with the length limited to one minute or so. There are around 60 seconds during which the goal is to ‘convince’ and ‘present’, while the risk of ‘boredom’ and ‘indifference’ remains. Ingredients may vary and be mixed in different proportions. Whether it is picture (motion, including animation, or static) or a straightforward message conveyed and delivered as audio narrative or text; also whether it features a soundtrack, it should look ‘pretty’ as much as be functional. The key rule is not to say too much and say just enough for the seed of wonderment to sprout. Pouring it all down on the viewer in a desperate attempt to sell the idea, might be as bad as creating something too ambiguous in its peculiarity.
Continuing on peculiarity, no name is a brand too big to diminish the importance of prospective readers who have never heard of the author before. The message has to be clear enough to reach the wider audience, while including elements that will please dedicated readers and appeal to their sense of familiarity. Picking the target audience is absolutely essential in either case as it helps to create the guidelines for the creative project to be completed. The style and the structure of book trailers should remain in relation to the genre and be easy to distinguish. Mistakes to be avoided are emphasizing the part of the plot that seems the most attractive but cannot speak for the concept as a whole i.e. introducing horror as the story of a romance. Evoking right ‘feels’ consciously, ensures well-aimed readership. Children's publishing faces the biggest challenge, by having to win the attention of their young readers, while keeping in mind that their choices might be revised by parents who hold the financial power.
It is absolutely unacceptable to serve the audience with a poor quality presentation. The quickest way to drive the traffic away and discourage the masses at once is to neglect the appearance and functionality of creative output. Ruining the viewing experience, failing to promote an upcoming title and consequently, putting off a prospective reader are at stake. Writers wishing for success must keep up the standard whatever Media platform they attempt to conquer. This is an especially risky business for self-published authors, as the temptation to ‘do it all by myself’ can be misguiding. A talented writer does not necessarily equal skilled video producer, as no one is capable of it all. Traps are everywhere – from using pixelated low resolution images to amateurishly looking video editing or even choosing the wrong format that will take ages to load due to huge capacity. Considering oneself a professional writer might mean being ready to entrust making a book trailer to professionals who know their tools. Research shows it can be quite an investment (£850 in Self-Publishing), but a successful trailer will quickly pay it back.
Many self-published authors are walking on thin ice hoping that they will get away with their self-made book trailers using whatever they have acquired from the Internet. Copyright laws in place are not an abstract concept and lack of knowledge is not an excuse. The fact that drastically different Copyright applies to books/written word and to images or audio, makes it extremely easy not to adhere. Knowing how to find royalty free images is only the tip of the iceberg.