Total Read Time: 2 minutes
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| ["Movie Clapboard" by bartgroe] |
Whether or not making a book trailer is a good idea continues to be a controversial topic. Today I wanted to look at things from a reader/potential customer standpoint.
The idea behind making a book trailer is twofold:
1. Reach potential readers outside of author’s current network on other platforms (such as Youtube).
2. Pique the potential reader’s interest using a dynamic, visual medium.
However, not all book trailers are successful. So do book trailers really work? Here are my thoughts as a consumer:
Pros:
- Book trailers can be fun to watch and are more dynamic than looking at cover art or reading an excerpt.
- A good book trailer is memorable. This makes the book/author memorable later on when I’m shopping online or at the bookstore.
- If the trailer is well-made and the book is a genre I like to read, the trailer might just push me over the edge to buy the book. I wouldn’t judge a book solely on its trailer, but it can be a tipping point.
Cons:
- Book trailers can be painful to watch and make you question the quality of the book/author.
- Unfortunately, a bad book trailer is also memorable.
- When a trailer is poorly-made, it’s a complete turn off for me, even if the book is supposedly well-written. Again, the trailer acts as a tipping point. I definitely won’t invest in a book where the trailer contains typos and/or grammatical errors, which I consider to be a good indication of what the book will be like.
- As a reader, I’m not going out of my way to look for book trailers on Youtube (or anywhere else). If I see one on an author’s site, I’ll check it out, but that’s pretty much it. This makes me wonder whether creating book trailers really increases an author’s network reach.
Overall, I think book trailers are cool, if they are well-made. But at the end of the day, what matters the most to me is whether the book is well-written. The trailer can maybe sway me one way or the other, but it’s not a major factor in my book buying decisions.
What do you think? Do book trailers affect your book purchases? Are they a good idea?
On a side note, if you are interested in learning how to make your own book trailer on the cheap, check out this related post. ;)