In the last week, there has been a lot of discussion about the efficacy of video trailers. Many in the Twitterverse and in their own blogs have raised very valid questions. These have included:
1. Does a trailer make you look like a self-published author? Does it make you look too ‘Indie?’
2. What tools are necessary to create a trailer?
3. What sources of audio and video are available?
4. How much does it cost to produce a video trailer?
5. How do you distribute the trailer and get people to see it?
and, my very favorite question,
6. Does a book trailer sell books?
The last question is really THE issue for all of us here at NovelHelp and Telemachus Press. After all, the principal reason (maybe the only reason?) that we have or will create them here for our clients is to sell books! I am, however, sure that there are some great people out there who might have other reasons for creating a book trailer beyond our commercial motivation. These might include enabling a creative outlet or learning a new skill. Maybe you just always wanted to create something audio-visual.
I thought that it might be helpful to offer what we have learned with respect to the questions above. Please bear in mind that our sample size is small and that our opinions need to be tested over time. I will try to clearly indicate in what follows where we are stating fact and where we are just letting you know what we think. Let’s get started.
1. Does a trailer make you look like a self-published author? Does it make you look too ‘Indie?’
To begin with, big-budget books are being promoted by trailers. Having a trailer does not make you a self-published author. There are trailers for books by Stephen King and Michael Crichton. The better question might have been, “Does a bad, poorly produced book trailer make you look like a self-published author?” Yes, but then again, so does a bad, poorly written, edited and produced book! If you have the skills and drive to deliver a great book, you probably won’t be happy with a lousy trailer!
As more and more book trailers are created and viewed by prospective readers, this issue might just go away and here’s why. The trailers being produced today by both big-budget, known authors and by small-budget, unknown authors all run the gamut from really well-done to really bad. In other words, there are some big-budget trailers out there representing work by well-known authors that are (in our humble opinion!) pretty bad! At the same time, there have been inexpensively produced trailers that have been in league with the best of the best of the professional, big-budget ones! As more and more of these get produced from all sources, the viewing audience will come to know that the quality of the trailer (and by inference, the book) is not guaranteed by the budget or the source and that very good trailers and very good books spring from the self-published world. Trailers, both good and bad, come from everywhere!
2. What tools are necessary to create a trailer?
As with all computer-aided creative development, the range of development tools is significant with the top end tools being pricey. I imagine that those who have recently posted questions and comments are more interested in getting a great trailer produced without investing their life’s savings, so let’s talk about that. As our office is a Mac shop, we can speak with more authority about the Mac tools that we use. For those of you using Windows, I will tell you what we have heard and more importantly, point you to a better source of information.
A trailer that we recently produced for “Death of a Cure,” was produced using iMovie and only iMovie!!! Don’t want to sound like an ad for Apple, but our team was really impressed with its ease of use and powerful set of features. iMovie comes with the iLife suite of software that also includes iPhoto, iDVD, GarageBand and iWeb. I think that an exploration of these other tools would yield functionality that would have been helpful. However, if you want to see what you can do with iMovie, take a look at the following trailer:
For all of our friends using Windows, we understand that a combination of PowerPoint and a product call Power Video Maker Professional offers a development environment. I can’t comment on usability or feature set as we have no experience with these. A good link for more information on using these tools is:
My last comment about tools is this: the tools that you select will have an impact on your product, but not near as much as the other components that go into making a trailer. I’m sure that the big-budget failures had high-dollar production. Get reasonable tools, but focus on content, story-line and getting your message across in an attention getting trailer!
3. What sources of audio and video are available?
We use iStockPhoto Don’t let the name fool you. iStockPhoto also has graphics images, video clips and audio tracks. The selection is vast and the tools are user friendly. The search facility works for us, however, the more you use iStockPhoto, the more you will understand what keywords yield the best results. There is a “light box” feature that we really like where you can collect images under consideration and compare them all in one grouping before you buy them. There is even a way to download an image and practice with it before buying. The image will have a watermark that gets removed when you pay the license fee.
iStockPhoto has competitors and we would be pleased to hear back from you about your experiences with them!
4. How much does it cost to produce a video trailer?
There are four cost components to consider:
i. Tools. As I mentioned above, this can run from very inexpensive to really outrageous. Apple’s iLife costs $79 for a single user license. The family pack is $99. For Windows users, PowerPoint may already be on your computer. It comes with MS Office Home that lists for $149. I looked up Power Video Maker Professionalhttp://www.presentersoft.com/buynow.htm and it also lists for $149. One additional piece of software that you most probably will need is Photoshop Elements. It is now bundled with Adobe Premier (creates movies) for $129 (PC and Mac). This is not the full-blown, super-expensive Photoshop CS4, but rather a scaled-down version that should meet your needs for adding special objects and some fine tuning.
ii. Labor. If you do it yourself then it’s just your time — you’ll have to value that!! There are many service firms available that will produce your video. The inexpensive ones will probably not deliver what you want. There is only so much graphics artists time, copywriter time and editing that you can buy for $750! And, that doesn’t include the images and soundtrack. It is not uncommon to see trailer production costs in the thousands. As with most things, a place in the middle might be the best combination of value for the money. To produce a really great trailer takes a lot of energy and tremendous attention to detail. The story boarding must deliver a message that resonates and grabs the viewer! The images and music must be carefully selected. And, finally, getting it all produced will take countless passes at the partially completed product until it is just perfect. You can see in the really good trailers that the developers paid attention to all of these steps — especially the last one.
iii. Media. Careful selection and some time invested in looking at a lot of images can get you very good material at a reasonable cost. No matter what you do, don’t skimp on image quality!!! You can see in some trailers “pixelated” images where there just aren’t enough bits of data because the low-cost, low-quality image was purchased. The $1 version will look terrible compared to the $5 one! Images should be 640 x 480 or above. You won’t lose resolution if you make the movie smaller, but you’ll really lose quality if you make it bigger! Make sure that you understand your intellectual property rights as well. Read the fine print! The license to use the image must meet your intended use. In most cases, you are not purchasing the property, just a non-exclusive right to use it. I’m not a lawyer. If you are uncertain about your rights, talk to one!
iv. Distribution. Either you can DIY or you can hire someone else to. No matter what, get the link out there!!!! Get your Twitter friends to help. Put it in your email signature. Place it on other pages as appropriate!! Like I said, “Get it out there!” If you hire someone else to do this, make sure you get their plan to accomplish this up front!
5. How do you distribute the trailer and get people to see it?
See section 4. iv, above, and below is a list that I’ve started where you can upload your video:
http://www.smashwords.com (eBook host)
http://www.authorcentral.amazon.com
And of course, your Facebook Page and author Website!
And now, the Sixty-Four Thousand Dollar Question!!! Will a trailer sell my book?
As I said at the beginning of this post, our sample size is small. Here is what we know. Our trailer for “Death of a Cure” has caused a spike in sales and the rate of improvement is increasing. It’s subjective at this time, but it seems that our sales have moved up 2.5 times since the trailer was released. This is somewhat confused as at the same time we started offering the book on the Kindle at a dramatically reduced price as a limited-time, promotional special. That probably had something to do with the jump in sales. Maybe the two have fed off of each other and that the real message here is that you need a strategic plan integrating the trailer with other promotional activities. That is what we believe.
Hi Claudia!
This is a great post – the logic behind it makes sense as well as the case for doing a trailer. Your advice has been invaluable to me, and I look forward to finishing my trailer sometime this week and getting it out there!
- Julie
any media that will promote your book is good.
Plus, ‘book trailer’ sounds exciting!
I LOVE both producing and viewing book trailers and have found in my own business that when used as one piece of an integrated online marketing plan they are invaluable.
Whether you decide to produce a trailer yourself or hire a book trailer producer here are some thoughts to consider.
1.Don’t give away too much – the most important function of a trailer is to leave the viewer needing to know more. Think of it as a visual book jacket blurb.
2.Don’t take away the reader’s ability to put a face to your characters – consider only showing partial shots of character faces in your trailer or try to find generic faces.
3. Do make sure that ALL elements (music, color, imagery, font style) all work in concert with each other.
4.Always remember who your audience is when choosing these elements. What appeals to them?
5. Don’t believe that you require expensive video footage and voiceovers – consider the media – you are promoting a book, not a movie. Text can be very effective.
6. Create intrigue in keeping with the main theme of your book – whether it be humor, romance, mystery………..
Happy reading….and viewing!
Marianne Nowicki
NoWicki Productions
Thank you Marianne for your great comments. They are very NovelHelpFull ! I looked at your trailers. Very, very nice. It looks like you too, may have a mac (-; Thank you for submitting your comments!
~ Claudia
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