The Orion Team. discussion

At the request of group member Matt Fulton, I've decided to set up the following thread centered around book trailers which with the advent of youtube had become a popular advertising method for authors.

What makes a good book trailer?
Granted due to the nature of books as a medium, it is impossible to acquire thrilling visuals like the ones in the following clip.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kw1U...

Hence, the quality of book trailers is scattershot. Some are tacky and horrid like the one below.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHbuW...

Some are simple yet contain a surprisng elegance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pp3xx...

Others are slick and perfect.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDNuO...

1) Animation or live action, which is better for a book trailer and gets the appropriate visuals?


2) If there are any group members here who have used a book trailer to market their work, how much did it cost to produce?

Animated trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFhAe...

Another animated trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1-ZF...

A very good live action trailer. I'm amazed at how many prop guns they were able to get....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WQGZ...

Another live action trailer with a dash of animation and stock footage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEweI...

Personally I lean towards animation rather than live action or stock footage. While the risk of producing something horrid is high, it's more cost effective and if you do it right you can have a pretty decent advertisement.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=H6TkBdw...

I've thought about this subject a lot. Frustratingly, it's one of those thing where, regardless of an author's own skill, it's often out of our reach to make a decent trailer.

Many of them are awful; a few, like Stephen England's and Joshua Hood's, are quite good (and I'd love to know how Stephen produced his).

For my tastes, this one from Mr. Cornwell is perfection: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmviHy...

That's why I paid someone to do it for me.

Matt wrote: "I've thought about this subject a lot. Frustratingly, it's one of those thing where, regardless of an author's own skill, it's often out of our reach to make a decent trailer.

Many of them are awf..."

Not too shabby. Live action but skillfully executed.

Joshua wrote: "That's why I paid someone to do it for me."

So Joshua, regarding the two questions I posted.

1) Which of your book trailers do you prefer? The animated one or the one which uses stock footage cut in an effective eye catching manner? Or do you lack any particular preference regarding the aesthetics of both?

2) How much did the trailers for CBF and WO cost? And what was the process like to find the people who made the trailers? Easy? Difficult?

While not part of the spy fiction genre, the trailer for this book shows quite impressive use of live action footage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCbpk...

Samuel, the trailer you just posted is great.

I've operated on a shoestring budget so mine are done with static images produced by my middle school daughter. Sales don't increase and quality is fair at best, however, she tells people about it and it intimidates boys when they see it. So, from a marketing standpoint it works very well as a deterrent. Which works for me. https://youtu.be/GwrjjENjaa8

J.T. wrote: "Samuel, the trailer you just posted is great.

I've operated on a shoestring budget so mine are done with static images produced by my middle school daughter. Sales don't increase and quality is f..."

I see. Well the audio is excellent and the images have been cut in such a way that it creates a conspiracy theory video aesthetic which considering the primary threats your novels are centered around is actually pretty appropriate in regards to tone.

By the way, remember that MGB article you posted on the SVR=FSB thread? Many developments have ensured......Vlad is sending mixed signals with an appointment of someone to replace the SVR director general......

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Another trailer which illustrates a problem with animation. 90% of the time if you try use it for some complex action visual, it's going to look cheap and tacky. Case in point the P.I.T maneuver and helicopter flying over Paris..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCANC...

How to make a good book trailer with only 17 seconds of footage? Stark graphics, bright colors and a good precussion drum soundtrack to get the blood pumping.
Brad Thor's publisher produced the following which looks gorgeous.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SVw3...

Another example of an excellent short book trailer. Slick yet simple animation and it evokes an item of interest in the book itself. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHr9F...

Matt wrote: "I've thought about this subject a lot. Frustratingly, it's one of those thing where, regardless of an author's own skill, it's often out of our reach to make a decent trailer.

Many of them are awf..."



One of our group members, an Australian indie published author wrote a step by step account of how he made his own book trailer.

https://aidenlbailey.com/2016/09/14/t...

I've come up with a variation on the book trailer that's proven to be quite successful for me. It's the computerized book poster video.

I go to lots of book festivals and book signings. Most authors bring along various signs and posters to attract people to their tables. Some of the posters are absolutely gigantic. Most seem very ineffective to me.

Given my bent towards gadgets, I came up with the idea of using a computer to play a continuously looping video as my "poster". The video would be simple, but with lots of noticeable cuts and changes in what was appearing on the screen. This is designed to get people to notice it in the first place. The video is never more than about one minute long, any longer and people will get bored and move on. The idea is to attract their attention and to get as much information as I can about my book to them as quickly as possible.

The video is played on a very inexpensive computer that has terrific battery life: the Asus Chromebook Flip. It's a hybrid laptop/tablet and can be set up on my table in a tent-like configuration with only the screen visible to passers-by. It can continuously play a video for more than eight hours and still have more than a 20% battery charge left.

https://www.asus.com/us/Notebooks/ASU...

I've found this very simple technique to be incredibly effective. This past weekend I was invited to be a "signing author" at the Ohio River Festival of Books. Below is a link to a picture of my little table at the event, showing how I had it set up with the Flip:

https://michaelconnickdotcom.files.wo...

I was one of about twenty authors so invited. I ran the following video on my Flip as my sole promotional tool. The video has just enough action to catch the eye of people walking by my table.

https://youtu.be/INs4HaM56p0

The bottom line is that of the twenty signing authors at this festival, I sold and signed more books than anyone else there, even though I only have one book currently published (another is on the way next month) and other authors had as many as 6 or more books to offer. I've been just as successful at other events using this technique.

If you view the video, you will see that it is really quite simple and only took me an hour or so to create using Adobe Sparc. Oh, and I did turn the volume all the way down on the Flip as the repetition of the music over the seven hours I was at the festival would have driven me mad!

Michael
http://michaelconnick.com

Michael wrote: "I've come up with a variation on the book trailer that's proven to be quite successful for me. It's the computerized book poster video.

I go to lots of book festivals and book signings. Most autho..."

A clever, cost effective idea Michael. Dynamic images do have advantages over a static image. Does nto fade into the background and the chances of people noticing it out of the corner of their eye increase considerably.

And yes, the music does get stuck in ones mind.

Thanks for the mention Samuel. I worked hard on the trailer I put together, but I'll leave it to others to judge how good it is. I did see an excellent book trailer the other day. If I find it, I'll post it here.

Aiden wrote: "Thanks for the mention Samuel. I worked hard on the trailer I put together, but I'll leave it to others to judge how good it is. I did see an excellent book trailer the other day. If I find it, I'l..."

Thank you very much for commenting Aiden. Your book trailer is excellent and I'm sure the step by step process you outlined will prove useful to members of this group who might be torturing themselves about whether or not to make a book trailer.

Thank you Samuel. Glad you think so about the trailer. Always feel like one takes a risk with these things. The feedback I have received from readers is the trailer was a decision point for some of them, when deciding to read my novel or not. They liked the 1 minute summary of what the book is about, so yes, I think it was worthwhile, and worth investing the time to do it well if other authors are considering doing so.

I'm thinking of next creating a video post about my experiences in Africa which influenced the novel.

Aiden wrote: "Thank you Samuel. Glad you think so about the trailer. Always feel like one takes a risk with these things. The feedback I have received from readers is the trailer was a decision point for some of..."

Ah! A behind the scenes video? Good idea. The fabulously wealthy Brad Thor once made behind the scenes explanations for each of his books but two years ago began to make youtube versions to replace them when he updated his website.

Well I better get to it then :)

And check out Brad Thor's videos

Here is a great book trailer I discovered recently, for Eric MacKenzies Kingdom of Assassins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fnpee...

Sweet. good use of live action and animation.

Thanks Samuel for pointing out the Brad Thor Behind the Book series. Given me some ideas on what I should do on promotion

Aiden wrote: "Thanks Samuel for pointing out the Brad Thor Behind the Book series. Given me some ideas on what I should do on promotion"

Glad to have helped ;)

The most recent behind the scenes video for anyone interested in doing something similar.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhj6A...

After suggestions on this post, I created my own "Behind the Scenes" video on why I wrote The Benevolent Deception, and where I got some of my ideas from. I kept it down to 4 minutes so it is short and sharp.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B60nj...

I've also started playing around with an early version of my trailer for the sequel, but that will have to wait until I finish the book.

I don't mind book trailers, a good way to raise a profile or remind people a new book is out. But if it looks cheap it might well put me off the book by association.

Agreed, book trailers need to be good. I spent a lot of time on mine to make sure it wasn't shit. I'll leave it to others to decide it I succeeded or not. :)

Aiden, the "trailer" looks great. What production software did you build it in? I am three+ weeks into producing my first one, which is essentially a slide show of the major plot elements with a voice over of me reading the Prologue of my novel, Gypsy Spy: The Cold War Files. I began the project in Prezi, but it didn't take long for me to slam against its limitations. Now I am building it in Adobe Premier Pro, but I am a neophyte in Adobe software, so most of my production time is taken up with learning the programs.

Hi Nikolas

Here is my book trailer, for an action espionage adventure novel, The Benevolent Deception:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uG03Y...

I watched a lot of James Bond and Jason Bourne movie trailers closely, to see how they were structured to create something similar, fast and choppy, with realistically only a couple of lines to present the concept behind the book.

In my case, The Benevolent Deception starts with the U.S. President being assassinated in Afghanistan, then a terrorist begins impersonating him through all the world’s media. That is the crux of the mystery in my novel.

I built the trailer using stock video footage and photography from www.canstockphoto.com while the words and graphics I created in an animated Microsoft PowerPoint presentation formatted and saved as a movie file. Then I spliced it all together using Microsoft MovieMaker. The royalty free music I sourced from www.incompetech.com/music/.

I’m thinking of redoing it, now that I have a testimonial from Rob Sinclair and I’ve worked out how to get better resolution. But otherwise, I’ll keep it how it is. So far, feedback on the trailer has been positive.

I hope that helps.

Regards
Aiden

Aiden wrote: "Hi Nikolas

Here is my book trailer, for an action espionage adventure novel, The Benevolent Deception:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uG03Y...

I watched a lot of James Bond a..."

Helps quite a bit. You've done a great job with reliable tools.

Aiden wrote: "Hi Nikolas

Here is my book trailer, for an action espionage adventure novel, The Benevolent Deception:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uG03Y...

I watched a lot of James Bond a..."

Hi Aiden, just added the behind the scenes video to the group's attached video tab.

Thank you Nikolas

Thanks Sameul, I'll go check it out

Aiden wrote: "Hi Nikolas

Here is my book trailer, for an action espionage adventure novel, The Benevolent Deception:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uG03Y...

I watched a lot of James Bond a..."Hi Aiden - great trailer. Good luck with The Benevolent Deception!

Hey Rick, thanks for watching. Nice to know I got the trailer 'right'.

My first endeavor with a book trailer. It is a read through of the prologue of my novel, Gypsy Spy: The Cold War Files with imagery that evokes the full story ark. Those who've read the book can "see" the story. It is my hope that those who haven't read it will be intrigued enough to do so. Feedback much appreciated.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BY8RQ...

Nikolas wrote: "My first endeavor with a book trailer. It is a read through of the prologue of my novel, Gypsy Spy: The Cold War Files with imagery that evokes the full story ark."

Nice trailer Nikolas, shared it on Twitter and Facebook.