Book Trailers

. New technologies and marketing tools pop up fast enough to make me feel like even more of a curmudgeon than I thought I was. It seems like just yesterday I was waiving my cane and yelling at Twitter to get off my lawn, and now here come "book trailers." Like with all trends, it took a while for me to notice. In fact, maybe book trailers have been around for years and I never realized it. I know that Caitlin from Unbridled Books sent me this trailer to The Evolution of Shadows several weeks ago and I ignored it, like I do with all things I don't understand. It took this comment from Sarah Stonich, author of The Ice Chorus, for me to finally clue in:

Hi Rose City Reader, I'm hoping to get the opinions of bloggers on book trailers - the one linked here, as well as trailers in general. Are they effective? What makes a good one? A bad one? Please watch my mercifully brief book trailer, which I think conveys a sense and mood of The Ice Chorus, now out in paperback by Alma Books of London: [link to trailer] Any feedback would be appreciated. Cheers, Sarah Stonich

Because I react instantaneously to comments, so thrilled am I to get any, I watched Sarah's trailer right away. It is the first book trailer I ever watched. I think I like the idea. It is just a short little video clip with still photos of Ireland (where the book is set) and other images that capture elements and themes of the book. There is a voice-over -- presumably the author -- giving a back-of-the-book type description. In the interest of research for this post, I went back through my email and found the link to the trailer for The Evolution of Shadows. It is a little different because there is no narration, just stark, black and white photos of war torn Bosnia, interspersed with written descriptions and snippets of praise from other authors. I have to say that these trailers makes me want to read the books. Both The Ice Chorus and The Evolution of Shadows have been sitting on my TBR shelf for several months. But so have 900 other books. Something has to make a book stand out over the others to make me turn to it sooner rather than later. Maybe trailers are the answer. What do you all think? Do you watch trailers? Are they effective? Are some better than others? RELATED POSTS ON OTHER BLOGS 5 Tips for Making a Good Book Trailer on Abel Keogh's Blog (If you have posted on this topic, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it here.) .