book trailer criteria

Think billboard. You’ve got 10 seconds as the car drives by to get your point across. Think, big, bold and simple. Leave an impression, don’t tell the whole story. Steer clear of special effects unless they are used sparingly. Like they say on “Top Chef,” if the food is on the plate just for looks and doesn’t add anything to the taste of the dish, it shouldn’t be on the plate. Focus, focus, focus.

Edited – balance and blend text, images, audio.

Every piece to the book trailer puzzle needs to fit perfectly. The music needs to go with the words just right, not be tacked on. If you use subtitles or printed words, the pace needs to be slow enough to read and take in the background images, but not so slow that it’s excruciating to watch.

I highly recommend using a voice over artist to speed things along, but if you don’t have the budget for one, subtitles can work. Keep your sentences and phrases under six words at a time. It’s also tempting to put the entire review on your trailer. Here’s an example of how I would edit a review for a trailer for “The ABC’s of Writing for Children,”

“Pentacoff provides a most fun and readable book, packed with insights and inspiration about the children’s book field from the people who know best–the authors and illustrators.” -Andrea Brown

The pieces I would include on the trailer might be:

“…most fun and readable book….”
“…packed with insights from the people who know best…..”

It makes sense that authors want to be wordy. This is their craft. With book trailers you need to move in what might feel like a counter-intuitive direction, where less is more, a LOT less.

Authentic – be real

Web viewers have a lower threshold for BS (your Basic Story). Don’t try to be something you are not because viewers will sniff you out in an instant and be on to other things faster than you can say “boo.” People know when they are being “sold” to and there is less tolerance on-line for the tactics used on TV commercials. Your message needs to be more down-to-earth, user friendly.

You can provide something more home-grown and people will be more receptive to the message. However, home-grown does not mean cheesy. Production value still needs to be there.

Emotional – look for teasers

Find a place in the book where there is some emotional pull and concentrate your efforts there. You want to offer a teaser, a trailer that gives the viewer the essence of the writing while using the emotional moment as the vehicle to deliver that content. Trailers are not simply fancy announcements of your upcoming book. If viewers can emotionally connect, they will buy your book. Remind viewers of their humanity. Grab them by the heart strings.

Entertainment – make ‘em laugh; then make ‘em cry

Here is where I am amazed that writers seem to forget the basics of, well…writing. You start a novel with some interest. You don’t tell the reader, you show them. The same holds true for book trailers.

Is there an interesting piece of dialogue you can lift from your book? A moment when things seem really charged? Where is your book entertaining? Grab a piece of that pie and serve it up.

Your name and reputation is on the line and if the trailer is not done well with a certain standard of sound, images and final product, don’t bother putting it on the web. Poorly done book trailers can hinder sales and ruin reputations. Instead, a great book trailer serves as the place where a potential reader flips open the book and randomly reads a page. Why not make it choose a juicy and entertaining page?

Lisa Gottfried runs her own book trailer, digital video, and website business, DigitalWeavers.com. She brings over fifteen years of experience to the video and web marketing field and specializes in children’s book author promotion. Lisa is available for speaking engagements around the San Francisco Bay Area and around the nation.