Watch Before Reading: Art-House Book Trailers
April 9th, 2009 by News
With all the doom and gloom hovering over publishing, it’s easy to miss the bright spots on the horizon. One of the more promising trends of recent years has been book trailers. If you’re rereading that sentence and scratching your head, you’re not alone; but while the earliest of these were basically bad PowerPoint presentations, the medium has come a long way. Unlike their older cousins — movie previews — book trailers often avoid plot in favor of a creative response to the release they’re promoting; the best ones are more like standalone digital shorts than standard PR ammo.
Usually just one to three minutes long, the best book trailers swiftly inform potential readers of what to expect. But unlike most movie previews, these trailers are often interpretive, rather than plot-focused; they spring from the imagination of their creators, as well as from the books they represent. Search YouTube and you’ll find thousands of examples.
With a little help from Facebook and Twitter, authors and publishers hope that these trailers will connect them with web-addicted demographics. To make them, some authors and publicists scout for talent among their friends, while others seek the paid assistance of production companies. But however they’re made, good book trailers are more than just a marketing tool — they’re art. “The web is providing so many exciting opportunities for video to live, and I think book trailers is one of those,” says filmmaker Scott Thrift of the Brooklyn-based video label m ss ng p eces.
Because of their artistic bent, many book trailers are identified as short films “inspired” by a work of fiction or nonfiction. Sometimes they use voiceovers of an author reading from his or her book, with accompanying action. Actors in these films are usually friends, family, or people around the office at Random House or Penguin. Novelist Jami Attenberg appeared in her own conceptual book trailer for The Kept Man, created by a friend’s production company. The same company, Milk Products Media!, created a trailer for Sloane Crosley’s book of essays I Was Told There’d Be Cake, employing more non-narrative measures: stop-motion animation, finger puppets, and a catchy jingle. The video went viral, partly thanks to a nod on the New York Times Paper Cuts blog.
