Over on Hypable (great site, by the way) there is an exclusive look at the trailer for the new Claudia Gray young adult book, Spellcaster. I found the voice over a bit melodramatic, and it actually didn’t say much – but it did make me notice a book that previously I had no intention of buying. Do you find book trailers at all useful, or do you watch them at all? Personally, I usually only watch them for books that I am already planning on buying, and only if I stumble across it accidentally like this one. I just might have to try and hunt a few more down, now that I am at it…
By the way, Spellcaster will be released on March 5th.
As a general comment I find most of the trailers to be a but hokey and poorly done. A few are done well and convey a story but most do less than a summary would do. A well written summary is still best IMHO.
Good lord, did you ever see the trailer for Christine Feehan’s Dark Predator? The one with the Carpathian language chanting? I think I was a little afraid of that one.
On Sat, Mar 2, 2013 at 1:27 PM, Wicked Scribes
I rarely watch book trailers (in fact, back at our old house, we only had dial-up Internet and I wasn’t able to watch any video on the computer). They do not influence me to buy any book. If I’m going to buy a book anyway, why watch the trailer? (Most of the time, if characters are featured, they aren’t going to match the character on the book cover.)
A lot of authors like to have them done, but I don’t know why {well, I sort-of do, but it’s not going to provide them with income}. I have seen some really well-done book trailers (and some bad ones), but it’s still not going to influence me.
I actually think that the bad ones do more harm than good sometimes, since they make the product look cheesy. Most of them to me look like a fan-made jobbie, which I can’t believe the author was going for.
On Sun, Mar 3, 2013 at 6:20 AM, Wicked Scribes
I personally do not like book trailers. I find that the trailer interferes with the “voice” of the character in my head. Books are not movies and I don’t want someone else’s interpretation of the events and characters in my head.