Coming soon to a couch near you
Book trailers are not exactly a new thing, but the use of them does seem to be growing. My question would be: Is it helping any?
I’m dubious. I don’t know that there’s any really scientific way to track this – just as there is no hard-and-fast way to judge the effectiveness of an advertisement or any other promotional event. Even books sold at a reading – can you say the reading sold those books? Maybe some, but I know I typically buy books at readings that I am fairly likely to buy anyway, and i assume the book-reading audience is comprised largely of the book-buying audience.
I also wonder if the trailers, by trying to be entertaining in a visual medium, may inadvertently highlight all that books are not – if you catch a non-reader with a flashy object that isn’t book-like, will they be any more likely to read?
But even if the trailers don’t magically jack up sales, that doesn’t mean they can’t be interesting or valuable.
Of course, a lot of trailers are produced by the big houses for books they hope to have big sales. But what’s started happening a bit recently is the appearance of trailers for short stories. The writer Seth Fried made a video himself for his story Those of Us In Plaid, for McSweeney’s 33. (He’s made other trailers for his stories as well.)
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HD0viGVNjzo
The title story from Wells Tower’s Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned is excerpted briefly in this bit of animation.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ji5GTgKXJgI
The trailer for The Comedian, a story by Colson Whitehead in Electric Literature, culls archival footage from talk shows, roasts and celebrity chat to create a montage of effusive praise for seemingly one person.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSf_4vxWmxg
As I mentioned, a lot of big-house books get the trailer treatment. Here’s the stylish, California noir trailer for Thomas Pynchon’s Inherent Vice.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjWKPdDk0_U
Here’s an entirely different take for John Wray’s Lowboy.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWtpfyEAbGU
And here’s one that relies almost exclusively on text and photos from the book to create something quiet and powerful, for The Lazarus Project, by Aleksandar Hemon.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6zwnPQ67XM
The trailer for Jess Walter’s The Financial Lives of the Poets relies on snazzy animation and music as the backdrop for a brief summary.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYpT49YYoBE
Of course, in this DIY age, there are others making their own trailers. Check out this strange, atmospheric trailer for Blake Butler’s Ever.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUIBmdjpZ9I
So what do you think of trailers – as art and as commerce? Do you like them? Do you think they attract readers? Does it matter if they improve sales, or might they serve some other purpose?
Point: publishers don’t really care if you read the book, as long as you buy it.
Some of these feel like ads, some feel like short films related in some way to the book, and the Pynchon one feels like an ad for a movie I want to see that doesn’t exist. It doesn’t make me want to read the book. It makes me want to see the movie. That doesn’t exist.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Seth Fried. Seth Fried said: I repeat, short story trailers take lit world by storm. Yup, it's happening: http://thebarking.com/2010/05/coming-soon-to-a-couch-near-you/ [...]
Jess’s looks like the beginning of a TV show.