Trailer (book)
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A book trailer is a film or video advertisement for a book which employs techniques simliar to those of movie trailers. They have been used increasingly in recent years. Since 2002, the term has been a US-registered trademark of Circle of Seven Productions, who began using it connection with their advertising campaigns starting with that for Mind Game, by Christine Feehan.
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[edit] Book trailer awards
There are several series of awards for the best book trailers, and a number of websites offer "Book Trailer of the Week" and "Book Trailer of the Month" recommendations. Book trailers have also begun to make an appearance on screens at both book fairs and large bookstores.
Circle of Seven won the first Telly Award for a book video for the book trailer for Mind Game. Subsequently, Circle of Seven won multiple international film awards, called The Davey Awards, for such book trailers as Douglas Clegg's Priest of Blood, Christine Feehan's Dark Demon and Stephanie Rowe's Date Me, Baby, One More Time.
In 2006 the Book Standard site launched its first annual Book Video Awards and has created a page to showcase the winning entries. In January 2007, The Book Standard site followed this with its first Teen Book Video Award. In February 2007, Penguin Books of the UK announced a "book trailer" competition (open to UK residents only) to promote a American CSI-style murder mystery and have created a dedicated website for this purpose.
Bill Bryson's recent book "The Life and Times of Thunderbolt Kid" was noted in the press for the high level of interest in its professionally shot video trailer.
[edit] Book Trailer Platforms
As of 2007, book trailers are available for the following platforms:
- Computers
- Television
- DVD players
- Internet TV channels and IPTV
- Podcast-compatible mobile players
- Mobile telephone networks
- eBook
The various book trailer file formats are determined by the platform. Both RealPlayer and QuickTime player enable for the book trailer to be synchronized with a number of different media streams by the means of Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL) which is part of the W3C standard for audio and video.
[edit] Book Trailers versus Book Teasers
The distinction between proper film trailers and teaser trailers also applies to book trailers. Many of the most amateurish of the book trailers fall into the book teaser category according to the accepted definition of a teaser in that they are:
1. under 60 seconds in length 2. do not incorporate content from the book itself 3. concentrate on mood rather than detail 4. make use of zooming and fading text
The purpose for complying with the 60 second length is difficult to understand in a genre which was created for internet broadcasting. Elements such as download size may have something to do with this if the trailer is aimed at a non-broadband public although some of the book teaser trailers have hefty file sizes in spite of their short play length.
Longer trailers can range up to 15 minutes duration and tend to feature more of the material from the book and may demonstrate higher production values.
[edit] Book Trailer Design Issues
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There is a very fine line between producing a trailer which allows the reader the freedom to create their own mental images of the characters and locations and one which goes too far and looks more like a trailer for a movie. This is a design issue unique to the book trailer genre.
Like anything else the skill consists of finding the right balance, the happy medium between cinematic over-production and an uninspiring series of stills and straplines.
Another fatal mistake is to produce a cinematic book trailer which looks and sounds more like a music video interspersed with short pieces of text and no voice-over. This seems to provide very little impulse to read anything let alone read the book that is meant to be the main reason behind creating the trailer. Some film-school offerings make you want to see more of the movie rather than read the book.
Large publishing houses such as HarperCollins and the Bantam Dell Publishing Group now regularly feature book trailers on their websites although the small presses and independent publishers such as Kunati of Canada and Mercat Press of Scotland, who do not have the advantage of as large a distribution network, appear to produce much better quality book trailers than their bigger rivals.
For an example of what a large publishing house can achieve on a big budget, see the animated video book trailer for the Lemony Snicket series of books.
[edit] Online Audio Clips
The issue of the distinction between online readings by the author of excerpts and book trailers has become important since the introduction of Book Trailer Awards. It is generally accepted that a book trailer can incorporate material from the book but it must be presented in a format consistent with a trailer. An exception to this general rule is that the preface, introduction or sleeve-notes (although physically part of the book) are to be regarded as external elements and so a simple audio recording of elements of this complies with the accepted scope of a book trailer. Obviously the competition rules will vary between regions and over time as the genre continues to evolve. Interviews with authors which can be classed as promotional can be incorporated into a book trailer but cannot be classed as such on their own.
Award categories distinguish among book trailers, audio clips, and author interviews.
