Some Thoughts on Book Trailers

So lately, I must confess, I've had a pretty negative view on book trailers. I've worked on several short internet films, acting, filming, editing, so I have experience with the genre. I see the same pitfalls over and over and often wish I could have dispensed some advice to the trailer maker. So I'll do it now, in hopes it may help someone. (Hope being the operative word.)

- Most book trailers are way too long. 

Drawing out the slides and text doesn't create suspense, it creates loss of interest. An ideal internet short needs to be 1-2 minutes. Maybe three if it's something spectacular. People who watch internet videos are ravenous - they want the info as fast as they can get it, so the pacing needs to be quick and fluid, flowing seamlessly from one idea to the next. Each idea needs to up the ante - keep surprising the viewer with each morsel, then hit them with the major hook at the end. (It's okay if your trailer is 10 minutes long at first. Every manuscript has room for trimming, right? Same goes with an internet video. Keep chopping away a few seconds here and there until you've hit the 1-2 minute sweet spot.)

- Text slides disappear before anyone's had a chance to read them.

This is an easy fix. Don't just go with the default transition time in your film editing program. Tweak each one individually. If you have just one or two words in the first slide, you may only need a few seconds, but if the next text slide has quite a few words, it will need to stay up longer than the other. Let friends and family members watch through it and note down which slides needed to stay up longer and which ones could be shortened. After working on an internet video for a few hours, it's hard to be subjective, so outside input is a must. You wouldn't put your manuscript "out there" before having a few beta readers or critique partners take a look would you?

- The same images are used over and over.

This might be okay if the trailer is super short, but 2 minutes of the same image gets old fast. Check out istockphoto.com for a treasure trove of images, most of them around a buck a piece! (No need to buy the highest resolution image b/c you're dealing with the internet here, not print. But you don't want to buy the smallest size - a small photo limits what you can do with it. More on that further down...)

- The trailer doesn't go anywhere.

It's flows like a rambling, unsure pitch. Give us the meat of the hook: set it up and then let us have it. Leave us with the stakes, the major point that's going to make us grab our keys and run to the book store right now. So what if Bella's intrigued by this new boy at school. So what if he's kinda weird. So what if she falls in love with him. That's not enough to get me to drop cash. But oh wait, he's a vampire? Holy crap, I've got to read that! How does that work? What's going to happen? Is she going to be okay? (You see what I'm getting at.)

- The image resolution is too low and pixelated.

Nothing screams novice like a pixelated image online. In this day and age, there's no excuse for it. You can't use a tiny image and expect a film editing program to blow it up and still make it look perfect. You've got to start with a large photo with good resolution. Like I said before, that doesn't mean buying the largest resolution out there. Super high res is for print. But you can't use an image that's 50x50 pixels and expect to blow it up to 1000x1000. They just can't stretch that much.

An example of a low res .jpeg image. Notice how the image isn't clear, it's fuzzy?

And here's an example of a pixelated image. Notice how it seems to be made up of thousands of tiny squares?

Both of these are a major no-nos. So, if you see pixelation, or fuzziness around the edges when using .jpegs, scrap those photos. Try to find another just like it in a higher res, or use a different one altogether. 

Trust me. 

No really, delete the photo. I don't care how much you love it or how much it fits with the story. If it's pixelated, you'll brand yourself a newbie. 

Don't do it.

I know some of this may sound cynical. I don't mean it to. I just want authors to create good book trailers. No, not good, great. Internet shorts are meant to go viral, meant to be shared, tweeted, posted on Facebook. I want to see one I can't wait to share with my Twitter followers. One that's so intriguing that I just can't help watching it several times. 

You want an example?

Here's the best one I've seen so far:

Do you have to hire actors and award-winning short film makers? No. But you can learn a lot from this trailer. Look at the setup, the mood, the narrative. Everything moves the hook forward. 

That's what you want.

Also, check out archive.org for a database of royalty free music and video clips. Also try freesound.org for sound effects. You never know, you may find something perfect for your trailer. I used both sites for sounds and video clips in this internet short I made for Ford Motor Co. about crash test safety:

Do you have a favorite book trailer? Post a link and tell us what made you love it.