[Filipa Fonseca Silva Author]

Hi everyone,

Just got into KB and I'm loving it!

I'm a published portuguese author and my debut novel has been doing very well in Portugal. I opted to self publish for kindle and am delighted with the results! Particularly getting sales updates anytime I want to.

Some readers have been telling me that they imagine it turning into a movie. Consequently I got the idea of making a book trailer. Something like a movie trailer, but way less sophisticated (and cheaper!), in order to try to drive more people towards the book.

Do you think it's a good idea? Do ou have any reference of someone having done this? Tks in advance for your comments.

Happy new year everyone!

Tks, Filipa

 

[Patrick C. Greene]

Patrick has actually acted in a few book trailers - and so we are planning on looking into that in the future for his books. I think it is a good idea as long as the quality is there. Some friend in the indie-film biz around here are currently working on something for Progeny. Not sure if anything will ever become of it at this point - but I will update here.

Jennifer

 

[valeriec80]

I think the general consensus is that book trailers are cool and can be fun to make, but they have pretty much no impact on sales.

(My two worst-selling books both have book trailers. Lots of other books that I've written that I didn't do trailers for sell way more than them. On the other hand, my bestselling book has a book trailer. So... yeah.)

These days, I'd much rather spend the time writing another book than making a book trailer, but I sure have had fun making them in the past.

 

[Amanda Brice]

I think if you write YA, then yes, you need a trailer. (Teens are very visual, and there's an entire fandom around trailers in the YA world.)

But personally, I love watching trailers, and several have gotten me to buy the book. They can generate a form of excitement that a written teaser just can't.

I don't do my own. I hired Jeff Somers (www.jeffreysomers.com) to make my three trailers for me, and he was definitely worth his very reasonable fee.

Do I think they necessarily help sell books? Probably not. After all, I had some insane number of views on my Pointe of No Return trailer during the month of December (went from 200-something views to over 12,000 views in a span of a week...but then again, my book has a Nutcracker theme, so I could definitely see how that might have happened). And I certainly didn't sell anywhere near 12,000 copies last month.

 

[Filipa Fonseca Silva Author]

I think if you write YA, then yes, you need a trailer. (Teens are very visual, and there's an entire fandom around trailers in the YA world.)

But personally, I love watching trailers, and several have gotten me to buy the book. They can generate a form of excitement that a written teaser just can't.

I don't do my own. I hired Jeff Somers (www.jeffreysomers.com) to make my three trailers for me, and he was definitely worth his very reasonable fee.

Do I think they necessarily help sell books? Probably not. After all, I had some insane number of views on my Pointe of No Return trailer during the month of December (went from 200-something views to over 12,000 views in a span of a week...but then again, my book has a Nutcracker theme, so I could definitely see how that might have happened). And I certainly didn't sell anywhere near 12,000 copies last month.

Tks! Just checked your website but could not find any of the trailers. Can you provide the links please?

Best

Filipa

 

[Keith Blenman]

I tried a trailer for one book and didn't find there was any increase in sales with it. So for my latest book I just posted a log entry about what the trailer might look like if I had an actual budget to work with. You can see both here:

http://keithblenman.blogspot.com/2012/12/bonnie-before-brain-implants-excessive.html?m=1

 

[sweetcrabhoney18]

The key to do a book trailer is to know how to use it to market your book. It's silly to pay money for something that you can't  make money with. Before you even invest in a book trailer... have a plan.

There are tons of ways to use a book trailer to build sales. .. First you submit it to you tube and similar sites.
These sites include
BookTrailers.net
Bookscreening.com
ComicBookTrailers.com
Blazing Trailers
The Red Room

There are also contest for them and tons of ways to use them as a way to market within blogs.

I recommend book trailers for series since you can use them for a much longer time and not just for one single book.

Good luck!

 

[Amanda Brice]

Tks! Just checked your website but could not find any of the trailers. Can you provide the links please?

I'm in the process of revamping my website, so I think only the Point of No Return trailer is up at the moment. You can see it here:
http://amandabrice.net/bookshelf/pointe-of-no-return/

 

[John Daulton]

If you have a good trailer and you use it well, it can work very nicely as part of your larger marketing strategy. My first book trailer has gotten over 3,000 views, and I'm hoping the next will do as well. You can use them on Facebook for sponsored posts, drive ad content to them from FB or elsewhere, use them on your website for the book page (which adds SEO value), you can link to them in blogs and guestblogs that you do, put them on your Amazon author page, on your Goodreads book page, and even just drop them here and there as situations arise, like now, because I literally just posted my new one last night, though the book isn't available yet. (Turn up your sound, the song is awesome).

 

[H.M. Ward]

I like your site Amanda!

 

[MLKatz]

If you can get found for the right search terms, putting a trailer on Youtube could certainly increase exposure.

 

[56139]

If you have a good trailer and you use it well, it can work very nicely as part of your larger marketing strategy. My first book trailer has gotten over 3,000 views, and I'm hoping the next will do as well. You can use them on Facebook for sponsored posts, drive ad content to them from FB or elsewhere, use them on your website for the book page (which adds SEO value), you can link to them in blogs and guestblogs that you do, put them on your Amazon author page, on your Goodreads book page, and even just drop them here and there as situations arise, like now, because I literally just posted my new one last night, though the book isn't available yet. (Turn up your sound, the song is awesome).

Another AWESOME trailer, John! Great job!

I think your points are totally on the mark as well. If you (the OP or others with the same question) make a trailer, what will you DO with it? If you put it up on YouTube and leave it there, probably not gonna matter. But if you're touring the blogs and you have the trailer being promoted, it catches the eye of certain people. I make one for every book and I'm just starting to think about my next one. If you have the money/skills/software - then I say go for it. But if you're thinking I can either do a trailer or pay for an editor, go for the editor.