What’s the best way to market your book? No, the answer is
not “to make an effective book trailer”. The answer is --- do everything, and work hard! I can safely say so, because if you were an established
author who got a team working for you in a major publishing house, you wouldn’t
be reading this post. You are most likely a self-published author, just like
me, waiting for those bloggers to write book reviews for you. Their reviews can
help you a lot. However, just like anything else in the world, it’s always good
to rely on what you can do. There is always something you can control.
I know you wrote a masterpiece, but I don’t know what it is.
Neither do millions of readers who may enjoy it. No, wait! Don’t go ahead and
make a book trailer and publish it on Youtube. Hold on! Don’t try to reach out
to the readers unless you’ve studied them carefully. They are all different,
but there are common traits.
Rule #1. They are called “the modern impatient readers.” The
best length of a book trailer should be 30 to 60 sec, roughly. If you are
someone I know, I’ll watch through your 2-min trailer. Otherwise, I’ll most
likely quit in the middle, even though I know the best stuff is usually kept at
the end (Is it?). Don’t blame me, or the other million readers like me. The
Internet has so many goodies. One minute is a long time.
Rule #2. Readers are overwhelmed with their choices. Your
trailer has to be strikingly different from or better than other trailers in your
genre. Why? Because otherwise, why should they read your book instead of
someone else’s? You are likely to have five to ten sentences in your 1-min
trailer. There should be at least one sentence/idea that is completely
unpredicted, and it’s better to be the ending sentence. The rule varies with
genre, but ideally, every sentence should be unique, impressive, or
unpredicted. I’ll use my trailer as an example. Sorry, you’ll have to bear with
my self-promotion if you want to finish this post.
Here are the sentences that appeared in the trailer:
“An agricultural country in a modern war.” This adds
contrast. It wouldn’t have worked if it were “An industrial country in a modern
war”.
“Two brilliant men and one manipulative woman.”
A-man-and-a-woman implies something. “Two” provokes interest. (Don’t get me
wrong. I don’t write erotica.)
“Old wisdom vs. advanced technology, which wins?” Another
contrast, but this one is quite common.
“Failure vs. truth, which is more unbearable?” I like this
one a lot. It makes you wonder what kind of truth it is.
“Death is neither the worst nor the end.” I don’t need to
comment on this one, do I?
The words in the trailer serve as a pitch. They don’t need
to cover the major story. They don’t even need to be accurate! For example, the
woman is not just manipulative. Above all, she is a sweet, smart, upright, and
powerful woman. However, these words are not as “interesting”. The sole purpose
of the wording is to HOOK. To make the readers want to read the book. They’ll
have plenty opportunities to find out about the woman later. Hook! But of
course, the words need to be relevant; otherwise readers will feel cheated.
To be continued …
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Comments highly appreciated! - Fiona