The past few weeks have changed the world of online book advertising forever.
For the first time, a book trailer video went 'viral' - and that is official, according to the Viral Video Chart, and they know about these things.
Vital stats are:
Discovered 19 Nov 2009
504,086 views
667 blog posts
231 YouTube comments
1,653 tweets
1 duplicate video
Common comments are: mindblowing, stunning, breathtaking, incredible, very cool - so it clearly hits the 'spectacular' trigger and I couldn't agree more. Something about the voice, the images, the words - they all made my heart beat faster.
This book is now top of my Christmas list.
IF ONLY they had put the link to Amazon in the 'more info' tab, I'm sure 'Going West' by Maurice Gee would have gone in my bastket as soon as I finished watching the video. As it is, they've put the New Zealand book council link up and traffic to that site has increased massively - according to Alexa, the percent of global internet users who visit bookcouncil.org.nz has gone up 90% in the past month - but the book doesn't seem to be doing anything exciting on Amazon, there's only one review. I'd love to find out the sales figures for this book in the next few months.
Here's where you can find out more about the book: Going West on Amazon
You can keep up-to-date with this video on the Viral Video Chart here.
Thursday 17 December 2009
Monday 16 November 2009
Film trailers vs. book trailers
I'm a big fan of Larry Brooks's site StoryFix, which is mainly for aspiring novel writers, telling them how to create satisfying plots.
Larry wrote a post showing how a film trailer can show the complete story structure he advocates all within 2 minutes, the structure that is almost always followed to within a page of film script by film studios.
I wish book trailers did more showing of the plot in this way:
Larry wrote a post showing how a film trailer can show the complete story structure he advocates all within 2 minutes, the structure that is almost always followed to within a page of film script by film studios.
I wish book trailers did more showing of the plot in this way:
Friday 13 November 2009
Book trailer stories - branding and film
In the last post I talked about accountability of book trailers, and direct response advertising.
It seems to me that many book trailers have a much more 'branding' feel but without the power of a the real brand (the author). They try too much to be like film trailers, and end up looking more like cheesy late night made-for-TV film trailers. Films studios don't have huge budgets for seeding their film trailers online, because people seek out the content - they know the director or the stars, or they've seen other big adverts that probably cost millions.
I think people need to either make use of the author as a brand (which most authors would hate) OR think about how to make the trailers interesting content in their own right. Something that has its own miniature story, or hook that would incentivise people to watch the whole way through, and pass on to friends.
Something a bit like this:
I want to read this book now!
It seems to me that many book trailers have a much more 'branding' feel but without the power of a the real brand (the author). They try too much to be like film trailers, and end up looking more like cheesy late night made-for-TV film trailers. Films studios don't have huge budgets for seeding their film trailers online, because people seek out the content - they know the director or the stars, or they've seen other big adverts that probably cost millions.
I think people need to either make use of the author as a brand (which most authors would hate) OR think about how to make the trailers interesting content in their own right. Something that has its own miniature story, or hook that would incentivise people to watch the whole way through, and pass on to friends.
Something a bit like this:
I want to read this book now!
Tuesday 10 November 2009
Tess Gerritsen on Internet vs Traditional Advertising
My favourite crime novelist, Tess Gerritsen writes about her experiences promoting her books in print, online and on book tours in this blog post.
Thanks for being so transparent with your thoughts, Tess! It's really interesting to all your avid fans (like me) and fascinating to get some insight into what goes on behind the scenes for me when I've got my 'internet advertising' hat on.
I've always got that hat on.
Here's Tess's book trailer for 'The Keepsake' ('Keeping the Dead' in the UK - very good by the way!):
Tess's main problem with online advertising is that it seems less accountable to her, she just doesn't know if it works or not. This is amazing to me, someone who's worked in online advertising for years. I know that 95% of online advertising is direct response, concerned only with generating sales and getting a return on the investment. She should know down to the last penny (or cent, whatever) how much money every single online ad made.
Granted, this is a bit different with video, especially YouTube videos which get emailed and shared on Twitter and Facebook and end up on blogs and sites halfway across the world where the book isn't even published. However, if there's an online advert and you want to see sales, then there must be a buying mechanism near it! More specifically, in the 'more info' section there should be a link to the book on Amazon.
I buy a lot of books on Amazon and most of the time I will add books to my basket, and usually do a bulk buy every few weeks. A link near the book trailer saying 'add this to your Amazon basket' or even 'check out the reviews on Amazon' would definitely encourage me to click, without feeling threatened or that I'm being pushed too hard into buying.
Thanks for being so transparent with your thoughts, Tess! It's really interesting to all your avid fans (like me) and fascinating to get some insight into what goes on behind the scenes for me when I've got my 'internet advertising' hat on.
I've always got that hat on.
Here's Tess's book trailer for 'The Keepsake' ('Keeping the Dead' in the UK - very good by the way!):
Tess's main problem with online advertising is that it seems less accountable to her, she just doesn't know if it works or not. This is amazing to me, someone who's worked in online advertising for years. I know that 95% of online advertising is direct response, concerned only with generating sales and getting a return on the investment. She should know down to the last penny (or cent, whatever) how much money every single online ad made.
Granted, this is a bit different with video, especially YouTube videos which get emailed and shared on Twitter and Facebook and end up on blogs and sites halfway across the world where the book isn't even published. However, if there's an online advert and you want to see sales, then there must be a buying mechanism near it! More specifically, in the 'more info' section there should be a link to the book on Amazon.
I buy a lot of books on Amazon and most of the time I will add books to my basket, and usually do a bulk buy every few weeks. A link near the book trailer saying 'add this to your Amazon basket' or even 'check out the reviews on Amazon' would definitely encourage me to click, without feeling threatened or that I'm being pushed too hard into buying.
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austin and Seth Grahame Smith
YouTube viewers rate it 4.5/5 stars, good work guys!
What's interesting with this video is that I found a spin-off 'trailer for movie version' done by some kids as part of their school project, which has over 13,000 views.
And here's another version of the book trailer done by a student, with over 14,000 views on YouTube:
The moral of the story? Get a student to do your book trailer!
Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Jane Austen and Ben H. Winters
Amazon's Best Book Video of 2009 (Editor's Choice)
The book trailer for the hotly anticipated follow-up to Quirk Books' international best seller, 'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies'. For more information, visit www.quirkclassics.com.
This is the number 1 most popular book trailer today, according to Viral Video Chart's list of book trailers being shared right now.
The videos are ranked according to popularity in terms of viral sharing: blog posts/links/embeds. The charts are updated every 15 minutes so you can monitor interest in the videos in real time when they are released.
You can view the top most popular videos in the past 7 days, 30 days or 365 days. If you click on the 365 day chart you have the option to see 50 videos.
The Viral Video Chart is a database which monitors over 100 million blogs. For any video, we can look at all blog posts featuring that video, and track the dissemination of that video across the blogosphere, seeing which blogs were the most influential in spreading it and generating views.
The book trailer for the hotly anticipated follow-up to Quirk Books' international best seller, 'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies'. For more information, visit www.quirkclassics.com.
This is the number 1 most popular book trailer today, according to Viral Video Chart's list of book trailers being shared right now.
The videos are ranked according to popularity in terms of viral sharing: blog posts/links/embeds. The charts are updated every 15 minutes so you can monitor interest in the videos in real time when they are released.
You can view the top most popular videos in the past 7 days, 30 days or 365 days. If you click on the 365 day chart you have the option to see 50 videos.
The Viral Video Chart is a database which monitors over 100 million blogs. For any video, we can look at all blog posts featuring that video, and track the dissemination of that video across the blogosphere, seeing which blogs were the most influential in spreading it and generating views.
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