VLC Productions

While looking at the latest popular book trailers on the Viral Video Chart, I noticed the current second and third most popular book trailers (after the still phenomenally succussful Going West video) were both made by VLC Productions. They are doing good work in the blossoming world of book trailers.

Here they are:

"Beautiful Creatures" by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl (with 23,270 views, this is very good for a book trailer):



"The Body Finder" by Kimberly Derting:



I like the style of these - eerie music, fast-changing snapshots interspersed with intriguing snippets of scenes, high-quality imagery. The style works well for the subject of the books.

The YouTube uploads are tagged properly, with all the information about the books' availabily and links to sites about them in the 'more info' section. VLC Productions reply to comments, another sign of someone who knows what they are doing.

This is what Vania says about book trailers on her blog:

Book trailers consist of still images set to custom or stock music in a video format. I plan a storyboard, style and shoot original photos for the trailer. I will work closely with you to ensure the trailer captures the essence of the book. The book trailers I do are unique and tailored to your book with no limit on the scenes I shoot for it.

Non-exclusive rights to the photos from the trailer or extra outtakes from the shoot can be purchased for additional fees.

You will receive a CD with five digital images of your choice. Additional images may be purchased for an additional fee of $25 per print

Prices: Teaser Trailer with Custom Mini Shoot and Stock Music starting at $850
Custom Shoot with Music starting at $1350

Sounds like a pretty good deal to me.

She has a new YouTube channel for all her book trailers - I'll be keeping an eye on this!

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.