Book trailers have gone legit. Memes don't exist until they've been copied/spoofed/mashed up into meaningless meme-ery.
So I'm overjoyed to report this spoof author interview with comedian Zach Galifianakis and John Wray (author of the critically acclaimed Lowboy).
It works:
It's had 10,000 views in three days. There's a link to where you can download the first chapter for three in the 'more info' on YouTube, and a link to where you can become a fan of John Wray on Facebook or follow him on Twitter.
It became popular because of this Videogum blog post and because of sharing on the wonderful Twitter.
Thursday, 25 February 2010
Friday, 12 February 2010
More brief histories of pretty much everything
This video is currently number 1 in the viral video chart:
If I were Bloomsbury, I would contact the student who made this video ASAP and get them to put a plug in for this book at the end:
What on Earth Happened? by Christopher Lloyd
Here's the video the publisher uploaded to promote the book:
If I were Bloomsbury, I would contact the student who made this video ASAP and get them to put a plug in for this book at the end:
What on Earth Happened? by Christopher Lloyd
Here's the video the publisher uploaded to promote the book:
Thursday, 21 January 2010
Thinking long-term - the "Warm Bodies" lesson
Today, people are Tweeting about this video:
So why are they Tweeting now when it was uploaded 13 December 2008?
To find the answer, I peeped under the skirts of this video, in the 'statistics and data' tab on YouTube, here's what I found:
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM9rUThRgLaDAzvXhOIyFhlt4g4FVdTY7BsqbLq5rWqsoYsp9Jexu1VEnjqq7DJHTIYcW4IA3cCY6A-rhTiEoDiliNU3ZtKpMB3lqht8XXdsUNnglahem9r8Y30KVpo8wgeMg3pTnah2E/s400/warmbodies.jpg
As you can see, most of the views happened in the past couple of days, because people are blogging about this book being made into a film. Important people.
So the lesson to budding book-trailer making people is...
a) don't be disheartened if you don't get lots of views at first
b) bear in mind that once it's up on YouTube, it's public property forever
c) you never know, artist's impressions of your book may be helping filmmakers visualise how well your book would translate into a film - which has to be good, right?
That's a new angle I didn't think of. Hurrah for book trailers!
So why are they Tweeting now when it was uploaded 13 December 2008?
To find the answer, I peeped under the skirts of this video, in the 'statistics and data' tab on YouTube, here's what I found:
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM9rUThRgLaDAzvXhOIyFhlt4g4FVdTY7BsqbLq5rWqsoYsp9Jexu1VEnjqq7DJHTIYcW4IA3cCY6A-rhTiEoDiliNU3ZtKpMB3lqht8XXdsUNnglahem9r8Y30KVpo8wgeMg3pTnah2E/s400/warmbodies.jpg
As you can see, most of the views happened in the past couple of days, because people are blogging about this book being made into a film. Important people.
So the lesson to budding book-trailer making people is...
a) don't be disheartened if you don't get lots of views at first
b) bear in mind that once it's up on YouTube, it's public property forever
c) you never know, artist's impressions of your book may be helping filmmakers visualise how well your book would translate into a film - which has to be good, right?
That's a new angle I didn't think of. Hurrah for book trailers!
You Gotta Read - Videos
Everyone looking to promote a book trailer should know about this blog.
The idea is, authors send their videos in and 20 Trailers a month will be featured. Voting from the blog readers on which one is their favourite begins on the 21st of each month and run through the 26th.
Winners will be announced on the 27th and the top three will be reposted in reverse order on the 28th through 30th.
The idea is, authors send their videos in and 20 Trailers a month will be featured. Voting from the blog readers on which one is their favourite begins on the 21st of each month and run through the 26th.
Winners will be announced on the 27th and the top three will be reposted in reverse order on the 28th through 30th.
Wednesday, 20 January 2010
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!
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!
Monday, 18 January 2010
How exclusive online content boosts book sales
I bought a non-fiction paperback the other day called 'What on Earth Happened?' by Christopher Lloyd, and my mind was blown by the account of how the Earth, life and humans evolved.
What blew my mind even more was all the excellent additional things I found out I had access to after reading the book and the impressive online support it has.
Firstly, there's the original hardback version, which is more detailed and has lots more photos and this has gone straight onto my birthday wishlist. Next, I saw there's an online quiz, a video, a forum... though the site housing all this isn't exactly glamorous, it is simple and un-gimmicky, quick to load, easy to navigate and I love it.
The 'about' section answers many questions about the book such as:
What is the book about?
What makes this book different from other world histories?
Why is this book so important?
The answers to these questions really sell the book. I'm very pleased there's a second book in the series for me to buy - "What on Earth Evolved? 100 Species that Changed the World."
It makes me think that one day, there will be a site like this for every book.
When I finish a book I loved, I want to talk about it, Tweet and write about it, recommend it, maybe review it on Amazon - this is all because I want to connect with other people who love the book as much as I do. If you can get these people connecting on the site dedicated to the book, owned and run by the publisher, then you have a valuable and useful site for the reader, author and publisher. Mo Hayder's site is another good example.
Can you imagine if Twilight had set up a site like this right from the outset, with a forum? By now it would have millions of unique users per month, creating thousands of pounds worth of advertising opportunities to book addicts. Wow.
Here's the Chris Lloyd giving a three-minute demonstration of some of the ideas in the book:
What blew my mind even more was all the excellent additional things I found out I had access to after reading the book and the impressive online support it has.
Firstly, there's the original hardback version, which is more detailed and has lots more photos and this has gone straight onto my birthday wishlist. Next, I saw there's an online quiz, a video, a forum... though the site housing all this isn't exactly glamorous, it is simple and un-gimmicky, quick to load, easy to navigate and I love it.
The 'about' section answers many questions about the book such as:
What is the book about?
What makes this book different from other world histories?
Why is this book so important?
The answers to these questions really sell the book. I'm very pleased there's a second book in the series for me to buy - "What on Earth Evolved? 100 Species that Changed the World."
It makes me think that one day, there will be a site like this for every book.
When I finish a book I loved, I want to talk about it, Tweet and write about it, recommend it, maybe review it on Amazon - this is all because I want to connect with other people who love the book as much as I do. If you can get these people connecting on the site dedicated to the book, owned and run by the publisher, then you have a valuable and useful site for the reader, author and publisher. Mo Hayder's site is another good example.
Can you imagine if Twilight had set up a site like this right from the outset, with a forum? By now it would have millions of unique users per month, creating thousands of pounds worth of advertising opportunities to book addicts. Wow.
Here's the Chris Lloyd giving a three-minute demonstration of some of the ideas in the book:
Thursday, 17 December 2009
New Zealand breaks though book marketing barrier!
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.
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.
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