Movie Trailers for Books

Do you remember those early music videos they used to play on Top of the Pops? You know, the one of Bohemian Rhapsody with the kaleidoscopic special effects of the band singing “Mama mia, mama mia, let me gooooo” while top lit by a harsh spotlight against a black background? And the one of ABBA sitting round a fake campfire strumming and humming along to “Can you hear the drums, Fernando?”

We laugh at their tackiness today but they were ground-breaking for their time, evolving into Michael Jackson’s super scary super limber Thriller video not long after.

Well, for all you shy retiring writers out there, this may be the time for your moment in the video limelight. Yahoo! News reports:

Once a novelty, book videos are increasingly common and, publishers say, essential. Hyperion Books, HarperCollins and Penguin Group (USA) are among those using them. Powell’s Books, a leading independent store based in Portland, Ore., plans its own series of films, starting with a video for Ian McEwan’s new novel, “On Chesil Beach.”

“I don’t know if we’re reaching people we wouldn’t otherwise be reaching, but we are reaching people who are not necessarily reading book review sections, or always watching a TV show,” says Sue Fleming, Simon & Schuster’s vice president and executive director for online and consumer marketing.

No one makes definitive claims that videos increase sales, but publishers and booksellers agree they can help, especially if they catch on at YouTube and elsewhere on the Internet. Brian Murray, president of HarperCollins Worldwide, noticed the recent attention given to a video for the best seller “The Dangerous Book for Boys.”

Here’s the video for The Dangerous Book for Boys from YouTube:

This could be a great opportunity for enterprising writers who are self-publishing or whose book may not be as well-publicised by their publisher as they would like. Get out there with your video cameras and shoot your own book video, put it on YouTube, blog about, Twitter about it - use all viral marketing means possible - and you may start reeling in a whole new audience….