Lotta bad book trailers out there. I've only seen one or two Christian Fiction ones that I liked. The biggest problem I have with them is they're too dang long. Some are also more focused on the praise music than the actual synopsis of the book. If you're thinking of developing a trailer to promote your book, here are some points to consider:
1. Keep it simple. Too many images can be confusing.
2. Don't overwhelm the reader with music. If it's there it should be in the background.
3. Keep it short. A trailer is a commerical of sorts. When was the last time you watched a 2 minute commerical? Commercials are under a minute.
4. Engage the viewer quickly. Most viewers click away from a trailer in the first 9 seconds. So you have to do something to reel them in and wow them before then, otherwise they won't watch.
5. Don't give away too much. It's a teaser. It's supposed to make the reader want to read more about the book.
Final tip...
6. Make sure there's an image of your book and your web address. The viewer should see them twice if you can manage it. Remember you're trying to make an impression on their memory.
Now here's an example of an excellent trailer I found visiting my friend Jessica's Blog. It's not Christian Fiction, but this preview is suitable for all ages.
Made me want to buy the book.
Readers tell me, has a trailer ever made you want to buy a book?
Showing posts with label Marketing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Marketing. Show all posts
Thursday, January 08, 2009
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
Nia Promotions' Virtual Launch - VIP Book Marketing Teleseminar REPLAY
Last month my writer's group Visions in Print held a "Free Teleseminar" about book promotion. The following is a recap of what we did:
Marina Woods, the “Queen” of Inspirational Book Promotion and President of the Good Girl Book Club, is joining the Visions in Print Writer’s Group to teach you…
(Almost) Everything You Need to Know About Marketing Your Book.
(Almost) Everything You Need to Know About Marketing Your Book.
In this powerful and inspiring tele-seminar, Marina Woods, America’s most influential Christian book promoter and female marketing specialist will:
- Share inside secrets on how to market your Christian book effectively.
- Answer frequently asked marketing questions that new authors have.
- Why your publisher expects you to market your book and why they rarely do.
- Discover the costly marketing mistakes most authors make.
- And much more!
EXCLUSIVE BONUS! VIP’s will have the golden chance to hear Marina’s inspirational “listen only” segment: Why GOD wants your book to receive exposure – and why YOU make it happen, which will arm authors with the motivation and inspiration to move forward as a proactive author.
Click here to listen to the teleseminar.
Click here to purchase this teleseminar with the bonus material.
Purchasers receive a special bonus! The downloadable mp3 has a bonus audio clip of a few companies (and the appropriate company contact) Marina recommends for assisting you in promoting your book.
Please note: Proceeds from this event help fund a college scholarship presented by Visions in Print to a deserving student.
Nia Promotions is a marketing company that provides a variety of marketing services. We assist authors and publishers with internet book marketing using strategy, branding, and education. We connect with our readers through Nia Virtual Book Tours and by hosting live webcasts with authors and publishing professionals, teleseminars, online workshops, chats, and virtual books tours. For more information about Nia Promotions visit http://www.niapromotions.com/.
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
Nia Promotions Virtual Launch Announcement
Last week I spent several hours in a meeting with a publicist gleaning her expertise about book promotion. Granted I'm more than a year away from holding my novel in my hands, but the marketing of a book should begin a long time before the book actually hits shelves. Alot of authors visit this site and we all need to know good marketing resources. So with that I've decided to share anything good that I find. This week that good thing is Nia Promotions.
Nia Promotions is a great operation and the owner, Dana Pittman is a class act. She's done a great deal of work with my writer's group, Visions in Print, so I had the opportunity to work with her first hand. This week she's conducting a virtual tour of her services and here's a video that tells us what Nia Promotions is all about.
I'll continue to join Dana all week as she shares Nia Promotions with us, so check back everyday!
Nia Promotions is a great operation and the owner, Dana Pittman is a class act. She's done a great deal of work with my writer's group, Visions in Print, so I had the opportunity to work with her first hand. This week she's conducting a virtual tour of her services and here's a video that tells us what Nia Promotions is all about.
I'll continue to join Dana all week as she shares Nia Promotions with us, so check back everyday!
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Book Marketing - No Shame in the Game
I had a conversation this week with a dear friend and aspiring writer who’s moving 2,400 miles away to California. The conversation eventually landed around a discussion about my upcoming novel, Issues of the Heart. She told me she’d been telling all her family and friends about my book and they were all excited to read it. This warmed my heart because from what I’ve learned reading various marketing and publicity books, word of mouth is really the best way to create a buzz.
This evening I took the time to look at my circle of friends and associates and divided the wheat from the chaff to determine who would buy my book and who would promote it for me. I estimated the number of books each of these folks could buy and sell. This was pure guess work with no mathematical rhyme or reason, but hey it’s my time and my calculator. Then I got ambitious and decided to guestimate library sales. This was a slightly more accurate calculation. I actually went to worldcat.org and looked at books from my publisher and came up with a strong estimate of the number of books public libraries would buy from a new author like me, using the world cat data from well...a new author like me. Finally, I threw some other numbers in the estimated book sales pot that I’m too ashamed to share the source of and came up with a grand total of about 2,000 book sales. “Hmmm, how am I to sell the other 8,000 books I want to run off the shelves in the first month”. No…really…I’m serious. After all, my goal is to quit my day job in a few years. We won’t even talk about how many books I need to sell to live out that dream. That’s a conversation between me and the Lord Jesus. And while I expect him to make a fish and bread miracle for me by turning 2,000 sales into 10,000, I know I have a part in this plan. It’s called “marketing”.
Jacqueline Deval in her title" Publicize Your Book”, identifies book marketing as, defining and reaching your potential readership, and then coming up with ways to convince them to buy your book. I spent several hours this week on MySpace, Shelfari, Good Reads and Shoutlife, updating my profiles and shelves and hungrily going after “cyber friends” that I’d determined were potentially in my target market. That would be women ages 25-50 who enjoyed reading women’s fiction. I came across the question posted by another author who couldn’t believe she was on MySpace, where she asked “Is this just shameless marketing?” I thought it’s marketing, but is there ever any shame in the game? Should there be?
Literary agent, Chip McGregor blogged a few months ago about the number of books published each year (400,000 last year) and the number that actually generate substantial sales. Substantial ranging from 100,000 to over a million. It was a dismal picture. Made me pray some more. Publishing is a tough business and the shy and "shamed" need not get in the game, because book selling is akin to prostitution. If you don’t push yourself further out on the curb than the next gal, you might not get noticed in the background. The truth is with shelf space shrinking by the year, chances are you won't even have a corner to stand on. "Buzz" sells books or at least gets people thinking about your book. Creating that buzz is about the tireless, relentless pursuit of folks who are trying not to waste $15 on a book they don’t like, especially now that they're paying nearly $4.00 a gallon for gas and food prices have skyrocketed. Let’s face it discretionary spending is down. This economy is eating into book spending dollars.
Big authors like Eric Jerome Dickey, Karen Kingsbury, the Left Behind series guys and the Brenda Jackson’s (congrats on the New York Times list) of the book selling world have their share of the book purchasing dollars. These marquee authors consistently crank out a book a year and some top authors are going to two. The reality is how many new authors does the average reader buy each year? How many can they really afford to take a chance on and still be assured to have a good book to read? My guess is not many. My guess is also the person who gets the sale would be the one that gets out on the corner first and the one who has a friend in every corner of the country telling all her friends and family about the book. So, Margaret, the move to California is not wasted. I appreciate having you creating the "buzz" where I can't.
In closing, here’s a hysterical video I found last week about book marketing. Have a good laugh. I'll make sure to send an email blast out when Oprah calls.
This evening I took the time to look at my circle of friends and associates and divided the wheat from the chaff to determine who would buy my book and who would promote it for me. I estimated the number of books each of these folks could buy and sell. This was pure guess work with no mathematical rhyme or reason, but hey it’s my time and my calculator. Then I got ambitious and decided to guestimate library sales. This was a slightly more accurate calculation. I actually went to worldcat.org and looked at books from my publisher and came up with a strong estimate of the number of books public libraries would buy from a new author like me, using the world cat data from well...a new author like me. Finally, I threw some other numbers in the estimated book sales pot that I’m too ashamed to share the source of and came up with a grand total of about 2,000 book sales. “Hmmm, how am I to sell the other 8,000 books I want to run off the shelves in the first month”. No…really…I’m serious. After all, my goal is to quit my day job in a few years. We won’t even talk about how many books I need to sell to live out that dream. That’s a conversation between me and the Lord Jesus. And while I expect him to make a fish and bread miracle for me by turning 2,000 sales into 10,000, I know I have a part in this plan. It’s called “marketing”.
Jacqueline Deval in her title" Publicize Your Book”, identifies book marketing as, defining and reaching your potential readership, and then coming up with ways to convince them to buy your book. I spent several hours this week on MySpace, Shelfari, Good Reads and Shoutlife, updating my profiles and shelves and hungrily going after “cyber friends” that I’d determined were potentially in my target market. That would be women ages 25-50 who enjoyed reading women’s fiction. I came across the question posted by another author who couldn’t believe she was on MySpace, where she asked “Is this just shameless marketing?” I thought it’s marketing, but is there ever any shame in the game? Should there be?
Literary agent, Chip McGregor blogged a few months ago about the number of books published each year (400,000 last year) and the number that actually generate substantial sales. Substantial ranging from 100,000 to over a million. It was a dismal picture. Made me pray some more. Publishing is a tough business and the shy and "shamed" need not get in the game, because book selling is akin to prostitution. If you don’t push yourself further out on the curb than the next gal, you might not get noticed in the background. The truth is with shelf space shrinking by the year, chances are you won't even have a corner to stand on. "Buzz" sells books or at least gets people thinking about your book. Creating that buzz is about the tireless, relentless pursuit of folks who are trying not to waste $15 on a book they don’t like, especially now that they're paying nearly $4.00 a gallon for gas and food prices have skyrocketed. Let’s face it discretionary spending is down. This economy is eating into book spending dollars.
Big authors like Eric Jerome Dickey, Karen Kingsbury, the Left Behind series guys and the Brenda Jackson’s (congrats on the New York Times list) of the book selling world have their share of the book purchasing dollars. These marquee authors consistently crank out a book a year and some top authors are going to two. The reality is how many new authors does the average reader buy each year? How many can they really afford to take a chance on and still be assured to have a good book to read? My guess is not many. My guess is also the person who gets the sale would be the one that gets out on the corner first and the one who has a friend in every corner of the country telling all her friends and family about the book. So, Margaret, the move to California is not wasted. I appreciate having you creating the "buzz" where I can't.
In closing, here’s a hysterical video I found last week about book marketing. Have a good laugh. I'll make sure to send an email blast out when Oprah calls.
Thanks for stopping by!
Blessings,
Rhonda
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