This week I wrote a blog post over at my personal blog on book trailers in relation to digital marketing strategies. The question posed this week that inspired me to discuss book trailers was: "What are some current views about the emergence and diffusion of media?"
I'd love to hear what you all think about taking the print culture into a digital format and whether you would watch book trailers when considering buying a book? Take the mini poll on book trailers here: http://nicolebasaraba.com/book-trailers-social-media-marketing/
I've also created two Pinterest boards related to this course:
- Social Media Art/Comics (for fun)
- E-publishing (for info)
Nicole, thanks for your post. The first thing that comes to mind is the idea of transmedia which Christy Dena will be talking to us about later on in the term.
ReplyDeleteI'm all for multimodality and books and digital texts etc but somehow, this idea of a book trailer (any one of your three examples) seems to reduce the book, to imbue it with a gimmicky quality. Now, I can see how these trailers (especially the ones that are set up like movie excerpts) may appeal to younger readers or even help convince struggling readers to pick up a printed copy but....is the synopsis on the back of the book what librarians/readers use to decide whether to pick up the book...or perhaps it's even the front cover? In fact, that final cartoon trailer put me off that book totally! The somewhat patronizing, slightly exaggerated enunciation was off-putting, for me. We should run a poll to @UAlberta students re: book trailers and if they affect reading. What do you think?
Very interesting developments Nicole. Thanks again for sharing.
Definitely an interesting idea Nicole, adds another element. However, I have to agree with Dr. Laccetti as some of those trailers seemed gimmicky. But this may only be a cause of low production budget. Therefore, if you do not have adequate resources to do a good trailer, I think it would be beneficial not to do one at all. People make split second decisions; poor production can do significant damage to the final product sale values.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree. I don't have a strong disposition in favour of book trailers. When I first saw them, I thought they were a waste of money and potentially more damaging than helpful. I think maybe where they are most effective is to grab readers who might not be "readers" or those who wouldn't normally consider the genre for example.
ReplyDeleteI agree that a book trailer isn't a good decision if the budget isn't there to create a solid one.
Interesting topic and poll Nicole. I think book trailers can be really useful to reaching certain audiences and I think it has the potential of creating a bridge between different media. It might depend on the genre of the books, but I found one that is quite funny and it actually makes me curious about the book (recommended):
ReplyDeletehttp://www.buzzfeed.com/isaacfitzgerald/book-trailer-for-little-failure
This reminds me of illustrated books as they help you visualize an interpretation of what you are reading.
Thanks for the post Nicole - I didn't realize that there were book trailers but I can definetly see them being a useful marketing tool for certain audiences - like teens. Are they using trailers on sites like Amazon?
ReplyDelete