Penultimate

Book trailers are an odd thing.

I love trailers for movies. Though they often leave you wondering if all the good moments of a movie are in the trailer, you'd never have to worry about that with a book. There are no scenes for them to show. As some people have noted, books are like movies that you get to direct, cast, star in, and produce by yourself. No need to bother with someone else making you think it is supposed to look at certain way.

That is something that is important for people to remember about books and book trailers. You don't necessarily want to lead readers to think about it a certain way until after they've already started reading. Coloring their opinions of the books before you even start reading it is sure to turn some people off. I think that is where book trailers fail.

But with that in mind, having a big name individual, a movie star or a singer, as the advertising force can be a way to drum up more readers. If this person supports it, I'm sure to like it! Though that person is only doing what they're supposed to so they can get a check. Not many people think about that bit.

On a readers advisory level, sometimes these trailers are effective, sometimes they're not. It all depends on how many or what kind of appeal factors are used in the trailer. If it is a character in the book describing their life within it or telling a small plot summary, it might be effective. Vague generalities about the whole genre in relation to a specific book, not so effective.

Over all, I think book trailers are a big mixed bag. Some of them are good. I want to see what the book Matched is all about now that I've seen the trailer. And I wanted to read Packing for Mars before, but seeing the trailer makes me want to read it even more. But I still have no interest in those James Patterson books.  Those trailers did not make me want to read them any more than I did before.