Book Trailers: Do You Watch?

I've been wondering about book trailers. I've never really used them to choose a book. Honestly, a book trailer usually only makes sense to me AFTER I've read the book. Watching one prior to reading usually just leaves me feeling all WTF? about the whole thing.

But, I do really love Maggie Stiefvater's trailer for Shiver. I should admit that I watched this only after reading the book, so I'm not sure what I would have thought otherwise...

Wow, that Shiver trailer must have taken as long to make as it did to write the book! Speaking of... it makes me want to read it even more.

It's rare that I pick up a book *because* of a book trailer. Let's face it: a lot of book trailers are cheesy. But every once in a while, I come across one, like Katie Alender's Bad Girls Don't Die, that views like a movie. Those are the ones that do their job, prompting me to place an immediate order on Amazon.

Oooh, that was creepy and AWESOME!

I think that as consumers we EXPECT visuals to draw us into books. Until recently I relied on cover art to draw me in. A well-made book trailer, however, does a much better job!


I agree completely about the cover art. And the Bad Girls Don't Die trailer is genius because it actually has a voice-over. So many trailers just use music and text to complement the images. And often that does work, but hearing the main character's voice makes it more intimate, in my opinion.

One of my favorite examples of the text/music/image technique working well is the trailer for Candor, by Pam Bachorz. I love the feel of this and I think it ties in really well to the actual book. (Although I definitely would have cast a different Oscar. Just sayin.)

Well, there's gotta be something to book trailers. After all, Maggie Stiefvater has spent the past few DAYS tweeting about the trials of making a book trailer for Linger. I can't wait to see it, even if it's just to try and figure out the exact point she glued her hands to her hair. *wink*



Oh me too! I think she said she'll be sharing it with us all on Friday or Monday!

So, what about you all? Do you watch book trailers? Do you have a favorite one that we should check out? And, if you're a writer, how do you feel about book trailers?