I had not, until recently, come across a 'Book Trailer.' 'Trailers' for movies, DVDs and even concerts, but not books. But then a friend asked my opinion on a trailer for his book. It was impressive, so I enquired where I could explore this for my own.
I've now had the opportunity to review the first two produced by the company and I have to say that I found both grabbed my attention and made me think I really needed to read them myself ... Right, so at present the two trailers are drafts, not yet polished and ready for release, but I'm delighted with the result and I'm looking forward to actually releasing them for wider viewing.
Most writers will know that there is concern among educators that the present generation - Generation Z: The "Connected Generation" - is now so used to being in constant touch with their circle of contacts on text or "Twitter" that their reading is limited to 140 characters. Anything longer tends to get the response "tl;dr" which stands for "To long; didn't read." That is, of course, not good news for those of us trying to sell books and stories to them.
I happen to believe that there is hope out there for us all, but it depends on how we get their attention and how interesting we make the experience. The idea behind the trailers is to grab the initial interest. Once they actually open and start to read the book, you need to make sure it holds the attention all the way through.
Great, now all I have to do is make sure I've met my own rules ...