AudioShocker

You know something is wrong when Pete is on the verge of having more posts than I do. And I wish I had a real excuse other than "school work" or "job hunt" or whatever, but I don't. Instead, how about we discuss book trailers?

First an example:

That's a big budget example, while this one was cheaper. These bad jackson's are becoming increasingly popular with entire sites devoted to aggregating/curating them (i.e. Book Screening)

Book ads aren't new - but book ads that are even remotely engaging are. The two most common formats I am aware of are the wan single column ads in the New Yorker and the kitschy urban thriller ads on the subway. Both are terrible and I can't remember the name of a single title or author that advertises this way.

Book trailers are a cute gimmick for YA - but the last thing I want to see is a trailer for Dan Brown's newest rag. And do adults really need to be wheedled into reading via video? I know selling books is tough and attention spans are short, but is compressing a book down to a 60 second trailer really the approach we want to take with readers? Books, even e-books, are not impulse buys. Are independent authors and academic presses going to have to start producing these things in hopes of getting titles picked up by majors? Will a Publisher's Weekly starred review still have any cachet? And how do librarians feel about this? Any residual value that librarians add, (at this point mostly recommendations to curious readers), is cut off at the knees by flashy videos.

I blame social media for this. At some point in the last 3 years, agencies and marketers decided that earning exposure without spending a dime on promotion was the ultimate goal. That is incredibly risky and stupid, especially since agencies rely heavily on media commissions. Retainers and other compensation structures may be changing this slowly, but by and large media commissions pay the bills.

But I can understand why it is so appealing to publishers. Even the major houses have extremely limited marketing budgets. I asked a sales rep this summer about book ads and he basically said that publishers can't come up with the scratch to do big ad campaigns, even digital/mobile campaigns which are typically much cheaper print. I find this all rather puzzling. Publishers are willing to use their scarce resources to create these risky trailers - but not to promote them. Considering how quickly poor week 1 sales will get a book pulled off the shelf, marketing really is the name of the game. You can't rely on social/viral media - you have to use it to augment your media strategy. And without an integrated conversion/preorder/sale option, these trailers may never lead to a sale.

There is so much cool/ interactive stuff you could do with book ads, but no one seems to care. How about an ad unit that expands, pushes the page content over to the side (these already exist), and allows you to read a chapter from the book? It could have direct links within the unit to purchase the book and continue reading, download directly to your e-reader, or order the physical copy? Or why not have an ad that shows you where the closest library or author signing is using IP geo-location? A lot of this stuff is already available, but the majors are content to ignore what's right in front of them.

If anyone has a good counter example, I'd love to see it. Things change everyday afterall.

Ok, rant over.