Book Trailers

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video should be worth at least a million, one would think.  That's the logic behind the book trailer concept: give potential readers a visual glimpse of the story's plot, setting or tone and jolt them into a purchase.  


Personally, a good review or a friend's recommendation is much more likely to inspire me to actually read a book,  and seeing someone else's interpretation of the characters on screen can be jarring or even off-putting.  The worst trailers look like strange music videos with low production values.  The best tell you just enough to let your own imagination go to work.


Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult.  Narrated by the author, this trailer is more like a slideshow with a voiceover synopsis.


Under the Dome by Stephen King.  This trailer does a good job of conveying the essence of the plot without giving anything away.  


Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl.  Southern. Gothic. Teenagers.  Using only music and images, along with the sound of rainfall, this trailer successfully provides a taste of this YA supernatural thriller.  


Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Jane Austen & Ben Winters.  Warning: video includes (silly) sea monster violence.


To see more book trailers, including one for T.C. Boyle's latest novel, The Women, check out Bookscreening.com.