Book Trailers

More and more authors are creating book trailers (those mini two or three minute videos or slide shows set to music to advertise a book). They of course cost time and money to produce. But are they effective?

“Effective” depends on the quality of the trailer and where the trailer is posted, of course.

There are bad ones – too dark lighting, scratchy sound, someone reading and reading, too long, too short, doesn’t fit the mood of the book, and so on.

The Lulu Blog gives you some do’s and don’t’s. So you can start your research there.

If you’d like to see some of those book trailers, go to, you guessed it, Book Trailers. You can search by categories. You can even submit your own trailer.

Another place to do some research is at HarperCollins. Check out their page of Book Trailers for their authors.

Then you have to decide. Is it worth your time and money? Can you do a professional job yourself or will you have to hire a professional? Will it create buzz and sales? Is this a wave that you’re too late to jump on before it crashes to the shore?