how I learned to stop worrying and love book trailers

The book trailer for Mo Hayder's novel Gone is one of my all time favourites. In fact, I liked it so much I put it on my last book trailer roundup. The man behind the production is Paul Murphy, from one-man Sydney outfit Book Tease.

It turns out Paul’s obsession with book trailers started way before mine, BY in fact (Before Youtube). I recently had the chance to pick his brain on how to make a book trailer and the past, present and future of the short format industry.

How did you get into making book trailers?

[PM] There’s something oddly circular about how it all happened. About eight years ago, I was working in the marketing department of a large Australian publisher, and one of my responsibilities was managing “book videos” (as I think we were calling them at the time).

It was a pretty doomed project – there was no Youtube or Facebook, and we’d have to convince bookstores to install these giant old TVs just so they could play them (of course, almost every bookstore has an LCD screen in their front window nowadays). But it did give me an insight into the potential of the form.

I could have filmed the Gone trailer as a straightforward film trailer, but it wouldn’t have had the same impact. To be watching these grainy figures from far away, and listening to this crackly audio, your mind still has to piece it together as you go.

Working on those videos also made me realise I had a knack for video production, and so I eventually left the publishing industry to become an editor and motion graphics designer.

A few years later, I got a call from an old publishing colleague asking me if I would be interested in producing a “book trailer”. By that stage, the whole thing had become an online phenomenon, especially in the US, and I jumped at the opportunity.

Describe a typical briefing process for a trailer?

[PM] The publisher will usually send me a combination of the blurb, cover art, manuscript and any marketing material. Sometimes they give me very specific directions, and other times they give me the freedom to pitch my own ideas. In the case of ‘Gone’ by Mo Hayder, the publisher simply said “make it scary”.

Where do book trailers fit in the marketing plan for a novel?

The main purpose behind having a book trailer is to expand or consolidate an author’s audience on the web. How central trailers are to the overall marketing plan is entirely dependent on the online presence of this audience. If they are active in Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, forums, blogs, etc., then it’s a great way to tap into that market.

Reading is all about using your imagination, and if a trailer shows too much, it takes all the fun and intrigue out of it. My aim is to reveal just enough so that the viewer will still have to fill in the blanks themselves.

I’ve heard some marketing gurus tell authors that every book now needs a book trailer, that it’s an essential part of every marketing plan, but if your target audience aren’t socially active online, it’s simply not necessary.

How much involvement is there with authors?

[PM] I chat with most authors before I begin brainstorming ideas. I find them to be very visual people, and it’s usually our conversations that will spark something in my head.

With the ‘Wildkin’s Curse’, the author Kate was very specific about the colours and settings in her novel, and it really helped me to visualise her fantasy world. When I asked Malla Nunn what music she imagined for ‘Let The Dead Lie’, she suggested an African work song, and that became the basis for the entire trailer.

How do you approach the visual representation of a written text?

[PM] Ironically, my first step is writing. I try to write a pitch for the book using as few words as possible. This helps me to really focus on what it is about the story that hooks me. Then I go through what I’ve written and take out any words that can be represented visually.

When choosing imagery, I try to show as little as possible. Reading is all about using your imagination, and if a trailer shows too much, it takes all the fun and intrigue out of it. My aim is to reveal just enough so that the viewer will still have to fill in the blanks themselves.

I guess this is why I’m less impressed by book trailers that look just like movie trailers. I could have filmed the Gone trailer as a straightforward film trailer, but it wouldn’t have had the same impact. To be watching these grainy figures from far away, and listening to this crackly audio, your mind still has to piece it together as you go.

I’ve heard some people argue that book trailers don’t work because the target audience are readers, not watchers. If that were true, we’d be placing books on shelves with the blurbs facing out, not the cover art.

For a while, I resisted giving faces to characters. It’s such a minefield, because everyone has their own idea of how a character should look. When I was working on the trailer for ‘Burnt Snow’, the author Van was very specific about the model cast for the character of Brody. In her own words: if he looks like he would ACTUALLY WEAR a beige leather jacket with a cream turtleneck he is THE WRONG GUY.

Whenever I have to show a character’s face, I always try to obscure it in some way, like in Vlad Tod, where the faces are vandalised, or Burnt Snow, the characters are drawn as sketches.

Another important part of the process is finding images that complement the look and style of the front cover. The trailer needs to feel like it’s a part of the book, not separate from it.

Why do you think a visual trailer is important for a book?

[PM] The fact is a lot of people are buying and discussing books on the Internet now, and video is a popular way to advertise online. We say “book trailer” because it sounds a lot sexier than what it really is: advertising. It’s the same with music clips – songs don’t actually need visuals, but it helps to have them if you want to advertise on TV.

I’ve heard some people argue that book trailers don’t work because the target audience are readers, not watchers. If that were true, we’d be placing books on shelves with the blurbs facing out, not the cover art. Book trailers are simply animated cover art, and with the growing popularity of ebooks, that’s not such a crazy idea.

Where do you see book trailers going in the future?

[PM] I think the next step for book trailers is to be featured at the point of sale, on shopping sites like Borders, Angus & Robertson, Dymocks, etc. Sites like Booktopia are already embedding trailers alongside book descriptions, and I can see from the stats that they’re very popular. To have a 30-60 second video that conveys the tone of the book and entices the customer – right next to the button that says ‘buy it now’ – can only help to push them over the line and make that purchase.

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Watch the rest of Paul’s trailers at www.booktease.com.au

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