If you haven’t noticed, books are making an interesting comeback.
I suppose it was bound to happen given that since the early 20th century writers have been making their books more cinematic by taking specific cues from motion pictures (slow motion, dissolves, a greater emphasis on dialogue).
A writer’s ability to select a word or two to convey in a sentence what their predecessors would have spent paragraphs on (and in some cases, pages) have led us to where we are today: book trailers.
The two words shouldn’t fit together at all, but they do. Most of us get our news from the Internet and music videos often make their premieres online. So, too, do book trailers.
Publishers have figured out that to really reach a wider audience, you have to go to that audience. That makes sense but I still would say that those who read more than three books a year (let’s call them bookworms) are predisposed to spending fewer hours away from the computer if possible, given most of us work on computers all day.
I’m not sure that these trailers are aimed at traditional bookworms. Rather, they are primarily targeted to the e-generation, those who either through the aid of a smart phone or Wi-Fi connection on their notebooks, are constantly plugged into the online universe.
I think book trailers are a great idea – in theory. Would they have been scoffed at 15 years ago? It’s likely. But 15 years ago we didn’t have Facebook, Twitter or YouTube. There’s also Barnes & Noble’s e-Book reader, the Nook and Amazon.com’s Kindle, which are proving that there truly is a market for paperless books.
How effective is a book trailer?
Time will tell. Or perhaps more to the point, sales will tell.
We’ve seen movie and TV trailers get our family and friends excited, but you’re not talking about staying within a visual medium. You’re actually crossing from one platform to another, a narrative medium that will require more than two hours of your time. Movies are dates (and one-night stands). Books are relationships through and through.
Will a really cool trailer get little boys and girls to read? Not most of them, but I’d wager a few might be curious enough.
Maybe book trailers are pushing the idea that stories are stories in whatever medium they appear. And let’s face it, most of the best are from books; words on paper altering the mind. For many, a book trailer might be the closest they’ll come to a book.
To view some examples of Cornelius Fortune’s favorite book trailers, visit his blog, “Pop Culture Saturation,” at www.www.michiganchronicle.com.