The House 'Cross the Way: The Trailer
So my new novel - The House ‘Cross the Way - is scheduled to be released by Odyssey Books at the end of September! (Insert happy dance here.) I know, that’s like next month. In fact, it IS next month! Which is why I have been busy making a movie. A small movie. A very small movie that is actually not a movie but more of a video. A short video. The kind that doesn’t really have a plot.
See, I’ve been making a “book trailer” because a. my wife was out of town and I got tired of watching Gladiator over and over (and over), b. my wife was out of town and I got tired of mangling Stevie Ray Vaughan tunes at a volume that caused our dogs to howl and run for cover, and c. because it’s the thing to do.
I read somewhere that books nowadays should have preview trailers.
Regarding c.- I read somewhere that books nowadays should have preview trailers. In the modern era (post-invention of the French fry), one thing has become increasingly obvious: people don’t read. Even before the black hole that is Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, and Youtube, no one really liked reading that much. After all, it’s hard. It requires the ability to think, the ability to concentrate, the ability to invest your imagination in a story... And all sorts of other annoying, inconvenient, and totally useless skills.
What people like to do is watch and listen. Even back in Neanderthal days, knuckle-draggers were all about witnessing drama. They cheered as wooly mammoths stomped poor unsuspecting schnooks into pancakes. They gasped as saber-tooth tigers gobbled up clumsy hunters. Did they want to read about those events? No! Even if they had a working language and had known how to read, they still would have opted for the lookyloo version.
Fast forward a half dozen or so millennia and factor in the presence of the internet, Bachelor in Paradise, and the fact that attention spans are now hovering around the 1.7 millisecond mark, and it’s no surprise that reading has become anathema. (You could look that word up with a mere click and read about what it means... but you’re not going to, are you?)
Reading is a pain in the optic nerve, as well as other parts of the body. Which brings me back to my trailer. The idea behind a book trailer is that you cleverly trick people into being a little curious about what is between the covers of your book by pretending, even in a low-budget kind of way, that it’s actually a movie they can stream on Netflix.
Reading is a pain in the optic nerve, as well as other parts of the body.
Do book trailers work? Do they actually boost sales? Do they cause human beings to suddenly and irresistibly take up their computers, tablets, and mobile devices and cyber-stampede to Amazon to buy books with free two-day shipping? While I haven’t delved extensively into the research that has been conducted on this particular topic, I will say, anecdotally, probably not so much.
Speaking from personal experience, I have never, in my entire life, seen a book trailer and, in response, abandoned my important work of scrolling through surfing, UFC, and dancing dog videos to seek it out. Nope.
So I will admit that making a book trailer might well be a futile activity. However, it can be fun and even beneficial if 1. it distracts you from excessive day drinking, 2. you get your kicks swearing at Final Cut Pro X, and 3. you don’t mind having zero dollars, zero actors, zero special effects, and zero Matthew McConaughey voice-overs at your disposal.
Now that I have produced exactly one book trailer, I can state definitively that the real challenge isn’t monetary. The real challenge is condensing nearly 400 pages of character-based literature that you labored for countless hours and sacrificed buckets of blood, sweat, and tears to create, into a tiny teaser. How do you give viewers a visual taste of what they will find inside your novel, convince them that books aren’t lame, and somehow persuade them to (gasp) open and (double gasp) read your book, in under two minutes?
Even the big-wig executives at Random House (not my publisher) and Simon & Schuster (not my publisher either) haven’t figured out the answer to that question. My personal philosophy of book trailers comes down to this: If you build it, they will come. No, wait. That’s Field of Dreams. My philosophy is actually: In space, no one can hear you scream. No. How about: You’ll never go in the water again. No, that’s not it either.
I hope people will see the trailer and buy the book.
This is it: I hope people will see the trailer and buy the book. Yeah, it’s pretty naïve. But if you want to talk naïve, get this: I’m also hoping that Hollywood options this novel, M. Night Shyamalan directs, and Matthew McConaughey tells the story. With all the loot from the blockbuster movie adaptation, I plan to write another novel and, clutching a fat wad of Benjamins in my sweaty fist, produce a book trailer that will cause people to weep, laugh, think deeply, and, if it’s very, very successful, maybe even read the book.
The House ‘Cross the Way is NOT out yet. It is NOT yet available on Amazon. But for those who are intrigued, who are considering saving their shekels to purchase a copy, or who are on the fence, wondering if it’s worth taking a break from binging Naked and Afraid in order to read, here’s a preview that may or may not convince you to Place Your Order.