As recently as a year or two ago, the phrase “book trailer” conjured images of a library in a double-wide. But now the trailer is an essential part of book buzz-building, and Melville House Publishing has recognized this by organizing The 1st Annual Moby Awards to celebrate the best and worst of the medium. Publisher and award organizer Dennis Loy Johnson explains, “For a long time, Big Publishing has been wishing it was either the movie industry or the music industry — first writers needed agents, then they had to be young and beautiful, now they need to be in actual movies. It just all cried out for a spoof.”
But the trailers the panel of judges are considering are the real deal. So what makes a good trailer? Carolyn Kellogg, who edits the LA Times’s book blog Jacket Copy, suggests that “if the author is going to appear in the trailer, it may help if his face doesn’t look like the bottom of an ashtray.” And what role will they play in the promotion and consumption of books? Jason Boog, of Media Bistro’s book blog GalleyCat, thinks that book trailers will be an essential value-added component in the evolution away from traditional dead-tree media: “This content will become integrated with digital books eventually — enhanced eBooks should include author videos, trailers, and all the multimedia content you can find on the web.”
Though still in their infancy, book trailers have already had success building buzz — if not for the book, then at least for the form. When the reclusive Thomas Pynchon narrated the book trailer for Inherent Vice, everyone from the Wall Street Journal to Entertainment Weekly took notice. And earlier this year, the trailer for John Wray’s Lowboy, featuring Zach Galifianakis masquerading as the author, went viral.
So who will win a coveted Moby Award? We offer our picks from the shortlist below, and suggest a few that didn’t make the cut.
For Best Cameo in a Book Trailer: Zach Galifinakis in John Wray’s Lowboy
Comments (11)
[...] trailers of the year. We chose the picture of Zach Galifianakis because…well….just go watch the trailers. An excerpt: So what makes a good trailer? Carolyn Kellogg, who edits the LA Times’s book [...]
[...] yourself, check out that Karl Rove attack ad book trailer (not a finalist) embedded above and read this Flavorwire article about book [...]
German filmmaker, Ma Raab, did an excellent book trailer for Sounds Like Crazy, my novel. It is creative, fun, informative, everything a book trailer should be. It was definitely missed during your selection process and should be considered!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXg9ruqzNAM
Oh my goodness, how could this trailer for Feral House’s Compleat Motherfucker book not make the cut? Pure genius…
http://feralhouse.com/fh_blog/archives/2009/07/compleat_mother.php
One more brilliant trailer from Feral House, for the book LOVE SEX FEAR DEATH. This was directed by William Mortensen of Skinny Puppy. These trailers are in a league of their own.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNU5EJ0dttU
This trailer, a low budget one, had received 5000 plus hits in four weeks on YouTube. Hilarious:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tazCANYNTw
from Electric Literature #1 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdJieivqFQs
they are doing the coolest version of mashing up print and moving imagery.
[...] Flavorpill picks the best and worst book trailers of the year. [...]
[...] Flavorwire has the rundown on their own picks, along with a few good ones that didn’t make the list at all. But every one of the finalists is worth watching, and they’re all short enough to sandwich into a little downtime at the end of a workday. Unlike film trailers, which are constrained to jump cuts of the movie highlights and pull quotes, and never seem particularly appealing, the different approaches here are wonderful. If anyone has doubts about the utility of the book trailer, whether as a marketing tool or added value, get over it—they’re fun. [...]
[...] the Flavorwire article on the competition. This is their pick for ‘Best Big Budget,’ and it’s a engaging [...]
[...] big fans of author Ben Marcus over here — and we have been known to enjoy a book trailer or two, though we’re not sure the form has been truly perfected as yet. But we’re not [...]
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