With book sales bleak and video sites exploding, publishers big and small are producing short videos — "book trailers" — and posting them online to reach audiences beyond the book review.
Politicians, corporations, Puff Daddy and many others have already discovered the power of online video, so perhaps it should come as no surprise that publishers are taking the "if you can't beat 'em" approach.
With attention spans shrinking by the second, book trailers are gaining momentum. Publishers using video promotions include Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Harper Collins, Penguin, Random House, Scholastic and more.
"If publishers want to keep publishing books, they have to get people excited, so they need to use the tools and tricks that the rest of the entertainment industry uses," said Jerome Kramer, the managing director and editor-in-chief of Kirkus Reviews and the Book Standard magazines.
For the publishing industry, where money is always scarce, one attraction of online videos is that they can be made very inexpensively, which allows room for experimentation. (The most conventional approach is an interview with the author,) but it's hard to imagine those creating Internet buzz.)
Here's a look at three videos with three different approaches to selling books to an online audience.
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THE MYSTERY GUEST
The book: Gregoire Bouiller's slim, idiosyncratic memoir about a cocktail party he attended as the guest of his ex-girlfriend, who left him years before without explanation. Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Made by: David Teague, a filmmaker.
The video: Shot in black and white, our turtle-necked narrator gets a phone call in bed, and then finds himself at the center of a cocktail party filled with chattering people either ignoring him or gawking at him. The strangers "look like little bits of bread sinking in a bowl of milk," he says.
Critique: This could be a movie preview. The voiceover, the frantic music, the critics' praise -- it looks like a Quentin Tarantino film. The clip is intriguing and has an appealing tongue-in-cheek tone. It makes the book seem exciting and hip, as if what could be a stodgy book -- this is a translation of a French memoir, after all -- is filled with urgent music and glittering parties. We think of movies as fun, and this makes us think of the book as a movie. But is that a good thing?
Disguising the printed word as a video seems dishonest, or at least unfortunate, as if the only way to attract a reading audience is to trick people that books are just like movies.
When we read the book now, we might imagine the narrator as that stubbly, handsome actor. And that's problematic. In some circles, it's considered sacrilegious to intrude in the relationship between the author's imagination and the reader's. Presenting us with the narrator's face, and the lover who left him, robs us of the pleasure of creating our own world through the book.
The movie was made for only $2,000, said Lorin Stein, an editor at Farrar, Straus & Giroux and the book's translator. It's a low investment for a buzzworthy promotion.
The book: Julie Powell, a 30-year-old in Queens working a dead-end job, decides to cook all 524 recipes in Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" in one year, and write about the real-life saga. Published by Little, Brown.
Made by: VidLit, a two-year-old Santa Monica, Calif.-based company that makes book trailers.
The video: This one uses a narrator reading an excerpt from the book about trying to cook bone marrow. It uses Flash animation -- a bubbling pot, a piece of bone, a finger-wagging Julia Child drawing -- and text to illustrate every sentence.
Critique: The trailer does a disservice to the book by treating the audience as little children. When she mentions a carving knife, they show us a carving knife. When she says the knife's nine inches long, they show us a tape measure. Umm, thanks but no thanks, we know what a knife looks like. This video seems intended for people who don't like to read.
There are interesting lines from the book, like an unexpected "Heart of Darkness" allusion, but the video distracts us with silly graphics of bouncing tribal masks, combined with elevator music, making it impossible to appreciate the writing.
Liz Dubelman, the creator, said she thinks of spots like these as book excerpts more than commercials, but that doesn't seem right to me. This cluttered and annoying video doesn't channel the author's voice so much as muddy it.
The book: A user's guide by Barbara Stewart with beginning and advanced techniques on how to play the kazoo. Published by Workman Publishing Company.
Made by: Expanded Books, a book trailer company with the slogan "Books are Entertainment."
The video: A mock political ad featuring a manic candidate fighting to make the kazoo a national instrument. Think Stephen Colbert -- lots of American flags, bald eagles, smiling babies, etc. "Ask not what your kazoo can do for you, but ask what you can do for your kazoo."
Critique: It gets the tone right -- it's the kind of goofy video that could be a viral hit. The video could steal the book's thunder, however. After watching the 1:25 minute clip, you get a pretty good sense of what the book is about. Only a dedicated kazooist would need to see more. In an earlier era the book might have been a good gag gift; now, you can save yourself $15 and e-mail the video.
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