Beware: Spooky Social Media
POSTED BY prbythebook ON September 30, 2011
Beware: Spooky Social Media
by Emily Southard-Bond
You were told you needed a Gmail account to not be ridiculed. You were told you needed Facebook to stay relevant. You were told that without Twitter you might as well be…in the grave! It’s nearly 2012 and now you’re told you must have a book trailer to promote a new book.
I’ve just finished watching the book trailer for the parody novel, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadful:(beware the video is zombie-filled) a satirical spoof on the classic Jane Austen novel, Pride and Prejudice.
The video features several of Austen’s Bennet girls brandishing weapons to fight an undead Fitzwilliam and friends. The video is short, violent, and there is a Darcy (yes, I know I’ll wait for you to finish watching now). Back? The trailer is slightly uncomfortable and incredible at the same time. It’s like watching your favorite book become a frightening dream with just enough humor to make you not want to wake up.
This is the first book trailer I’ve actually watched. And since then, I can honestly say that I am drawn to them now. I look for them on author’s site. I’m disappointed, not when I don’t see one, but when I see one that completely ruins my desire to buy said author’s book.
The creativity and time a novelist pours into his work shouldn’t be so quickly judged by a two-minute clip on youtube.com, but I’d be lying if I told you that were not the case. I do judge a book not only by its cover (how I choose my wine), but also by the production value of their videographer. I am beyond biased. I live with a videographer (my husband), whose work I constantly scrutinize. I know what a badly edited piece looks like, when the lighting is poor (clumsy), and the sound is bad (downright criminal).
I know there is someone else out there who takes these short literary films just as seriously as I do. With last year’s awards for the “Book Trailer As Stand Alone Art Object,” or to the “Most Conflicted,” the Moby Awards not only pride themselves on finding the best of the book trailer bunch, but also the very worst.
They are the Razzies and Oscars of the book trailer world. The winners receive Golden Sperm Whale statues and the esteem, or gratification, that someone is watching and watching closely.
So a bit of advice: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadful has been viewed over 300,000 times on youtube.com. However, our big advice: Only do a book trailer if you’re really going to do it right. We feel strongly that if you’re not going to have a stellar trailer, you should have no trailer at all. A bad one will only hurt your book.
Here are a few of our favorites, to give you some examples of quality work. Enjoy!
Linda Gayle Thompson’s “Hookers, Midgets and Firetrucks”
Phil Ward’s Raiding Forces series.
Tags: Book Trailer, Linda Gayle Thompson, Moby Book Awards, Phil Ward, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls
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