book marketing | Creativinfluence

In our post “Watching and Waiting: Book Trailers and How They Help You,” we briefly talked about what book trailers are and whether or not they can help you sell your book. The general idea is that book trailers can help if they are well-made and effectively communicate what your book is about so that the viewers of your trailer (and potential readers) become excited over the book.

This time I’ve had the chance to interview Jerome McLain, lead strategist of BookFrenzy Studios, the company we featured in the article on book trailers. Jerome touches on topics from book marketing to what BookFrenzy Studios does for authors. If you’re looking for companies that could give you excellent service in this regard, BookFrenzy is definitely worth checking out. Why? Jerome McLain explains it himself, of course, in my brief – but informative – interview with him.

Let’s introduce the company first. BookFrenzy Studios is the first video and e-mail marketing agency specifically for authors, and are dedicated to helping authors themselves – both traditionally-published and self-published – work on marketing and technical matters for building author platforms. They also provide free and helpful tools and tips for authors on their website. Sound good? Alright, without further ado, here’s the interview with Mr. Jerome McLain.

CreativInfluence: What do you think is the best and the most difficult aspects are of book marketing in our modern times, when just about everyone is connected to the Internet and we have free access to a vast number of websites and resources?

Mr. Jerome McLain: Marketing your book in these modern times is much easier now than just 5 years ago. Not only can authors use traditional publishing distribution channels such as brick & mortar book stores, they also use the internet as a distribution channel through popular bookseller sites as well as their own websites. What makes book marketing difficult is you have to really understand your market (i.e readers that are purchasing in your genre) and you have to know how to connect with them and earn their trust. When you approach marketing your book from this perspective, its easier to identify what works and what doesn’t in your marketing efforts.

C: What is/are the book marketing service/s that your company offers to writers, and what led you into doing this kind of service?

J: At BookFrenzy Studios, we focus on creating cinematic book trailers that can be used to effectively promote a book and generate interest. What makes us different is that we are able to do this at great price points without sacrificing quality. We also help authors build their email lists, brand their social pages and create video promos for social media.

C: How have your services helped authors before?

J: One of the most popular uses for our trailers is using them as pitch tools when reaching out to the media and booking appearances. I think every author gets asked what their book is about. Now its easier than ever to pull it up on their phone and show them!

C: What is the best book marketing advice that you can give to authors?

J: The best advice for book marketing I can give is to build your email list. This is the greatest asset that every author should be growing on an ongoing basis. If Facebook, Twitter and Instagram all went away tomorrow, so would your audience if you solely depended on those platforms for engagement. But if you have an email list, you own it and those relationships. An email list is an attentive audience where you can build relationships and ultimately trust. We all know when people trust you, they buy books.

That’s it! Thanks Mr. Jerome for the answers. If you guys want to check out what BookFrenzy Studios can do for you, or if you want to, just head on over to their website or send them a question.

Do you guys know book marketing companies, or are you a book marketing agency and would want to reach out and communicate to our readers? Let us know in the comments, or message us on Twitter @creativwriters!

If you’ve been following book promotion and marketing trends on the Internet, then you know that one popular way that authors resort to is releasing book trailers. Book trailers are essentially what it says on the tin: short clips that capture the gist of a book, the visual version of the wordy blurb you’d see on the back of books. Or, yes, like trailers for movies.

Book trailers, as Marisol Dahl says in her article for The Write Life, may depict different things. You, as the author, might be talking about your book, for instance. Or a scene from a book is depicted visually – whether through animation, or a series of illustrations. What is important is that the book trailer accomplishes what it’s meant to accomplish: communicate what your book is about, and communicate it in such a way that your viewer would want to read it. It’s a good way to publicize your work, and if done well, could very well be one of the causes of your book getting spikes in sales.

Of course, making book trailers are attractive — but they’re also not quite easy. There are a lot of book trailers, especially given how social media and video streaming sites like YouTube are very accessible to the public. It can be difficult to get your trailer to stand out. So a professionally-designed, well-crafted book trailer would certainly gain the advantage – but it may also cost a significant amount of cash, depending on who you are and who you hire for your video.

So what am I really saying here? Should you or should you not have a book trailer produced? As with many other questions an up-and-coming author should be concerned with, the answer is not exactly black-and-white. Instead of asking that question, what we can ask is, “what exactly are the benefits of making book trailers?” Once we gather answers for that, then you can decide.

There are certainly a lot of benefits that can come from making book trailers. In this article for The Creative Penn, Joanna Penn asks Book Frenzy Studios’ Jerome McLain why video plays an important part in marketing your book. And the reasons that McLain gives are great ones: video is shareable and can be shared on different social media accounts; video is cost-effective, and; video’s popularity ensures that a lot of people will be able to see your book trailer, which may, in the process, garner you new fans. One excellent reason that McLain points out, however, is what the book trailer can do for the relationship between author and (potential) reader:

Video can foster deeper connections between authors and their readers by increasing the KLT (Know, Like, Trust) Factor which is critical to book sales.

Book trailers can give the readers an idea of who the author is, making the author not just someone who wrote the book, but someone with whom the readers can connect to. Needless to say, the article itself is worth reading in its entirety (it has data showing you how book trailers can boost sales), and highly informative.

The possible benefits of putting out book trailers has been outlined, and can be summed up with one idea: trailers lead to exposure, which leads to more readers.

Of course, the benefits are there. But actually making a good book trailer is another issue. One doesn’t even have to stray too far from common, everyday examples. Take movie trailers – they’re everywhere, aired on television, sitting down your social media newsfeed, popping up on the “Recommended” section of video streaming sites. People become the judge of whether a trailer is good or bad – and often this manifests itself in whether or not individuals actually go out and watch a movie because they thought the trailer was good. Whether or not the movie itself is actually good is something else. What matters is that the trailer essentially sold the movie.

It’s not so different, with book trailers. Good book trailers can convince readers to buy your book. But, as Marisol Dahl again points out, there are reasons why book trailers may not be the best option. Beyond potentially costing a lot in terms of how it is produced – especially if you want a good book trailer – there’s the risk of producing a not-so-good one. And, as Dahl says:

A poorly made book trailer sticks out. It can damage the image of both you and the book, and it can hurt sales.

Because they’re so memorable, book trailers that miss the mark can turn into painfully public marketing failures.

So the formula sounds simple enough: make a good book trailer and leave a positive, lasting impression on your readers. Make a not-so-good one, and risk hurting your book’s sales.

This is, after it all, much easier said than done. Marketing books can always present risks, and the book trailer is just another dimension. Done well and done right, it can help.

So, back to the first question: should you, or should you not, make a book trailer? As you can see, we still haven’t arrived at a definite answer — only you can arrive at that. It will be helpful to ask other authors who have already marketed their books with the use of book trailers, or ask those who specialize in book marketing for advice. You can also do some research as well – find book trailers that you think are good, and take down notes, see what you can glean from them, and have a set of pointers for when you believe you’re finally ready to get your trailer made.

So, with all that’s said and done — happy book trailer making!

A Few Relevant (and Possibly Helpful) Links:

The link’s already way up there, but just in case you missed it, you can check out BookFrenzy Studios, which specializes in e-mail and video marketing for authors.
Arielle Ford’s article “Why Make A Book Trailer” on The Huffington Post offers tips and notes on what makes a good book trailer – definitely something worth checking out.
Finally, if you’re getting started on looking at examples of good book trailers, this article by Shirin Najafi for The Rumpus rounds up a couple of great book trailer examples. You might want to take notes.