Good Links, February Edition

Okay, okay, so we’re a week into March and this is a little delayed… big deal. I sort of deleted my listing of good links from February in a fit of ‘housekeeping’ and had to restore them from my Mozy backup–something I put off for a week or two thinking it would be difficult. It was actually surprisingly simple. I mean, uh, it was so difficult, it took me weeks of hacking code and recalling passwords, and digging through piles of aged files and… stuff. It did NOT involve two clicks and then voila, it was right back where I had deleted it from. Definitely not.

Um, so, yeah. The links. Here’s what I’ve got for you:

Marketing Yourself

Online Platform: Kidlit posting on some most excellent dos and don’ts in creating an online platform.

Copyblogger’s post on blogging and platform: Why people think you suck. I mean, why nobody reads your blog. I mean, dammit, just be bold and shake things up a little!

Literary agent Elana Roth’s post on how to market yourself. Brand, audience and trust. Everyone sing with me now, “Express yourself, hey, hey, hey, hey!”

Alan Rinzler shares good hooks that brought the publishing world to a writer’s door.

TK Richardson’s multi-post discussion on how to create a book trailer. Aspects of making a trailer and things to consider. The visual aspect (colour, images, and more). Where to get images. More on visuals and choices you make.

Technical Writing Stuff

Problems with spelling? The Oatmeal will help these common misspellings stick to your ribs with goofy comics and jokes to help you remember.

Craft, story, voice. And the difference is? And if you have one, but not the other? And how do you know? And what do you do to improve one? And crap, I think my brain just got tied up in a knot. Fear not, literary agent Rachelle Gardner explains it all.

Funnies

And because laughter is the best medicine, here are some writer jokes.

And that’s about it! Enjoy! Spring is on the horizon, the days are getting longer, the urge to stuff oneself with everything in the cupboard in order to make it through the long winter are subsiding. Take care, and have fun!

What Makes for a Good Book Trailer

Yesterday, while I was watching book trailers (short videos to advertise books) on YouTube, I began to compile a list of what makes for an interesting book trailer and what doesn’t. (For you marketing types out there, here’s a hint, take someone with a flu-addled brain and see how long they can stay interested or focused on your trailer.)

Honestly, some of the book trailers were awful. They were boring, didn’t show/tell what the book was about, were too long, were dry, and essentially would not sell the book. Here are a few important things to consider (from a viewer) if you are considering making a book trailer for your book:

1) A book trailer should give us an idea of the plot, who the characters are, what they want, and what stands in their way.

2) We should be able to figure out whether we are the intended audience.

3) Viewers should be able to figure out the book’s genre.

3) The book trailer should appeal to the intended audience. Men tend to like moving images. Women tend to like something that makes them ‘feel.’

4) Don’t use a lame, soft, lulling, flat voice for your voice over. Hire a professional.

5) They should not look cheap (like they are made with PowerPoint and pixely images), even if they are.

6) Move it along! Don’t make each slide of text stay on screen forever.

7) The right music can make your whole trailer.

Don’t go over much more than a minute, particularly if you are creating a ‘slide show’ trailer.

9) Tell us the title, author, publisher, and where we can get the book.

Movie trailers are commercials. Think of them as such. It should be at home on TV, not just YouTube or emailing to friends.

Book Trailers

Book Trailer are like movie trailers, only for books. They can be a relatively inexpensive way to drum up buzz about one’s book. A few years ago, there were very few of them out there, but now if you do a search for them on YouTube, you can find quite a few. Some, naturally, are much more entertaining than others.

What I’d like to see are awards for book trailers. What shall we call them? The Booker Prize? Nope, taken. The Oscars? Nope, also taken. Hmmm. I’ll have to think on that one.

Here are a few that are worthy of mention:

Bent Art:

Funny Parenting book:

My all-time favourite (there is a short version, but I like the long one better):

Cool Marketing Idea

Have you seen those book trailers?

What are they? They are a short video, sort of like a visual back of the book blurb. I think that is pretty neat. I watched three off an agent’s blog and wanted to read two of the three books. This is interesting as I have seen one of the books on shelves as well as noticed ads for it and have been sort of like, ‘that’s interesting, but whatever’. I didn’t pick it up. I didn’t read the blurb. I didn’t buy it. But now, due to the little video, I have not only visited the book’s website and cruised around on it, I have made a mental note to check the book out of the library if I come across it (and ever find my library card again–stupid safe spot that I put it in). Still, I haven’t gone out and bought it, but I am one step closer to reading that book.