Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Tell Me Something Tuesday: Do Book Trailers Influence Your Reading Choices?

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Tell Me Something Tuesday is a weekly discussion post hosted by Rainy Day Ramblings where a wide range of topics from books to blogging are discussed. Weigh in and join the conversation by adding your thoughts in the comments. If you want to do your own post, grab the question and answer it on your blog.

This week's discussion question is:

Okay guys, so I'm going to be completely honest here: I don't care about book trailers much at all. I'm not sure if that's an unpopular opinion or not, but I do feel bad saying it. I've seen so many people get so amazingly amped up after watching some book trailers and I so desperately wish that could be me, but frankly, they just hold very little appeal to me.  I rarely end up watching book trailers, even if it is for a book I'm really excited for. 

A few reasons for this are likely because I don't necessarily like having preconceived notions or 'feelings'/'vibes' about certain books before reading them, and book trailers really seem to do just that. Another reason is simply because there isn't much content within the trailer that excites me; with movies, you can see clips and hear tidbits to get you excited, but books just don't translate well to trailer in my personal opinion. I'd much rather read the synopsis of a book online or on the book itself. 

However, I do appreciate the time, effort, and heart that goes into every trailer. I may not watch many, but when I do watch them I am always impressed by the level of creativity and skill that goes into putting them together. 

So to definitively answer this question: nope, book trailers don't convince me.

So now I pose the same question to you: Do book trailers convince you to read books? I'd love to hear your opinions, and if you love book trailers I would really love to hear why!



3 comments:

  1. In very rare cases do book trailers help... They usually make me NOT want to read a book XD haha. There are some rare exceptions to that, of course, like the Flashfall trailer, the How To Hang A Witch trailer, and anything made by Sarah (YA Book Traveler) :D Great post!

    Brittany @ Brittany's Book Rambles

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  2. This probably sounds weird, but I actually don't think I've ever watched a book trailer. I should probably do that at least once to see if I like them or not, haha!

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  3. I actually do like book trailers, but I'm sure I'm prejudiced cause I'm in the film business. I don't do book trailers as part of my profession, but I respect their craft. Do they influence my choice in a book? I would say no more than the book's blurb. Then again that may be because I am familiar with how trailers in general are created. Movie trailers (and book trailers as well) are designed to tout the movie's best aspects. I know--duh! That's obvious! But here's the hard truth. Some movies (and books) suck and the trailer is designed to hide that from you. To put it simply, they lie. They go beyond just touting their good points--they actually lead you to believe things about the movie and book that aren't true. This is done all the time in the TV commercial world. Back when I directed national TV commercials a certain company that shall go nameless once asked me to direct a commercial about a line of rattan furniture that was supposedly made in the Far East and shipped across the ocean to the Houston ship channel where we were set up to film its arrival. The truth? The furniture was built in California, shipped to the channel on trucks, where it was loaded onto a ship. That ship was then sailed out of the channel, turned around, and brought back in so we could film it's arrival. They called this "selling the sizzle, not the steak", and it's one of the many reasons why I quit directing TV commercials. So what's the take-away? Watch the trailers if you want, enjoy their pretty pictures, but don't use them to judge the book. :-)

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