My new book, Wingless Butterfly, will be released in just a few days and naturally I’m excited. Most all of my friends and family are anxious to get their signed copy, but I have to admit I hope the world will see my passion and purpose, and receive my manuscript with open arms too. Well, this past weekend I got an unexpected review that encourages me. I’ve always thought my primary audience was women, but it continually amazes me that the reviews I’ve received from men are incredibly favorable .
Case in point, Jon Acosta of Acosta Productions read my manuscript by default. He had to know the story to properly convey the book in my trailer. The surprise was he love it, and he reiterated that the book crossed social barriers and had a wide appeal. Unsolicited, Jon admitted he was drawn in and intrigued by the emotion and drama throughout the pages and that it resonated. In his most recent blog below, he talked about shooting my trailer and, in the process, gave Wingless Butterfly a great review. Thanks so much Jon for your critique. Casi
Book Trailers – An Exploding Type of Production to Save a Dying Print Industry?
Following the trend that youtube.com and every other video hosting website out there has created, authors and publishers are starting to catch onto the online motion picture drift – and using it as a genius marketing tool…
I’ve been in pre-production with author, Casi McLean, for the last 2 months as we’ve taken her newly published novel, “Wingless Butterfly”, and dissected it into a visual masterpiece. What Casi has asked from Acosta Productions is to use certain scenes in her novel and create what is known as a “book trailer”. In a nutshell, this means making a 1.5 minute teaser preview of the book just like you would see at the theaters before a feature presentation. the difference, however, is that it won’t be coming to a “theater”, but rather a “nightstand near you”.
This visual tactic gives online users a visual preview of what a book is about. Since the internet has taught us to “watch” rather than “read” these days … Authors and publishers alike now understand how vital it is to SHOW rather than TELL the world what said product has to offer your nightstand – packed with quick cuts, tears, blood, sensuality… and all under 1.5 minutes.
The story in “Wingless Butterfly” is rather intricate and absolutely emotional. To break it down, it’s about realizing that your perception of life is your only reality. The people around you can try to manipulate it as much as they want to, but in the end, it’s up to you to control your world.
Lies, deception, broken family secrets, and insecurities flood the pages of this book in a “Lifetime” movie style format. This made choosing specific scenes for the book trailer rather difficult since almost every chapter is packed with another deceitful secret or emotional bomb that gets dropped by a passing character.
Our cameras began rolling on April 22nd, right before starting the “Back Alley Strut” shoot. Currently, we are still in production and will wrap by the top of next week.
After working so well together on “Back Alley Strut”, i decided to cast Janine DeMichele as the main character for this production. for the older version of our lead role, we had Casi McLean play herself. Other actors in the production include Trey Tezza who has done repeated work on MTV’s upcoming “Teen Wolf”. Drew Gibadlo, owner of Downstairs Studios, also played a brief cameo in the “Wingless Butterfly” madness.
All in all, this has been quite a pleasure to produce. Different on all levels, the one thing that I can say is frustrating about book trailers is that we spend so much time setting up a scene… and in the end, we’ll only take 4 seconds or 1 sentence of film from the “loose script”. When you go through so much trouble to set up a 4 second scene, it’s hard not to just want to film the whole thing…
Mind you, this won’t be the last time that we visit “Wingless Butterfly.” Depending on the book sales when it is released on May 15th, Acosta Productions may be looking for a potential movie deal for this novel in the near future.
production credits:
director – Jonathan Acosta
writer / actress: Casi McLean
audio coordinator/ actor - Drew Gibadlo
actors: Janine DeMichele, Trey Tezza, Tracy Franklin
Source: http://thejonacosta.tumblr.com/
Awesome trailer!!! Can’t wait to read the book! Lane
Hello,
Just thought I would put my 2 cents worth in.
Except as a marketing tool, I can see no value in book trailers, as they do not add to the actual reading experience itself.
The best part of being able to read is using your own imagination to visualise the characters, locations and situations as they are described by the writer.
No two readers will read the same book and end up giving an identical description of what the characters, location etc look like.
Reading a book jacket/the first few pages, a synopsis or short extract is normally enough information for true reader/book lover to decide if they want to read the whole book or not.
If you need to watch a video clip to decide whether to read a book or not, you might as well just wait for the film adaptation (or film tie-in). There is no need to use your own imagination whilst reading the book as you have already been shown how the characters / locations appear in somebody else’s imagination (ie: the author, director).
Look forward to reading the book (without viewing the book trailer)
Cheers,
Steph
Queensland, Australia
PS – blame Karen Tyrell for leading me to your page!
Thanks Lane,
It was a lot of fun and the responses have been amazing!!
And to Steph,
We all have different points of view and I welcome your thoughts and comments. Though I concur with you that an author must encourage his/her readers to use their imagination to visualize the characters locations and situations, I also firmly believe that we live in a very different society than past generations. Life is fast paced and technology oriented. I have no idea how old you are, but I do know that my story reaches out to a wide age range. It crosses race, gender and economical and social status as well. I’d think myself naive to believe that everyone responds the same way and so my trailer is my way to reach vast audience. Most everyone I know is constantly busy with their fast paced lives. Sadly, many don’t even have the time to sit back and enjoy reading for pleasure anymore, and technology is the future. So I believe that in addition to the wonderful old traditional method of holding a book in your hand and visualizing far away places in the corners of your mind, that audio books, e-readers, and book trailers are a big part of the world and direction of the future.
I’m glad you plan to read my book I truly hope you enjoy it. But as my mother always used to say, variety is the spice of life, and that’s why ice cream comes in lots of flavors.
Thanks for taking the time to comment.
Casi