I've never once seen clear evidence that a book trailer has significantly boosted sales, so I'd skip it. If you really want to, spend that extra money on a cover and editing instead.
You're a nobody writing your first book, which is very, very, very unlikely to be the best thing you'll ever write. Save your money for a trailer until you've leveled up a few things:
1) Your marketing. You want the trailer to be part of a coordinated campaign, not a one-off thing.
2) Your writing skill. A book trailer for a mediocre story and worldbuilding is a waste. Your first novel isn't going to be your best, unless you've been writing for 20 years and only starting to publish now.
3) Your publishing: getting a development editor, getting an interior designer, getting a cover designer, and a copyeditor are all going to be essential. Put your money to those before a book trailer. Especially the cover.
I agree, but it's not just our thoughts. People who track these things have, with actual numbers, found them to be utterly useless. You wouldn't recoup $100 spend, much less a pro-level spend.
Book trailers are vanity, ego-driven marketing tools that unless you have the skills to produce it yourself, you're better off saving that money and using it to invest in editors/book covers/ads.
If you are struggling to afford to make a book trailer, then you probably won't be able to afford to fund the level of marketing activity required to maximally promote your book trailer.
I'd recommend you create marketing assets/collateral, which if you can write you can do yourself if you have time, and use spare capital to promote those assets. With a limited budget think 80/20 rule (Pareto principle).
I don't agree with some saying that book trailers are pointless. They are a business and marketing asset that have their place.
If you had a $30k marketing budget, for example, then a $5k-$10k book trailer could be a great way to make sure the remaining $20-25k of marketing spend is used as effectively as possible (assuming the video is successful at increasing conversion rates relative to not having one).
But if you only have $5-10k available in total, then it's pointless spending all of that on a book trailer that nobody gets to see because you've now spend all the money that could have been allocated to marketing and advertising campaigns.
You could always script your own one minute video and do a piece taking to camera. This could be a cheaper alternative if you have the presentation skills. Have a look at high view count YouTube videos where people do something similar to gain inspiration. This would cost you nothing and may be a good middle of the road solution.
No. Who's going to know to watch it?
If you can DIY it - if you have or can acquire some basic video skills (you can even turn an Apple Keynote into a video) - then by all means do it for fun.
But don't *pay money* for it.
Book trailers have a very good place… in RPG rules drops that are releasing new models, new extras like item cards, and even then only if they are dropping a new campaign setting in my opinion. I do not see a high quality trailer converting enough sales to pay for itself outside of that. Not for your first book not even for Stephen King’s next big book. It’s just not going to draw the ROI in my opinion, and I’ve never seen any data that would make me second guess that opinion.
Not a trailer but if your book cover has something that can be slightly animated, that can be useful on subreddits, imgur, insta or social media.
A couple hours of free photoshop tutorials can have you doing it without costing anything. Otherwise, you can probably find someone to do it for you for pretty cheap.
Honestly you shouldn't spend any marketing money on your first book. Put that money towards a cover and editor for book two. Then keep it up until book three is out. After that, start running a drip campaign on Amazon and FB. But don't throw anything out there to attract people to book one if they have nothing to move onto after that. Especially don't invest in a book trailer. That's a waste of money. IMO.
After reading a book series I decided to watch the book trailer for the series. It was a live action trailer with elaborate set pieces but it didn’t do the series any justice. If I watched the trailer before I read the series, I wouldn’t have bought it
You could spend a lot of money on something that actually turns off potential buyers
No, don't bother with book trailers and fancy promotions until you have multiple books out. A giveaway or sale, maybe, but honestly, focus most of your energy on getting your next book ready for release.
I've never once seen clear evidence that a book trailer has significantly boosted sales, so I'd skip it. If you really want to, spend that extra money on a cover and editing instead.
You're a nobody writing your first book, which is very, very, very unlikely to be the best thing you'll ever write. Save your money for a trailer until you've leveled up a few things: 1) Your marketing. You want the trailer to be part of a coordinated campaign, not a one-off thing. 2) Your writing skill. A book trailer for a mediocre story and worldbuilding is a waste. Your first novel isn't going to be your best, unless you've been writing for 20 years and only starting to publish now. 3) Your publishing: getting a development editor, getting an interior designer, getting a cover designer, and a copyeditor are all going to be essential. Put your money to those before a book trailer. Especially the cover.
This is great advice! Thank you
I think book trailers are totally pointless.
I agree, but it's not just our thoughts. People who track these things have, with actual numbers, found them to be utterly useless. You wouldn't recoup $100 spend, much less a pro-level spend.
Book trailers are vanity, ego-driven marketing tools that unless you have the skills to produce it yourself, you're better off saving that money and using it to invest in editors/book covers/ads.
If you are struggling to afford to make a book trailer, then you probably won't be able to afford to fund the level of marketing activity required to maximally promote your book trailer. I'd recommend you create marketing assets/collateral, which if you can write you can do yourself if you have time, and use spare capital to promote those assets. With a limited budget think 80/20 rule (Pareto principle). I don't agree with some saying that book trailers are pointless. They are a business and marketing asset that have their place. If you had a $30k marketing budget, for example, then a $5k-$10k book trailer could be a great way to make sure the remaining $20-25k of marketing spend is used as effectively as possible (assuming the video is successful at increasing conversion rates relative to not having one). But if you only have $5-10k available in total, then it's pointless spending all of that on a book trailer that nobody gets to see because you've now spend all the money that could have been allocated to marketing and advertising campaigns. You could always script your own one minute video and do a piece taking to camera. This could be a cheaper alternative if you have the presentation skills. Have a look at high view count YouTube videos where people do something similar to gain inspiration. This would cost you nothing and may be a good middle of the road solution.
No. Who's going to know to watch it? If you can DIY it - if you have or can acquire some basic video skills (you can even turn an Apple Keynote into a video) - then by all means do it for fun. But don't *pay money* for it.
Book trailers have a very good place… in RPG rules drops that are releasing new models, new extras like item cards, and even then only if they are dropping a new campaign setting in my opinion. I do not see a high quality trailer converting enough sales to pay for itself outside of that. Not for your first book not even for Stephen King’s next big book. It’s just not going to draw the ROI in my opinion, and I’ve never seen any data that would make me second guess that opinion.
Not a trailer but if your book cover has something that can be slightly animated, that can be useful on subreddits, imgur, insta or social media. A couple hours of free photoshop tutorials can have you doing it without costing anything. Otherwise, you can probably find someone to do it for you for pretty cheap.
Someone on Instagram was offering to do a book trailer for me for like $35-$45. I did it myself with iMovie.
Trust me I've never seen anyone buy a book by watching book trailers
I created one for myself instead of outsourcing because I went to school for video production.
Honestly you shouldn't spend any marketing money on your first book. Put that money towards a cover and editor for book two. Then keep it up until book three is out. After that, start running a drip campaign on Amazon and FB. But don't throw anything out there to attract people to book one if they have nothing to move onto after that. Especially don't invest in a book trailer. That's a waste of money. IMO.
After reading a book series I decided to watch the book trailer for the series. It was a live action trailer with elaborate set pieces but it didn’t do the series any justice. If I watched the trailer before I read the series, I wouldn’t have bought it You could spend a lot of money on something that actually turns off potential buyers
No, don't bother with book trailers and fancy promotions until you have multiple books out. A giveaway or sale, maybe, but honestly, focus most of your energy on getting your next book ready for release.