Jessica Stover put together a trailer for her book, which I keep telling you all is good and no-one has purchaed (shame!). Here is her preview. And by the way, I'm not sure if it is YouTube or what, but the sound seems a little out of sync. It is much better direct from her web site.
NYC
4 comments:
Well, partial success on your part. By posting it here, I actually watched it versus not being motivated enough to click the link the first time you mentioned it.
So, what did you think? Did you find it humorous?
You want an honest review? I can do that, but try not to get offended by what I say.
I finished the video still not really knowing what book is actually about. I think the skit itself had it's moments. There were probably a few too many 'inside' jokes. Let's be frank here, people that are fans and get the inside jokes have more than likely already bought the book (I merely have to point to you as my example). The video should have been more accessible to the general public audience.
Along those same lines, it comes across as being elitest to an extent. Insulting your potential audience in the video by saying they only want to buy from XYZ publishers isn't the samrtest way to drum up sales. It's sort of like saying "Hey you, you're a stupid blind lemming following the corporate controlled agenda unless you buy this." Yes, that's an extreme exaggeration, but you get the point. It's not necessarily that what is being said is wrong, it's the spin on how it comes across to the uninitiated viewer. It probably would have been better to try and use phrasing that would portray the publishers as evil and controlling by not making certain works become available to the general public. Then you cross over from "you're stupid for following the corporate agenda" to "they're trying to control what you read". The latter will garner a lot more support.
Not saying there weren't some amusing points in the video (although I'm hard pressed to recall what they were only 24 hours later, so they weren't overly memorable, although I do distinctly recall the "Closed" sign over the libary sign), but I still feel if your going to publicize your work, the trailer should be about the work, and not the environment that produced the work. Otherwise the general populace isn't going to make the connection or be inspired to purchase the book.
Anyway, that's just my opinion.
Well, I'm not offended because I didn't have a hand in the video.
She did post it to her site first, and really only to YouTube after multiple requests, so it was targeted to her fans and not the general public, so I agree that it was not really designed to attract the random person.
And I think she is right about people being blind lemmings. Look how many people saw Da Vinci Code even after the horrible reviews.
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