Book trailers and interactive visual media are become more and more popular with the increasing rise of the internet and digital platforms. Today, people do not necessarily have the patience to download and read book excerpts from publishers and authors. People want to know what something is about as quickly as possible. If it is told in a beautifully visual way, then that is even better.
Even though we read books to immerse ourselves in our own imaginations, book trailers are a helpful way to guide us to a book’s visual center. Book trailers can set the initial tone of a book, or even provide settings for books with complicated and complex worlds. Book trailers are also a great way to put many positive quotes about a book in one convenient place. Just add an appropriate song or soundtrack and you have yourself a book trailer.
Book trailers are great for using on social media as well. Instead of sharing a lengthy excerpt, readers can share the video. Their friends simply have to scroll down their social media news feed and hit play. What if there was one convenient place where readers could watch many book trailers? Introducing BookReels!
According to Publishers Weekly, BookReels is “a dedicated interactive website that allows publishers and authors to post multimedia visuals ranging from animated book covers to trailers…” Dan Rosen, founder and CEO of BookReels said,”What MTV did for music videos and record sales, BookReels wants to do for book trailers and book sales.” The website has over twenty book categories. Young adult fiction is the most popular and features hundreds of trailers, author interviews, and live readings. Adult fiction is the second most popular category.
The website also offers ways for members to connect and share their thoughts about the books. Users can rate trailers, post comments and reviews, join discussion groups, and share BookReel discoveries through a variety of social media sites. On the Recommend a Reel page, members can also submit their own book-related videos.
Will BookReels become an effective method of visually marketing books? The ease of having many trailers in one place should definitely reduce some of the headache. However, my only wish is that the categories were better organized, including a way to sort the categories by popularity, etc. Nonetheless, BookReels is quite an interesting tool!