Results of the poll ‘Are book trailers worth it?’ #indieauthors #writers

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Last week I ran a poll to see if it was worth my time and money investing in a book trailer (original post). As promised here are the results.

40% stated it’s a waste of time.

40% stated they would consider buying a book if it had a good trailer.

20% voted other – (waste of money, don’t know what a book trailer is)

0% have sold books because of a book trailer

0% find books to buy that way.

I’ve had some interesting comments from other bloggers who mention other options available to people wanting to make their own trailer. As well as Fiver, there is iMovie, moviemaker and an Animoto app. I’ll be looking into these in more detail when I get the chance.

I still haven’t decided whether to go ahead with the trailer idea. And if I do, will I make the trailer myself or pay for a trailer to be made for me. It’s an extra marketing tool, but there’s still no saying it will encourage people to buy the book.

I like the idea of having a trailer to add to my Amazon page and post on YouTube. Plus there’s the option to get people to watch the trailer for entry into Rafflecopter and Amazon giveaways. These would be great for the trailer’s exposure, but yet more expense.

As one blogger said; ‘While I’ve watched a few book trailers out of sheer curiosity, I’ve never *wanted* to see one. They don’t tell me anything the blurb doesn’t tell me, and I have other things I’d rather watch.’ Lilyn G of Sci-fi & Scary.

So, after this little experiment, I remain undecided.

My thanks to those who took part in the poll, and to those who’ve taken an interest in the post.

Have you anything to add to the discussion? Has this poll encouraged or discouraged you to make or pay for your own trailer?

22 thoughts on “Results of the poll ‘Are book trailers worth it?’ #indieauthors #writers”

  2. I like the idea of having book trailers. As you say, it is another marketing tool, and possibly the way forward. Everything will be more visual in the future they say, and you can’t get more visual than a trailer!

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  3. I think book trailers are like any marketing tool, they may not directly lead to sales, but they encourage people to learn more about your book and get word out about it. The more you can do that and the more familiar people become with your name and your book’s name the more likely they will be to buy it when presented with it in a store be that in real life or online. You always have to remember with things like book trailers that they are marketing tools not sales tools.

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  6. I have to say that personally I don’t tend to watch them before I read a book because I prefer to create my own image for the character, instead of whatever person has been featured in the trailer, sometimes I find it hard not to let that imagery interfere slightly. Having said that I have watched a few after reading it, just out of curiosity, if I happen across them. Fantasy ones are interesting viewing because everyone has their own take on it and it’s not so set in stone, if you were to do it I would be intrigued to see what you come up with.
    🙂

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  8. Honestly trailers have never done it for me with books. While I like watching trailers for movies or shows, a book touches more senses than the sound and visual that film and tv does. I don’t want to make it sound all negative but the reason I am not a fan of book trailers is that to me books are completely your imagination, I don’t like even seeing the setting or anything in a trailer as it will blur my own imagination when reading. It might sound sill but that’s my opinion. I much prefer to look at the picture of the book, read blurb or other peoples no spoiler reviews. The blurb usually does it for me along with an interesting image :).
    Having said all this though, I did find a humorous trailer worth watching with one book that was a mild fantasy. It sort of poked fun of the book and that made me interested, so maybe I do like book trailers, I’ve just seen a lot of bad ones :p lol

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  9. Ah, a shame a clear answer didn’t emerge! I voted myself (waste of time) but then I don’t watch film trailers either, so maybe I’m not representative. I like the idea of making one, but just for the fun. I wouldn’t expect anything from it.

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  10. I’m sorry I didn’t see your poll earlier, but these are my thoughts on book trailers. I don’t believe that trailers in themselves will persuade a person to purchase a book, however, I still think there is value in them as a marketing tool because they contribute to increasing awareness of a book.

    As for how many potential readers a trailer ultimately reaches I suspect that genre is a determining factor. The overwhelming majority of book trailers I have seen have been for YA books, and I doubt the publishers of these titles would go to the effort of producing them if they had no effect, whatsoever.

    While a book trailer may not have a positive impact on sales, I see no reason why they would have a detrimental impact either, despite generally being rather amateurish looking. But if and when someone succeeds in making a trailer good enough to go viral we may see their importance increase. Until then hype and good reviews are what sell books.

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