The Wall Street Journal took a look at book trailers. “There is scant evidence, however, that the average book trailer actually has much impact on book sales. Despite Doubleday's recent video upload for the self-help book "We Plan, God Laughs," by Sherre Hirsch, the book has sold only about 3,000 copies, according to Nielsen BookScan, which tracks about 70% of U.S. book sales. And even though Jami Attenberg's trailer for her novel "The Kept Man" is reminiscent of Miranda July's short films, only 3,000 copies of Ms. Attenberg's recent book have sold. Most trailers cost about $2,000 to produce.”
There’s a flipside, too: “Jen Lancaster's publicist suggested that she film a trailer to promote her latest memoir "Such a Pretty Fat," which could be sent out to television producers. The trailer, which shows the Chicago author wearing gym clothes and collapsing on her face during a personal training session, seems to have paid off: Her publicist was able to use it to book morning-show appearances for every stop on her 14-city book tour.” [Full disclosure: the difference here might be that it is so much easier to get media coverage for non-fiction than for fiction.]
Read more here.
