Pamela Paul in the New York Times article Author Takes a Star Turn makes a good point about teens: as this audience matures, so may the book trailer come into it's own. In fact, YA lit may be the current best fit for the book trailer, since that audience is already largely internet-savvy and more likely to be online to view the trailers in the first place.
Still, to appeal to teens (or anyone else, for that matter) and be useful readers' advisory tools, book trailers need to be more polished than a slap-dash of stock footage. They don't have to be super-shiny or have high production costs - but they need to present a relevant and interesting visual element that enhances the future reading experience. The trailer for Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children was spooky and a great lead-in to the book. I also really enjoyed this Shatter Me trailer:
It doesn't have as many visuals as the one for Miss Peregrine's, but the music was exciting and the message was powerful. Plus, it ends just before a kiss - what a cliffhanger!
Then there's the conundrum of how to get readers to view book trailers. Just putting something on the internet does not guarantee an audience. If your readers have to seek out a book trailer, it will almost certainly be ineffective. I've watched a few on Amazon.com, since (if they exist) they are commonly placed right on the buying page (albeit buried under the cover and customer images). I've also seen a book trailer on a DVD, right in with the movie trailers. It was slick and exciting enough to compete with the movies before and after it, though unfortunately I cannot remember what book it was for... (so was it really that effective??).
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