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Wall Street Journal
Watch This Book In bid to boost sales, authors try viral videos; Plugging a novel on roller skates
By LAUREN MECHLING
June 7, 2008;
Page W1
Meg Cabot, best-selling author of "The Princess Diaries," regularly posts videos of herself online performing puppet shows with Barbie and Madame Alexander dolls. Jodi Picoult, author of another best-seller, "Nineteen Minutes," stars in home-movie style videos that show her hanging out with her family and shopping for groceries. Chuck Palahniuk, known for edgy novels like "Fight Club," has staged a video interview with the fictional main character of his new book.
In a book industry flooded with titles and facing sluggish sales, a growing number of authors are going to dramatic lengths to attract attention. The latest tactic: producing and starring in zany videos aimed at the YouTube audience.
Publishing houses strongly encourage the practice, though some authors find the videos undignified. Thriller writer Vince Flynn says he felt "like a dork" when he recently recorded a book trailer in Central Park. "I know a lot of old-school writers resent it," says Paul Aiken, executive director of the Authors Guild. "But it might help sell books."
David Wellington, author of vampire novel "Thirteen Bullets," speaks to WSJ's Lauren Mechling about how he created a short film to promote his book.
Some authors and publishers have even recruited star power for the videos. Oscar-nominated filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón ("Children of Men") agreed to direct the trailer for his friend Naomi Klein's latest book, "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism," for a few thousand dollars, part of the promotion budget that her publisher, Penguin UK, had put aside for the book. The arresting seven-minute-long film, which uses archival footage and original animation, doubles as an ad for Ms. Klein's book and a cry against trickle-down economics. Mike Vogel, a star of the horror movie "Cloverfield," appeared in one of four trailers made for the chick-lit title "Celebutantes" by Amanda Goldberg and Ruthanna Khalighi Hopper.
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.
"In some cases, we don't even expect it to increase sales at all," says Carolyn K. Reidy, president and CEO of Simon & Schuster, which has doubled its investment in video content since it started making trailers last year. "It's almost a gift to the audience, and hopefully it makes them buy the next book." Industrywide, book sales rose slightly to nearly $28 billion last year, but sales growth has been slow in recent years.
READY FOR THEIR CLOSE-UPS
From mock interviews to puppet shows, four authors take different approaches to the book trailer.
Jodi Picoult The author of 'Nineteen Minutes' makes trailers that resemble
home movies, showing her everyday life.
Chuck Palahniuk For his latest trailer, the author performed a mock
interview with the protagonist of his new novel, 'Snuff.'
Meg Cabot The 'Princess Diaries' creator uploads videos of herself
performing puppet shows with dolls.
Naomi Klein Oscar-nominated director Alfonso Cuarón made the trailer
for Ms. Klein's book 'The Shock Doctrine.'
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.
An industry is springing up to support the video boom. Circle of Seven Productions, a Brentwood, Calif.-based production company specializing in book trailers, had more than 100 clients last year, up from about a dozen in 2005. TurnHere, a two-year-old Emeryville, Calif.-based production company, has deals with Simon & Schuster, Penguin Group, Hachette and Chronicle Books. And HarperCollins has cut out the middleman; the publisher just built a book-trailer studio in its offices and says it hopes to churn out 500 author videos this year. (HarperCollins is a unit of News Corp., which also owns Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal.)
In March, the Barnes & Noble Web site launched "B and N Studio," a channel devoted to book trailers and original book-related content, like "Book Obsessed," a documentary series that focuses on book fanatics and the "Meet the Writers" author-interview series. In the fall of 2006, Borders began aggressively filling its Web site with "book entertainment" and now features everything from a library of regular book trailers to red-carpet reports from premieres of adaptations like "Atonement" and "The Other Boleyn Girl."
There are a few cases where the gamble has paid off. Last year, Harper Perennial created three videos to promote "The Average American Male," a novel about an unnamed man in his late 20s who plays videogames and holds his "annoying girlfriend" in contempt. The trio of videos, meant to offer a window into what gallant-seeming men are supposedly "really thinking," has garnered several hundred thousand views on YouTube, plus more on MySpace and other sites. The book has sold about 25,000 copies to date, according to Nielsen BookScan.
Mr. Cuarón's trailer for Ms. Klein's "Shock Doctrine" broke the half-million mark and the book has sold 89,000 copies, according to Nielsen BookScan. But it's far more typical for a book trailer to attract a few hundred views, and even those that capture viewers don't necessarily soar to the best-seller lists.
Some authors are working in reverse order, creating book trailers before they secure book deals. Doug Levitt, a Los Angeles songwriter who says he finds his material while riding the Greyhound bus, has produced two videos showcasing his yet-to-be-signed book project, "Greyhound Diaries," which he has self-published.
Making a promotional video can involve sacrificing some personal dignity. Marc Acito, a 42-year-old writer from Portland, Ore., recently roller-skated around Central Park for about an hour, describing his new book, "Attack of the Theater People" to a videographer. Suddenly, he lost control and went flying down a hill, where he bounced off a tree, let out a pained-sounding "Ow!" and ended up splayed in a pool of mud. Undeterred, Mr. Acito picked himself up and kept talking about his novel. "Words were coming out of my mouth," he recalls, "but in my mind I was thinking, 'This is what you have to do to sell a book.' "
Write to Lauren Mechling at lauren.mechling@wsj.com
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