Book Trailers: Awkward Authors or Works of Art?

Book trailers have been around for almost ten years now, but they don't seem to create the amount of 'buzz' they are supposed to. This isn't stopping the publishers, though, as we see more and more book trailers popping up on the internet.

If you compare these book trailers to the ones we see in the cinema, you start to wonder why authors and publishers still even try. Creating a trailer for a film seems easy enough. You try to pique the interest of the viewer by showing them the most interesting parts of the story, by using the most visually attractive images you can have in your movie. You can't do this with a book, because there are no images. You will need to start from scratch and create a visual world for a textual medium, and as we all know from various movie adaptations, this doesn't always get it right. Before I wrote this article it seemed wise to research the subject and watch as many book trailers I could find. I learned that book trailers are no exception to the adaptation rule. A good example of this is the book trailer for Joseph Finder's Power Play, which makes the book look like a corporate version of Die Hard without the great one liners by Bruce Willis.

Instead of making me interested in reading this book it actually turned me off of it. Mind you, this was not a book trailer for a vanity writer who thought it would be 'fun' to also produce a trailer with his friends. Finder has written eleven novels, won several International Thriller Awards and is frequently reviewed in the New York Times. I'll admit that the New York Times isn't the penultimate authority when it comes the quality of books and their review of this particular one wasn't exactly raving, but it does mean that Joseph Finder is a serious writer, with serious writing credit.

Luckily there are also a lot of fun, interesting and above all good book trailers. An example I personally like is Packing for Mars: SpaceHygiene, a book by Mary Roach that tries to answer strange questions about going into space.

This trailer is quirky, funny and gives you a sense of the content of the book without giving away the entire story. Because Packing for Mars is a non-fiction work, not giving away the story doesn't seem particularly hard. When you create a trailer for a novel, however, this gets more difficult. A trailer shouldn't give you the feeling that you already know how the story is going to unfold. If that is the case, why would you need to read the book? An example of a trailer for a work of fiction that doesn't do this, is the trailer for A Super Sad True Love Story.

Instead of focusing on the story, it focuses on the author. They briefly explain what the book is about, but nothing is given away. Instead of conveying a story, it conveys an overall feeling that you can expect to find in the book. It conveys the style of the author, stating that if you enjoyed this trailer, you will enjoy this writer. Besides the funny tone of the trailer, it also uses so-called 'star power' by inserting famous actors and authors like James Franco and Jeffrey Eugenides, proving that even the literary world isn't impervious to using celebrities for advertisement. These author-oriented trailers don't always work as well as this one though and sometimes you end up with the author awkwardly talking about his book and the act of reading (yes, I'm talking about you Jonathan Franzen)

There are many more examples of good and bad trailers, but the ultimate question from a marketing point of view is in the end, do they work? Is it worth it for a publisher to spent his valuable time and money on a book trailer? This question doesn't have an easy answer. With every marketing tool it is difficult to point out if it actually influences sales or not if your customers don't specifically tell you. The only way to find out if they actually work is to ask every single person who buys a book if they saw the trailer and if this was the reason they bought it.

In 2008 The Wall Street Journal has tried to assess the effect of creating trailers on book sales. They came to the conclusion that 'there is scant evidence […] that the average book trailer has much impact on sales'. There haven't been more recent studies on this, which is a shame, because it would be interesting to see if this changed in the growing world of e-books.

Many publishers keep returning to the keywords 'creating a buzz'. The objective is to make people talk about the book and recognize it when they're browsing their bookshop. I said at the start though, that this 'buzz' doesn't really seem to exist. Many people haven't even heard of book-trailers and if they have, they don't seem to notice them.

An interesting take on book trailers comes from filmmakers Scott Thrift and Ari Kuschnir. Rather than seeing the trailer as a way to market a book, they approach it as a work of art on its own. Something to be a companion to the book, rather than a mere representation of it. Their own attempt at making a trailer for the supernatural thriller Blood and Ice is actually very impressive. 

It gives a small hint of what the story is about, but it mostly creates an eerie atmosphere. The clip is intriguing even if you even you don't know it's about a book. After watching many trailers I have to admit that I agree with them. My favourite trailers are the ones that don't give away the story, but create an extra dimension. They give an impression of the author and of the general atmosphere of the book. A trailer that is an artwork of its own, something remarkable and interesting, will definitely create that 'buzz' everybody keeps talking about.

Talking Cacti and Pet Wolves

Just a very fast, very short post today. I’ve been working on my thesis this entire weekend, instead of eating Easter eggs and visiting Ikea. I actually should be working on it right now, but I really needed a break. Besides writing this post in my tiny breaks, I’ve been reading the webcomic Girls With Slingshots. It’s a comic by Danielle Corsetto about two friends called Hazel and Jamie. They like to drink and talk to their plants. So if you feel bored or you’re just procrastinating like I am, go read some comics.

If this doesn't make you interested, I don't know what will...

I’ve also seen the first two episodes of Game of Thrones and I think it looks pretty cool. I have no clue what the books are about and hadn’t even heard of the series before it became such a hype, but I kinda like it! I also really want a direwolf as a pet now, they make it seem awesome! My boyfriend tells me it’s not possible, but a girl needs to have her dreams.

Aren't they just adorable?

I’ll be off to working on this schoolstuff some more and on a bigger post about a cool book I’ve read recently. We’ll be back to normal posting as soon as possible.

Awkward Dancing Improves Your Indie Cred

This Saturday me and my boyfriend went to the festival Motel Mozaique. It’s a cultural festival where known and unknown bands, art, theater and food come together.

I mostly went for Belle and Sebastian and next to José Gonzales, it was the only thing I saw that night, but it was enough! I was a bit of a late bloomer when it comes to Belle and Sebastian and only learned about them when I saw their video of Funny Little Frog (my indie cred just flew out of the window). But it was love at first site and after listening to all their albums, waiting for their newest one and even owning a calendar, it was time to see them live.

They only play one show in Holland this entire year, and I was there! It was a fun, crazy show, unlike any other I’ve seen so far. There was a lot of awkward dancing, awkward audience people and more awkward conversation. I’ve never seen this much awkwardness in one room! They pulled people on stage to dance with them, which was great fun. I forget my camera, so I couldn’t take any pictures and I still can’t find any video’s of the dancing online. So too bad, but I can’t show it to you! I really liked Chris Geddes and his piano, he looked nice and geeky in the background, but sounded really cool playing all his music. Stuart Murdoch was also being a great frontman, wearing a cool hat and suddenly appearing in the midst of the audience to do some more singing and to shake some hands. He even put on some mascara, especially for us! They are a very interesting and energetic band, which isn’t always the case with indie music.  Because it had been a while since they visited Rotterdam, or Holland for that matter, they played some oldies next to their new album. My favourite album is The Life Pursuit (any indie cred I had left is now gone altogether) and I was really happy they played Sukie in the Graveyard, which is such a fun and upbeat song.

I did find two other video’s so you can also enjoy some of it. I especially like the second one because Stevie Jackson was making fun of our musical talent. Have a look and if you get the chance to see the, definitely go there! And if you can’t go see them, just listen to some of their albums, or all of their albums. I promise they will put a smile on your face.

Kidnapping ideas 3: The Oh Comely Art Edition

First of all I feel like I need to apologize for the lack of updates lately. We’ve all been pretty busy and blogging sort of drew the shortest straw. We’ll off course try to update every week, but we might not always make it. That said, I was waiting to make a new kidnapping ideas post, because I had bought many new magazines. But again, due to too little hours in a day, I still haven’t read all of them. What I’ll do is make a bunch of shorter posts about 1 magazine in particular every time. This time it will be issue five of Oh Comely. It had so many great things again, but there were two art things that I thought were really cool!

Birds in Hats

Alice Tam was interviewed by Oh Comely about her website Birds in Hats, which is exactly what it sounds like: she draws birds in hats and they are awesome! She doesn’t go for the obvious combinations and really gives the birds a personality. One of my personal favorites is the Flamingo in a Fascinator, but she drew so many that you can pick a favorite for yourself!

Flamingo in a Fascinator

Robin in a Christmas Top Hat

England Revisited

This article/interview was about an art project by Simon English called England Revisited. In 1971 he visited 75 points across England picked carefully by writing the word ENGLAND on a map of the country. He met interesting people, found relatively unknown country spots and left notes on every mark. But 40 years later, he found himself wanting to revisited the places he had been. He took pictures, trying the find the original places he went to the first time around, which really makes you think about change. It’s interesting to see how much or how little some things change in such a big amount of time. All the pictures and video’s from his trip can be found on his website and you won’t regret taking a look. If I ever make an art work I want it to be something big and impressive like this. 

Point 16 in 1971

Point 16 in 2010

Point 33 in 1971

Point 33 in 2010

Travelling Notebooks

Besides the above art, Oh Comely also tried to make a work of their own by handing out 35 notebooks to strangers and asking them to write in them, pass them on to others and sending them back when they are full. Only two notebooks came back, which was really disappointing. I thought the idea was so great and if they want to try it again, we’ll participate and make sure the notebook will be sent on.

Comiques

In non-oh Comely related artwork: I also found a cool comic that I want to share! It’s a comic made by Anne Emond, who is a writer, illustrator and drawer of comics from Brooklyn. Her comics are mostly about herself and other people looking ridiculous, but to me they are mostly very recognizable, funny and awesome!

Frankie goes to Wayward

As said in the last post, I bought my very first issue of Frankie Magazine at Restored in Amsterdam. I found it through a guest post on Pamflet and just knew I needed to buy it!

Frankie Magazine has a really cool vibe. It uses great thick paper, amazing soft colours and is filled with great articles, shopping tit bits and good looking fashion. And next to the nice interviews they also give you tips on how to recognize vintage chairs and what to do with your spice rack or how to reuse random things lying around the house. It also comes with a pretty calendar! There are a lot of things that I liked about the magazine, but it’s just too much to write about! So I’ll only tell you about some of my favourites.

The first one is a column by Rowena Grant-Frost about her childhood dog that died recently. It was heartwarming, funny and also really sad. Anyone that has ever had a childhood pet can read it and understand how she feels.

The second article is also by Rowena (I guess I already picked a favourite), which gives you biggish ideas for small talk. She lists 15 ideas to keep a conversation going. Some of my favourites:

2. If the world depended on you sexually reproducing with Simply Red or Kenny G., who would you choose? I would choose to watch the world be consumed by a fiery fountain of lava and obsidian. But I am very selfish.

I had to look up who Kenny G. was, but I completely agree with her. Let the world burn while I watch with my dignity still intact.

11. Would you rather suckle on a monkey, or have a monkey suckle on you? The answer seems obvious, right? Who the heck would want a monkey nipple in their mouth? Well, you’d be surprised.

This one was tough! I also went for suckling a monkey right away, but they both have their downsides...

12. When was the last time you vomited? Vomiting is a rich topic for conversation. There is context to appreciate, circumstances to explain and colour and texture to describe in great detail.

I absolutely hate vomiting, but I love the stories that other people tell me about it!

14. What was the last book you finished? An unacceptable answer is: ‘I don’t read.’ If you hear this, you should shimmy towards the closest exit and get away from these people. They cannot be your friend.

Lotte and I encountered someone on work who gave us a similar answer and our response was the same. If you don’t read, there is no way we can be friends.

They also featured an article about being cool. Four writers tell their concept of cool: what it is, where it comes from, and whether we care. I really liked reading what different types of people think about what it means to be cool and what they think is cool. Caro Cooper was the last one to write a column and I really appreciated her enthusiasm in the first paragraph, when she thinks she can write about what is cool right now instead of the concept itself. The overall concensus for me was that real cool is very relative and you shouldn’t give a shit about what other people think.

I wanted to pick a third by Rowena, but I’m already acting like a crazy fangirl, so ‘ll go with 30 days from Justin Heazlewood, who’s an Australian comedian, author, actor and songwriter (busy much!) The article is about a challenge one of his friends gave him. He couldn’t say anything negative or bitch about anyone for 30 days. He writes about some of the days and how difficult it was to not bitch, and how often he did do it. I don’t think I could ever win this challenge and especially not under the circumstances he had to do this. And even though he doesn’t make the challenge, it still worked out fine in the end.

To show you what the article was like, I picked my favourite day as an example.
Day 25: Honestly, I’d stop bitching if bands ould stop being boring. Life is spent in a cocoon of loner superiority. You are above everything- never participating fully. Guarded, defensive, skeptical. It’d be kind of cool if it made you happy. I had a dream last night that I got really angry at my best friend Josh Earl. I was shouting at him about all kinds of things. He’s a performer as well. I think I’ve managed to fail this challenge on a subconscious level. That makes me feel better.

An illustrated Justin Heazlewood

I think Frankie is a great magazine and I would love to read it more often, but I do also think it is too expensive in Holland. One issue will set me back 20 euro's, which is very mean, because an issue in Australia costs only 9 dollars. If it is something you can afford, I urge you to get it, but I don't think I'll buy every issue that comes available. Maybe I should just reconsider my finances... who needs to eat anyways?

A week in the zoo: Monki Party and Swan Market

This Wednesday Lotte and I went to Amsterdam for the Monki Party. They were having a party to showcase their spring/summer 2011 collection and everyone was getting a 20% discount on everything! We decided to spend the entire day in Amsterdam and went to Restored to buy Frankie Magazine, which is a great magazine, but I’ll write more about it when I finish it. 

Lotte also bought Russh, another Australian magazine, at Athaeneum Newscentre (this is the best place to get magazines anywhere in Holland) and she bought really sweet smelling chocolate tea at Tea Bar, which is apparently delicious and even available online!

The Monki party was pretty fun. They had champagne, pink champagne, beer and non alcoholic drinks. There were two very female dj’s with very awesome moustaches and lots and lots of people. I’ve never seen a store that busy. We had to stand in line to try on the big stack of clothing for about half an hour and also had to wait the same amount of time to pay for them. But the 20% discount was worth it and we both bought some nice new items! I think it’s a really cool idea to have a party for the new collection and I hope they’ll do this again for autumn/winter.

Back in Rotterdam we went to the second edition of the Swan market. It was at Rotabs Stylecenter, which is an awesome location. The weather was delightfully sunny and the place was buzzing with people. It was nice, but we did think it was too bad that there weren’t that many new people there. We did off course, take some pictures!

Harmonica Necklace made by VanRox

Filler Inspiration Post

Due to a serious lack of inspiration I won’t be making a real writy post this week. But to still do something this week I decided to post some pictures of awesome things I came across.

First up! Chet Baker Sings.
My boyfriend and two of my friends have been having a jazz/blues fase and it turned me onto Chet Baker. He’s a jazz trumpeter and made this one album called Chet Baker Sings, which is just such a sweet, but cool album. And Chet Baker used to be quite attractive!

Just like most people on the internet, I’ve been looking at the runway pictures of fashion week and there were really cool designs! I’m already on the lookout for a really long wintercoat like the ones at Theyskens Theory. They make you look really cool and careless and I really hope the trend will carry to high street fashion stores. Otherwise I’ll just have to make one myself. That is how much I want it.

I’ve also been in love with Mary Katrantzou’s Autumn/Winter 2011-12 collection. The prints and shapes are amazing. I usually don’t go for really bold prints, but the material she uses and the style just make it work so well.

More fashion related info, I watched My Fair Lady for the first time last week and it was really good. I’m a big sucker for musicals anyways, but it had a great story and really nice outfits. Although I was a bit disappointed by the dress she wore to the gala, but I think my expectations were just a bit too high.

I’ve also watched the entire first season and what is already available of the second season of The Vampire Diaries. I thought it was going to be terrible, and to be honest the first episodes were (Who ever came up with that writing in my diary voice over monologue should be fired) but after that it got really good. It’s less violent and sexy than True Blood, but it’s funnier, has shocking stories and pretty decent characters. And also hot guys!

All the cast pictures look a bit ridicolous, but the show is really good!

The last thing I found through a somewhat old post on the Pamflet Magazine Blog. It’s a Australian Magazine called Frankie and the look reminds me a lot of Oh Comely. I haven’t read it yet, but there is one store in Amsterdam that sells it. I’ll be going there on Wednesday and I’ll let you know if it is as awesome as it looks.

There’s quite a busy week coming up. Lotte and I are going to the Monki Party for their new spring/summer collection on Wednesday, to the Swanmarket on Sunday and I also want to go to Museumnacht on Saturday (It’s a night where all the museums in town are open and host special exhibitions and stuff). So lot’s to do and hopefully more to tell that week!

Young Masters @ Auction

This weekend I went to the Young Masters @ auction at Roodkapje organized by Ongekend. The art auction was organized for relatively unknown artists that were given a place to show off what they can do. It was my very first auction and I was pretty excited! It’s a fast paced, highly competitive business, but only when people are willing to spent some real money off course. The bids on the first couple of artworks went pretty slowly and it sort of seemed like there wasn’t a lot of interest. But soon the bids went up to 600 and 700 euros and money started rolling. The artworks were projected on a screen one by one, when all of a sudden there was a really creepy sound welling up from another room, a low, dark, drone like sound. No one seemed to notice or pay attention to it and I sort of started to freak out a bit. I looked around for impending doom or people suddenly freezing, but nothing of the sort seemed to happen. The noise stopped and I decided I was probably crazy. It's always better to just ignore these things.

There were 45 artists showing their work, and it was kind of a shame not all of them got to sell their work, but as the auctioneer said, people were being very ‘Dutch’ in their bids, which meant most were looking for cheap buys. I was a tiny bit disappointed by this ‘dream small’ mentality of the country I live in, but it was still a really cool concept and lots of people got to show their work. Besides watching the auction, I took some pictures and even found out where the creepy, doomy noise came from!

The Auctioneers

Thijs van Gasteren had brought three installations which all looked very intricate and also reminded me a bit of scary alien sentinels. They were really cool to just stare at and try to figure out what they did and how he made them work.

Nano Microscoop

Personal Computer

I also liked Nurzehra Ulukaya ceramic work, especially the Deer and an artwork called Abeyance, which hung from the ceiling right above the audience.

Untitled (Deer)

Abeyance

Erik Overmeire en Dennis de Bel made two artworks which have their basis in one art discipline that gets translated to another. The one called One Frame is an image which they used as the ‘source’ for a soundfragment, which got printed onto only 4 cd’s. Very arty indeed! Their other work worked the other way around. They used sound to generate the image and made it into a lightobject. The work was put in a half-lit room, which really showed how pretty it was.

One Second

One Frame

Sigrún Gudmundsdóttir, an Icelandic artist who now lives in Rotterdam had brought an installation called Two a Day, which really catered to my organized mind. She also brought a ‘statue’ called By the Dozen, which was a woman covered in empty medicine strips. She looked like a futuristic shiny woman, which is off course a good thing!

Two a Day

By the Dozen (in the back)

Rotganzen, an art collective from Rotterdam, brought a huge fluorescent lollypop with the word hexamethylphosphoramide on it (it’s a mildly toxic liquid). It comes from a series called Gangredine Consumptus.

Hexamethylphosphoramide

What war once was (Pocket edition)

The scary noise I heard apparently came from this big black box made by Daniel Maalman. It’s a soundproof, one-person, completely dark box which gives you a sound experience. The low bassy sounds already frightened me enough, so getting the full experience didn’t seem like a great plan to me, but others told me it was pretty cool and intense.

The Blackbox

When I left to get my coat I was in for one more art-experience. The girls hanging everyone’s coat were from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie concocting a artwork of their own. It was called Coat Check and involved them putting on everyone’s coat and taking a picture of it next to a sign with the person’s name on it. The images were projected and repeated on a screen, but in case you missed them wearing your jacket, they also printed the picture and pinned it to your coat. It was sort of an invasion of privacy, but I thought it was a really fun idea to take something ‘intimate’ and turn it into something public. And it was great that you get a picture of it!

Coat check wearing my coat

As said, I liked the auction and it was a great opportunity for a lot of new artists, but I would love to visit a real auction with really known artists and see how that works. If you know any I could go to, please let me know!

Unlikely Fashion Icon: Jimmy Olsen

Most people know Jimmy Olsen as that goofy kid from Superman wearing a bowtie. As soon as people stopped wearing fancy bows as neckwear, he was made fun off by the comic community and everyone else who laid eyes on him. It’s time to change that! Bowties are awesome and Jimmy Olsen’s getting back into style.

Let’s dive into the history of bowties. According to Wikipedia it originated among Croatian mercenaries during the Prussian Wars of 17^th century. They used a scarf to hold together the opening of their shirts, which they called a cravat. So not actually a bowtie, but that’s where it all started. Soon it was the fashionable thing to do. Later on it became a real choice. While most people switched to the necktie, some made the definitive decision to make the bow their signature look. After looking like that in public, there was no turning back. Some famous bowtie-wearing men of the olden days are Winston Churchill, Pee-wee Herman and Fred Astaire. Nowadays, wearing neckties is as fancy as we get, but there are still some fashionable figures out there who don’t believe that bowties are for old men and clowns.

The most famous one for me is Jimmy Olsen, which is why I picked him as the style icon. He accomplished the adorkable look and turned himself into a style icon for many men who weren’t as tough and muscular as Superman. The geeky guy became a dapper hottie. Although not every ‘reïncarnation’ of Jimmy Olsen has sported the neckwear (they changed his look in the ‘70’s), to most it is still his iconic image.

Looking over a list of bow tie wearers on Wikipedia I’m extremely surprised James Bond isn’t on it. Although he also wears other sorts of neckwear, he still is the most dashing when wearing a big black bowtie. It gives him more charm and style than the British accent and his suave words together.

Other contemporary wearers are fashion designers Alber Elbaz from Lanvin and Karl Lagerfeld. I was so excited to see that the Lanvin loves H&M collaboration included his signature bowtie! Steve Jobs had a bowtie fase in the 80’s and Matt Groening has a tendency to give a lot of his characters awesome neckwear as well. 

 

But there have been two recent characters who’ve really brought it back into style: Doctor Who and Chuck Bass. I mentioned Doctor Who in an earlier post, where he said the following about his appearance:

Doctor: Trust me?

Kazran: Okay...

Doctor: Oi. Eyes on the tie. Look at me. I wear it and I don't care. Trust me?

Kazran: ...Yes.

Doctor: That's why it's cool.

— Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol

Why wear a bowtie? Because they're cool! After the start of the new Doctor Who season, a leading fashion retailer exclaimed that they prompted the sales of bowties! Good news! Not only did he bring back the bowtie, he also made the fez fashionable and will work his magic on the Stetson next season.

Another contemporary dandy is off course Chuck Bass from Gossip Girl. He wears bowties for many occasions and has really brought them back to popular culture. Take a gander on Lookbook and you’ll see lots of boys creating outfits with a bow in the center. But it’s not just men wearing them anymore. Even girls are getting in on the action, and I’m not talking playmates.  Alexa Chung, Rihanna, Diane Kruger, so what’s not to like! Famous people are wearing them, so should you!

I ran into bowties in a second-hand clothing store in Antwerpen. They had this big square bowl filled with colorful bowties. I especially liked the thick velvet kind, so I bought three of them. After that I started to wear them with as many different outfits as possible, but the reactions of most people weren’t as enthusiastic as I thought it would be. They would say, ‘how quaint’ or ‘My, what a big bow you have on’. Even though my new style didn’t catch on as I thought it would, I still think wearing bowties is the best way to look dashing. Next stop: suspenders and a Stetson!