Smart Bitches Trashy Books | All of the romance, none of the bullshit.

What excites you most about the Shomi line?

The fact that these are true hybrids. You’re bringing together two great genres—romance and sci-fi/fantasy in one unique package. As a lover of both, we found it immensely rewarding to have the opportunity to weave together elements from each genre into one novel.

Also, the stories can be complex. We’re not shying away from hardcore sci-fi plotlines here! Anything goes—even stuff that’s a little…well, out there. The stories offer action, adventure, hot sex, maybe even a laser gun fight or two. You’ve got your kick-ass heroine to root for, a hot hero to make your toes curl, and of course a guaranteed HEA.

Can you tell us how Shomi came to be?

Our editor extraordinaire, Chris Keeslar, deserves all the credit. He’s a big sci-fi buff (geek?) himself and has been publishing cross-genre type books for a long time now. For example, he was the one to first publish Susan Grant and her alien romances a while back.

Anyhow, Chris decided he wanted to launch a line of books that would bring a younger audience to the romance section of the bookstore. Giving them a fast paced, action packed sci-fi/cyberpunk tale they could sink their teeth into, while at the same time introducing them to a genre of books they may not have thought of trying before now. 

When Liz and I heard about the new line (we already both wrote for Chris at Dorchester) we naturally jumped at the opportunity. After all, Shomi is a line of books we’d enjoy reading as much as writing. Luckily, Chris liked our proposals and signed us up to do the launch.

The cool thing is I think that while Shomi was idealized as a line that would draw in a younger reader, in reality it has a great appeal to a wide group of readers—young, old, even male! I’ve gotten fan letters from quite a few teenage boys since my book came out a few weeks ago.

What’s your favorite anime?

I’m huge into video gaming, so I really love .hack//sign which is an anime series based on a fictional videogame called The World. I also like Final Fantasy, which started off as a videogame and spawned some anime films. And I grew up watching Voltron!!

Liz is more into reading manga than watching anime. In fact, she’s presently working with the manga publisher Tokyo Pop on a novelization of their Princess Ai manga. 

What’s your favorite hackneyed romance novel device? Come on. ‘Fess up. Amnesia plotlines? Secret babies? Cross-dressing heroines? Cross-dressing heroines with amnesia who give birth to secret babies they completely forget about?

For me, it’s twins. Definitely twins. You know, where the one twin (goodie two-shoes/workaholic/celibate for the last ten years) dresses up as the other twin (wild/tattooed/short-skirt wearing/probably writes for Shomi) to solve the second twin’s murder/kidnapping/disappearance/trouble with vampires. Gets me every time.

Liz goes for the scarred war hero amputee with the tortured soul historical. What could be better than that?

Romance novels get dumped on a lot as being fit only for intellectually lazy women addicted to emotional porn. Anime gets dumped on for being the domain of terminally immature nerds who are way too attached to their Goku wigs. Feel free to wank on at length about the perils and rewards of combining these two sub-genres, and public perceptions vs. the realities of the actual consumers of these two genres.

Personally, I’m sick of all these stereotypes. They’re created by people too lazy to actually interact with the people they label. I get it at both ends. People are like, “OMG, you write ROMANCE?” and in the next breath utter, “OMG, you play VIDEOGAMES?” People can’t accept that I read and write romance because I’m not a (insert romance writer stereotype here) and they can’t accept that I play videogames because I’m not a 13 year old boy. Can’t win, I tell you. Good thing I don’t care what people think and will read, write and play what I want to.

Actually, I feel really sad for urban twenty-somethings who feel pressured to pretend they love whatever the “it” hip, indy, literary novel of the month happens to be, while denying themselves the pleasure they’d get from devouring the latest Harlequin, or whatever, just because they don’t want to be seen reading (shock/horror) a romance novel. Not that hip, indy, literary novels can’t be satisfying, too, but to only allow yourself to read what your friends deem “cool” really limits your reading experience in the long run and may in fact turn you off from books all together.

Just like those of you who have never logged into the World of Warcraft videogame because you assume it was designed for underachieving twentysomething year old guys who still live in their mother’s basement. (Okay, fine, you’re probably right, but that’s not the point.) All I’m saying is “Don’t knock it, ‘til you’ve tried it.”

Bottom line? The haters are always going to try to spoil things by trying to instill their own prejudices of what should and should not be read, using pre-conceived notions of age, race, class, gender, what have you. And you, as a reader, can choose to listen to them and define yourself and your tastes by these random people’s sense of propriety, or you can tune them out, read whatever the hell you want to, and take back your power.

That’s what I do, anyway. And when they look at me disdainfully and say, “You write ROMANCE?” or “You play VIDEOGAMES?” I smile and nod and say, “Yes. Yes, I do.”

Your official response after the RWA redefinition of approved publishers and non-vanity, non-subsidy press was measured, and your attitude was nothing but positive. Now that some weeks have passed, has this decision affected your business at all, or is it, as you said, Business As Usual at Samhain?

Angela James: Still Business As Usual (am I going to go down in infamy for that one?). We’ve been planning our trip to San Francisco next year for the 2008 RWA convention. The good news is we don’t have to worry about publisher spotlights, editor appointments or the like. It will be like a vacation! Okay, maybe not, but when I wake up in the morning, I don’t feel any differently about our business than I did prior to July. I still think we pretty much kick ass. 

And though we aren’t eligible for having our conference fees waived as part of that decision, there are still plenty of chapters and conferences who very much want us to attend, whose members are more than interested in meeting with us, and those conferences are helping with expenses so we can do so. I’ve been invited to do several conferences and retreats in the next year. Just a few I’ve committed to include the Chesapeake RWA chapter’s weekend conference in November, Desert Dreams (in Arizona) next spring and next summer….we’ll be going to RWAustralia! They’re totally pumped to have us and we can’t wait!

Tell us more about the utter awesomesauce of having your books picked up for print runs in a partnership with Kensington?

Angela James: Words cannot convey the awesomesauceness of it all. And it’s not because, as some people may believe, that we think this makes us legitimate in any way. The readers love of our books, my love of our books (and not to mention my paycheck each month) were already proving that to me.  But it’s a killer opportunity to hit a new audience and maybe convert some new readers to ebooks. I mean, who wouldn’t read a Samhain book and immediately think “I have to go buy their entire catalog of books RIGHT NOW.” Surely only the crazies wouldn’t fall into the Samhain-rocks system of beliefs. 

How is Samhain different as an ePub, and what makes it special?

Angela James: Well, I do see readers saying that Samhain is the one publisher they can consistently count on to provide good, quality material. I forget where I read it, but someone said they’re willing to take a chance on books in our catalog they wouldn’t normally, because they’re rarely disappointed. That’s quite a compliment. It doesn’t mean every reader loves every book or that they’ll never find flaws in our books. It just means that’s not the first thing they think of when we come to mind. 

But we’ve worked hard to get to that point. I don’t know how other epubs work, so I’m not doing a comparison here, but when I hire editors and copy editors I have looked at hundreds of applications. We don’t take them based on what they say their qualifications are, we make them prove it on not one, but two separate test documents that consists of editing, writing revision letters and showing that they have good skills. Then we have a pretty intense probation period where I look at everything they do. Of course, if you think I suck, then none of this will impress you at all!

Another thing that makes us stand out is our marketing plan. Lisa Amrine was hired this past winter to really step up our marketing and she’s been incredibly motivated and energetic. And she’s pushed the authors to follow in suit. She’s exploring traditional and non-traditional avenues of promotion, she’s open to new ideas and she’s always looking for something that will grow Samhain. 

Further, the top executives and owners of the company are not authors. That’s somewhat unusual in the ePublishing world.

I think it’s telling and what I believe makes us really special is that everyone who works at Samhain has a genuine love for both the company and their job. It’s not just work, it’s a passion and that’s come through in what we’re producing, in my opinion. 

What are some of the trends you’re seeing in your submissions, both erotica and not?

Angela James: Paranormal still seems to rule the world in both erotic and non-erotic submissions. But ménages are also a popular submission right now, as well. 

One of the worst trends I’m seeing is books that have no business being erotic romance being pitched as erotic romance. Books that might really have a wonderful story but the author wants to cash in on the erotic part, that they have the characters engaging in funky sex acts as soon as they’ve exchanged hellos, to the detriment of the story. I rejected one recently that had an intriguing story idea and the potential for a solid plot but suddenly, after the first chapter and with no warning, the main characters were having sex. I was totally caught off-guard. 

Other than that, we’re seeing more first person (which I personally love). I think that’s in answer to the growing popularity of urban fantasies. An increased number of young adult submissions, which we’re glad for, but a continued dearth of futuristics and really good science fiction and fantasy (we have had some fantasy but not as much as many of my editors would like). 

One of my biggest frustrations as a reader is that there are not very many inexpensive but quality eBook readers, and there’s about sixty-five thousand ever-loving formats, one for every different reader and program. Did we not learn this lesson with VHS and BetaMax? Coke and New Coke? Why are eBook readers and products designed to get the text to the readers not nearly streamlined, or - is this a good thing for publishers? What is the publisher’s stand on this particularly frustrating issue. Note: I am fully aware I’m taking out my own purchasing frustrations on this question, so feel free to tell me how wrong I am.)

Angela James: Before I’m an editor, I’m a reader and I share your frustrations. I think most publishers would be delirious with the happy-happy-joy-joy if the entire publishing community could come to some sort of agreements about format. And if the ultimate cheap ebook reader--but one that has everything that everyone could ever want--was put into production tomorrow. An ebook reader that could read every format, have eInk capabilities, a backlight, long battery life and memory expandable and only limited by the size of the media card you buy. 

But in truth, publishers are only the ones who produce the books. We’re not the technology geeks so we have to depend on others to invent, design and market the greatest ebook reader evah! We’re still waiting but hope springs eternal and maybe the unveiling of that elusive creature is just around the corner, coming this fall. One can dream!

As a reader, what are your favorite archtypes/cliches in romance? And what book did you love that you are embarrassed to tell anyone about?

Angela James: I still love an alpha hero. Domineering, tough, a little bossy and takes charge in the bedroom. I don’t care how un-PC of me that is, I adore an alpha. It has nothing to do with how he looks and everything to do with how he acts. 

This is sad, but the accidental pregnancy, heroine getting wounded and thus making the hero realize how much he loves her, and crazy/jealous ex-wife/ex-girlfriends getting shown up at the end of the book, those are all things that secretly (not so secret any more, I guess) make me squee. 

I’ve never really been embarrassed to admit my love for a book, but if I’m telling this on Smart Bitches, I’d probably say I have a deep love for Kill and Tell (as well as Dream Man) by Linda Howard. I know, people think putting on the condom early was skeazy. I adore that scene. I also have realized that, even though Harlequin Presents are utterly ridiculous and I usually want to slap the heroine around for being so inconsistent, I cannot get enough of them. Especially if they have Greek in the title. No, I don’t know what’s up with that. Probably goes back to that love of alpha males thing, again. There you have it, my dirty, shameful secrets. Can you still respect me in the morning?

There’s been a lot of talk lately about the effect of author conduct on the probability of them becoming published--or remaining published. How much of an effect does author conduct REALLY have on the business end of things, in your opinion? (Unspoken: how batshit does an author have to be before a publisher sits up and takes notice?)

Angela James: I guess it depends on what kind of author conduct we’re talking about. I hear authors say they don’t want to be labeled a “problem author” so they often don’t say anything about not being paid by a publisher, problems with broken promises, etc. I can sympathize with those concerns, but there is such a huge difference between letting other authors know that repeated attempts to contact your publisher regarding concerns with royalties versus an author going batshit crazy on their blog or a message forum and telling people that their editor sucks, the company sucks and then personally attacking other authors/company employees without having any proof or basis of fact for it. 

That said, I think there’s also a line between author persona and the persona you show your friends. Some things don’t need to be said in public. Ever. Trashing another author, complaining about something minor about your agent or editor (like maybe they didn’t return your email or phone call within four hours). Those types of things should be kept behind the scenes. I think it goes back to something I preach on often in interviews, but think can’t be said enough. Writing is a business. Treat it like your business, act like a professional and it’s easier to gain the respect of your peers/agents/publishers than if you air all your dirty laundry on your blog or message boards daily. You can spot the real professionals both online and in submissions/edits. The ones who think of this as their career, rather than a hobby. 

So to wrap up a really long answer, do I think an author can talk or misbehave themselves out of future contracts? Yes, I do. There are a lot of hungry authors out there eager to be the next Nora Roberts, who are willing to work hard and be professional while doing it, so why would an agent or editor want to deal with an author who makes their job 10x more difficult than it has to be? (well, unless that author is Nora Roberts, because, yeah. Nuff said. But I would bet any money that she’s not that author, anyway)

But I want to end by stressing there’s a world of difference between a difficult, demanding, diva author who is never happy and must have her needs met immediately and exactly as she wants them to be versus an author who is sharing information with other authors that’s legitimate and needs to be said. A world of difference.

So: Book Trailer: Who did yours? How did you get it done - professionally? Or did you do it on your own? Do you like how it came out?

Jackie Kessler: I wrote the script and found/licensed the images and the music, and I hired a freelance editor to pull it together and do the titles. We had a number of rounds until we got to the final.

Only thing I wish we’d done differently is not do it in Shockwave. That’s not You Tube friendly. The YT version is very compressed and the titles aren’t really legible, which is why I’m directing people to my website instead. Live and learn, eh?

This was my first-ever book trailer, but I studied Colleen Gleason’s trailer for THE REST FALLS AWAY, because out of the zillions of trailers I’d previously seen, that was the only one that made me want to buy the book, even if I knew nothing else about it. And a friend of mine, Toni McGee Causey, did a fabulous book trailer that she shot live action — marvelous stuff — and she gave me a lot of advise for overall movement for the trailer. So it was a team effort!

Colleen Gleason: I had it done by Circle of Seven Productions, and they actually subcontracted another entity to do the design. I remember when I first spoke with my contact at COS, she was so excited about the premise of my books and the way I described the series that she already had a designer in mind whom she felt would do the best job. And without a doubt, Brenda did an amazing job.

I didn’t have the time or ability to do it on my own, but I was very involved in the process from beginning to end. I wrote the copy for the trailer, and I was very specific about my vision--the look and feel and flow of the trailer as a whole--but not so clear on the details. That was why I was hiring them!

The first draft they gave me was nearly what you see today, except for the image of a woman with blood leaking from the corner of her mouth near the beginning, followed by a piercing scream. I said, uh, no. So we took out the woman and the scream and tweaked some of the word-smithing and voila! The best book trailer I’ve ever seen.

What was the best advice you got for creating a trailer? And what you think are do’s and don’ts of book trailers?

Jackie Kessler: I had terrific conversations with Toni McGee Causey (author of Bobbie Faye’s Very (very, very, very) Bad Day: A Novel — which is utterly hysterical, and I highly recommend it), who did a trailer workshop at this year’s Backspace Conference. I think the best advice she gave, either at the workshop or to me on the phone, was that in a book trailer, you shouldn’t get caught up in telling your book’s entire story. Instead, you want to capture the feeling of your book. And that feeling should (hopefully) get people excited about your book.

I think it’s sort of like pitching your novel to an agent. You need that query letter to be short and sweet and just right to pique the busy agent’s interest and want to read your manuscript. Same thing with a book trailer: you want to pique the busy viewer’s interest enough to want to read your book.

Colleen Gleason: I never got any advice on making a trailer, but I had seen enough of them that I knew what I didn’t want. I didn’t want cheese (hence the deletion of the screaming blood-thirsty woman).

I didn’t want slooooow-moooovingggg text or images (that drives me batty, and I will click past a trailer if it is too slow or boring). I hate waiting. Think about it--when you see a movie trailer, things move FAST. To me, slow, involved trailers kill the intent of engaging and intriguing the viewer.

And while my budget couldn’t afford live action actors, I didn’t want that anyway. I wanted something short and sweet that would intrigue and inform the viewer so that there would be some brand recognition when they saw or heard about the book. That was my goal.

Oh, wait, there was one bit of advice I took with me when I was getting my trailer done--and it came from a discussion here on SB! I decided not to have the trailer be the “entry” into my Web site. Too many people complained about that approach, and about clicking through to the main site (or leaving all together), so I listened.

Here’s why: if it’s a good trailer, one that’s done well, it can be a nice gateway to a site. However, if I go back to the site, I don’t want to have to watch it again (or click through it). So even if it’s a good trailer, it’s a barrier to repeat visitors, IMO.

Toni McGee Causey: Best advice? Think of vivid images which tell a lot of the story for you. And you don’t have to be completely linear in the trailer as you would in the book.

Do’s and don’ts:  Do find the most professional team you can. (There are indie film groups in many major cities who would like a small bit of income and work to use for their own portfolio; don’t ignore universities with strong film majors--they often have grad students or former graduates working in the industry--maybe in TV news--but still with strong talent.) Trailers are getting sophisticated quickly, and it’s much worse to put out a home-made mediocre trailer than to have none at all. Do come up with a logline (one line description of your book) and a thematic tone and what imagery from your book best conveys a key moment or hook in your story: these are your building blocks. You’ll need these whether you’re doing it yourself or hiring someone else. Don’t linger too long on things the audience already gets--the audience is used to visual communication now and you can use images as a shorthand. Don’t be afraid to edit really tight (I would still make cuts, so I don’t think that can ever be overstated.) Do have objective third parties look at it and give you feedback. If they are all saying similar negative things, then listen and adjust. Do not let this objective feedback be your friends and family who know you’ve spent time and money and therefore want to encourage you: the rest of the world doesn’t care.

What pitfalls did you want to avoid while crafting your trailer?

Jackie Kessler: The biggest pitfall, I think, is wasting the viewer’s time — either by making the trailer too long, or by making the content of the trailer unappealing or (gah) boring. The way I did my best to avoid this was to let the music drive the trailer: syncing images and text to the beat of the music, letting the sound dictate the speed of the frames, relying on the music to help build the tension...and keeping it limited to 60 seconds.

As for licensing the music and the images, there are a lot of resources out there. I used istockphoto for the images and Fresh Music for the sound. (No, there’s no easy way of poring through the images and the audio samples. You just have to do it, and hope your eyeballs don’t melt in the process.) Key thing is you want your images and your music to be royalty-free. The licensing fee for both the images and the music were very reasonable.

I know absolutely nothing about how to turn images, sound and script into a trailer, so I hired a freelance editor whom I knew through Backspace to pull it all together. She was a pleasure to work with. And she didn’t mind that I was horrifically anal about linking an image to a particular beat of music. And she did some marvelous things with movement, like the heart-shaped bubble winking.

The one thing I wish I would have known beforehand is that a Shockwave video doesn’t play well with You Tube. Argh. Who knew?

Something else that I think is very helpful — this goes back to the craft part — is getting input from others. Even though I wrote the script, a number of people, including my Loving Husband and Toni, helped me fine-tune it. My critique partner helped me select the music. And my Kensington promotions contact gave me terrific feedback after viewing the semi-final trailer. It doesn’t have to be a solo effort, even when you opt to do it by yourself.

Colleen Gleason: Slooooownesss. Cheesiness. Boringness. (Is that a word?)

Toni McGee Causey: Pitfalls? The biggest pitfall at the time was that there weren’t very many other live-action detailed (movie-trailer-like) book videos out there to use as a guide. There was a tremendous about of flash trailers, many of them very good, but many of them were for dramas, and Bobbie Faye is balls-to-the-wall action/adventure and comedy, something I didn’t think translated as well at the time with flash. (Or, put it this way: I didn’t have any flash type of ideas which I thought could convey the comedy.) The lack of live-action meant I looked more to movie trailers for inspiration, and so my trailer was more complex… and therefore more difficult to shoot, edit, etc. I think the medium forced me to have a better product, so the pitfall turned into an opportunity, but it was definitely difficult to do.

What do other authors do to create trailers? And what trailers really, really worked for you?

Jackie Kessler: I think most authors opt for using a one-stop-shop place like Circle of Seven Productions: . If you take a look, you’ll see that many authors are using COS. (And you can see their trailers! Break out the popcorn!)

One book trailer that I absolutely adore is Colleen Gleason’s for The Rest Falls Away.

Colleen Gleason:  I thought Alison Brennan’s brief trailer into her Web site was good, and that’s what gave me the idea to do mine. But, honestly, I can’t think of any trailers that have stuck in my mind. Quite frankly, I haven’t seen many trailers that I’ve liked.

In your experience, what the average costs are for a trailer from a professional production firm? And how does that compare to what you invested?

Jackie Kessler: COS has various packages; the two that I got pricing on were less than $1,000.

I paid $27 for the music license fee, and in total about $130 for all the images. Plus $200 to my freelance editor. So I spent about $360, plus a hell of a lot of time and effort, on my trailer. I’m so ridiculously pleased with it — not because I saved money (but that’s a terrific perk) but because I got my hands dirty and was really involved in the process. I’m proud of it.

As for how I’m using the trailer, I’m pretty much telling everyone I know, heh. Actually, it was a conversation starter in a big way over at Absolute Write, when I posted to the Fantasy forum and asked whether fantasy readers there would venture into the romance section of a bookstore to get a book that could be urban fantasy, even if it’s marketed as paranormal romance...and then, after linking to the video, I asked if it made them interested in picking up a book labeled paranormal romance. That conversation is still going on.

The big thing is that between the trailer, the novel excerpt, and the reviews (which, um, are pending, and God willing they will be good), I think I’m giving potential readers as much of a tease about THE ROAD TO HELL and HELL’S BELLES as possible...which, hopefully, will turn into them being interested in my books and buying them.

Toni McGee Causey: I’ve seen prices from $750 (for a basic flash trailer) on up to $10,000 (for a 30 second live-action video). Something as complex as I had (a large number of locations, actors and speaking parts) would have been more expensive if I had had to pay for everything; luckily, I have two friends who were a director and a cinematographer and who were interested in making the video for me for free. I’d have never made it if it hadn’t been for their participation. Still, I probably spent closer to $3K because of the volume of locations (some fees) and feeding the actors, getting the props, etc. We shot the interior truck scene, for example, on a flatbed trailer with a rigging that my husband made so the director and cinematographer could stand outside the moving vehicle and get Bobbie Faye as she argued with someone. Those scenes are moving scenes, which required a truck, trailer, the red truck we filmed in, a follow-up sheriff’s car, police to stop traffic, etc. just for a tiny portion of the video.

Colleen Gleason: To have a professional do it (and if you’re going to do it, have a pro handle it), it’s going to be at least $1000--for a good one.

And finally: why a book trailer? More specifically, what is it about trailers that made you think, “I am going to make one and I am going to make a GOOD one” ?

Jackie Kessler: Toni and I are both members of Backspace, a terrific online writers forum that has more than 600 members from a dozen countries. Everything I know about the publishing business, I learned from Backspace members — some of whom are bestselling authors.  Every year, Backspace has an annual conference in New York City. Toni gave a workshop on book trailers. I attended it because I wanted to meet her face to face after knowing her virtually for years. And man, am I glad I attended!

She showed both the short and long trailers to BOBBIE FAYE and explained how she was able to do it (experience and connections) and some of the obstacles she had to overcome. The main thing that struck me was WHY she’d done the trailer: it wasn’t to make an external promotional piece. It was, instead, to build internal buzz within her publisher. And boy, did she ever!

After the workshop, I accosted her, and we talked for about a half hour — about trailers, about the romance community, about publishing in general. She gave me feedback on my initial script and gave her thumbs up on the images and music I’d selected. And she saw an initial version of the trailer and gave me fabulous advice about how to work the images to the sound of the music.

I can’t praise her enough. Taking Toni’s workshop got me all riled up. It was positively inspiring. I loved what she did, and it got me thinking that a good book trailer really can get people interested, even excited, in a book. And then I basically thought, Why the hell not? If I’m doing everything I possibly can to promote my novels, why not pull out all stops and make a good trailer? And once I started, it was a lot of fun to write and storyboard a script. I’d never done that before. It was a nice break from the novels.

And I’ve already found the music for the next trailer.

Toni McGee Causey:  I was very fortunate that St. Martin’s was already enthusiastic about the book and put a lot of emphasis on it throughout each step.  They are tremendously wonderful people to work with.  As for why that strategy? Well, partly because they really were such a great group to work with and I know their job is difficult: breaking out an author who’s writing action/adventure comedy, when there’s not really a “genre” for that. Also, when I sold, it was on three chapters and a synopsis (it was a three-book deal), so no one had the whole book… and I then had to finish the first book and go through the editing/marketing process; it was closer to two years from the point of sale to the actual release date. Combine all of this with sales reps who have a tremendously difficult job in that they have a very short minute or two to pitch a book they may not have personally had a chance to read, and I felt the need for a tool to use which would set the book and the world of Bobbie Fay up while being unique and memorable, and video made sense to me, especially since I came from a film background.

I think we have to be aware of the fact that there is so little time to capture an audience’s attention for something, and the visual medium has the possibility of capturing it in a memorable way, quickly. One of the points I tend to keep going back to is that this world has become such a visual experience: there are iPhones now which will show video, there are movies, DVDs, streaming video on the web, video games and so on. There are whole generations who are used to video coming at them constantly, and so the slower text messages don’t get through the competition for attention as easily.

Then (to me) there’s a second phenomenon, and that’s bookstore stress. I think a lot of readers would read more than one book a year if they knew what to pick up. When a customer walks into a bookstore, if they don’t know exactly what to look for, they are confronted with a sea of titles. If they don’t already have favorites, if they’d only read a John Grisham for example, it’s a bit overwhelming to navigate the aisles and all of the titles on the spines and genres and then sub-genres to try to narrow down to a new book they might like, for the same amount of money (or less) than the movie they saw advertised on TV.  Great review sites such as yours help cut through the volume (thank goodness), or else I honestly think we’d have seen a faster decline in reading. But finding a book--particularly a cross-genre book such as mine? Not an easy thing. I hope that a book trailer hints at what’s in there memorably enough so that a reader will recognize the character’s name the next time they’re in the store and see the book cover--enough to pick it up and see what crazy escapade she’s up to now.

Colleen Gleason: Okay, here’s where the discussion can get really interesting. I’ve been talking with people about this for months, and I have my own opinions about the efficacy of trailers and is it worth it to have one done.

To be honest, I don’t know if it was money well-spent for me.

Yes, lots of people saw the trailer (but not nearly enough), and many people have said it was one of the best they’ve seen. But most of the people who saw the trailer saw it because they came to my Web site anyway. They knew about me/my books anyway.

That’s not enough. In order for a trailer to be worthwhile, you need tens of thousands, preferably hundreds of thousands, of people to see it--people who aren’t already aware of you, your site, or your books.

In order for a trailer to be truly worthwhile, it has to become viral. Isn’t that the goal of everyone who makes one? To be the next YouTube pick?  To have it highlighted on Yahoo! or to be showing up in your email three times a week? It sure is my goal!

That’s the issue of the moment: how do you get that to happen? How do you get to that Tipping Point? No one knows what’s going to tip, so you can’t really plan for it. That’s the challenge and the conundrum.

So I’l say this right now--if anyone thinks they know the trick or has an idea for a trailer that could become viral, I’d love to hear from you. Seriously.

However...and here’s a personal plug here, if you don’t mind--I do have a specific idea for a trailer and I’m looking for a writer to pull my ideas into a very short script. I’m looking for someone who has a snarky, absurd sense of humor (can’t imagine there’s anyone around here like that) who would be interested in working with me on it. For pay. If there’s anyone here who wants to give it a stab (no pun intended; see, I’m not a humor writer), please email me at author at colleengleason dot com.

So there you have it. Everything you could possibly want to know about book trailers, that is, if you’re me and you’re asking the questions. And really, asking all these questions has certainly changed my perception of trailers.

At first, my initial reaction was, “Ok, why do that?” I’m not a visual person; I don’t “see” books play out in my mind, but I “hear” them - the narrator, the dialogue, etc. So the brief video promo of a book never made sense to me. After reading the answers, I have a lot more to think about.

For example, on one hand, the book trailer is something author has to tackle on her own, expense-wise and time-wise. But on the other hand, the author isn’t in control of her cover, or sometimes even her title for her next release. The trailer is a promotional tool for the book that the author can develop that does reflect the plot AND the author’s intentions. While many, many hands have a stir in the stew pot that makes up the final published product, the trailer is often developed at the author’s direction (which could be a good or a bad thing) and may be the only marketing element that completely and accurately reflects the book itself. Moreover, the allure of “here’s my book in 30 seconds visually and audibly should you wish to experience it literarily,” covers some senses that don’t usually get attention among the book-buying public. It could be the best bet for folks who like a visual when book shopping.

But moreover, the idea that the book trailer also exists to generate buzz within the publishing house - that really made me think. It’s like having to stand out twice- once to get signed and then to get marketing buzz in the current crop of new books being published.

So what do you think of book trailers? Who’s got a good one that you like - or do they not really influence your buying in the first place?

When I asked why someone would pose as her, she said,

Carol said it sounded like me, and it probably is me, but I’m retired.... Carol says it my words about positivity and positive energy, but not the rest.

There’s nothing I can do about it, but I’m not set up to go online. That’s not my focus. Someone took my words but that isn’t me.

But it’s not important. People shouldn’t get off on controversy or nastiness, when it’s more important to be positive to attract good things.... When you fill your bowl of abundance with love, you receive love.

Falk went on at length about some of her projects involving soldiers and local support, and about her farm in Texas. When I asked her why someone at Romantic Times would say publicly online that the message had come from her, and if that bothered her, she said:

It was my voice, and my stuff that was said. I’d say it. I’m sure that what I said was pretty positive. I usually am.

It seemed to me that Falk was seeking to distance herself from the comments attributed to her on Scott’s site as she tried equally to make it clear how distant she is from the romance industry. She writes one letter a month for Romantic Times, she said, and has very little involvement beyond that.

Most of her comments dealt with the power of positive thinking and the advantageous effects of contributing positive energy, and at no time did she say, “Yes, I wrote those words.”

She said it sounded like her, it was something she would say, and that she was sure that it was more of the positive New Age message that she sought to communicate at all times.

So was it Kathryn Falk? Enquiring minds still are not sure.