A/B TV Book Trailer Review: Skinned by Robin Wasserman, Simon Pulse

On the plus side, the trailer for this young adult fantasy is the perfect length, a minute. It gives us the story hook in a concise, creative way. However, a trend from the first generation of trailers still won’t go away: words on screen. I realize it saves having to hire a “voice over,” but the movie industry doesn’t expect us to read their trailers, except maybe at the end for the blurbs, which gives them even more prominence. Just because you will eventually be reading lots and lots of words in book form doesn’t mean we should read them during the entire promo. What A/B TV wants for Christmas? Voice overs on book trailers. (Very few do, but with more attention focused on multimedia marketing, expect that to increase.) The power of the video medium is combining audio and video to the fullest effect. Music helps, and the ominous music seems just right in this trailer, but voice establishes tone, pace and impact. The author may even be able to pull it off at no extra cost to to the publishing house.

Like the trailer? Buy the book at Amazon.