Publicity....

[seawasp]

My wife came across a trailer... for a book. And not just any book. The third or maybe fourth in a series of TERRIBLE books by Steven Alten centering around the Megalodon, the obviously coolest extinct predator ever since it was a super-gigantic cousin of the Great White.

A TRAILER.

For a BOOK.

*I* haven't heard of anyone making trailers for MY books.

I want to MAKE a trailer for Grand Central Arena.

Unfortunately, I don't have the money to hire top-flight actors (let alone top-flight special effects crews); at most, if I really wanted to, I could probably manage 5k-10k for it.

On the other hand, I really want GCA to succeed, and I doubt Baen has the time or money to expend on promoting it all that much... so how do I do it?

EDIT: Thanks for everyone's input. I am now examining options on how I can achieve Decent Publicity Trailer within my limited resources of time and competence and money.

Comments

[rezendi.livejournal.com]

All the cool kids have one. For mine own Invisible Armies, from a couple years back:

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=13598815

[seawasp]

Interesting, and nicely done in both cases -- but unfortunately that style would be impossible for GCA; I've got two settings, both of them super-futuristics.

[rezendi.livejournal.com]

...Also, my friend Sarah outsourced the job to fans: she held a "make-a-trailer-and-win-an-iPhone" contest.

[dsrtao]

Machinima?

[seawasp]

I seem to recall that being mentioned in a "cheap animation" question I asked a while ago. Wasn't that something like "animating MMORPG style"?

[dsrtao]

Yup. See http://www.spiffworld.com/ for instance.

[seawasp]

Urg. It's something that looks fun to play with, but DEAR LORD I'd never use anything like that for publicity. If I came across something like that advertising an author or actor or whatever that I didn't know, I'd turn and run away.

The figures don't look or move like people except in a very generous interpretation of the concept.

I could tolerate something on the level of the Final Fantasy trailers and CGI, but something like that... no.

Note that I don't say this based on my superior skills in art; the icon above demonstrates the pinnacle of my artistic achievements, an animated icon which was derived from two separate characters combined into one and then animating the glow and crackle. This took me, oh, sixteen to twenty hours of work, I think. So -- assuming I had the time to spend learning another completely unknown software package... I suppose I could do a three-minute trailer in an embarrassingly clumsy way within about a year or two. (I wouldn't of course be able to write anything in that time)

[anton-p-nym.livejournal.com]

Machinima is using video captures of performances made inside a video game. Players get together on a networked game session and use the game controls to enact the scenes, basically using the game models as marionettes. The big pull is that you don't need to hire people to create and rig the 3D models; that's already done for you by the studio that created the game. Then you have voice actors record the dialog, use pretty much any movie-making software package to match the dialog to the scenes, and you're done. (Of course, you can get fancier than that if you want.)

I really learned about machinima via the "Red vs. Blue" series by a group that eventually became Rooster Teeth studios... think of Beckett done in the Halo engine. Probably the most common engine used for machinima is Valve's Half-Life, especially using "Garry's Mod" to inject their own models and graphics into the game.

-- Steve isn't necessarily sure it'd work well as a promotional tool for an external product, though with enough work HL's engine can basically be a pretty powerful home-CGI package.

[seawasp]

Something LIKE this is the future... but the future isn't here yet, clearly. My suspicion is that even to do the crude things I'm seeing there takes being a high-school or college kid-with-no-life, not "learn it in three hours and bang out a kickass video the next week", which would be much more the amount of time I could reasonably donate to the cause. Even though it's my own cause.

[k-kinnison.livejournal.com]

Blackmail or via hostages works for me. All you need is a rabid fan who is willing to take a fall for you and allow you to deny all involvement

[seawasp]

There is severe cognitive dissonance in seeing a Boskonian-style suggestion proceeding from the name "K. Kinnison".

[kengr]

Do recall that Kim once picked up several *kilos* of thionite on Trenco.

And we won't go into the fencing jewels bit.

[seawasp]

He picked up the thionite LEGALLY, and the fencing jewels was not under the name "Kinnison", but as an undercover identity to break a galaxy-spanning criminal organization.

[ross-teneyck.livejournal.com]

Neal Stephenson made a trailer for Anathem. Or had somebody make it.

[brent-kellmer.livejournal.com]

If you've got some basic video editing software, you can make one yourself -- that's what most authors do. Sure, a few hire people, but that's not really financially viable -- you're almost always going to spend more than you'll bring in. But doing it on your own is pretty inexpensive. You can find a lot of them on youtube. They're particularly popular among paranormal romance writers.

[seawasp]

Well, I've got whatever comes on the Mac as standard, but I'd need either the actors or someone who was a hell of an animator; I can just about manage to do diagrams for things like proposals, but nothing I'd want to show anyone in a trailer. The best I could imagine doing on my own would look like, well, some amateur clown with video editing software. The paranormal romance ones I would guess are mostly 20th-century settings -- which means that at least they don't have to invent the world, background, etc. from whole cloth.

To do a trailer for GCA I'd need the video modeling skills of Keith Morrison (the guy who did the amazing images of Nike and so on in my galleries) along with Leet Animation Skillz and the composing asskicking of Basil Poledouris, I think. I can convince myself I have sufficient scripting, action visualization, and voice-acting skills (and a few other friends with decent voices) that I could manage the rest.

[brent-kellmer.livejournal.com]

I think you're aiming too high -- the purpose of an effective book trailer isn't to entertain, it's only to provide another avenue for getting cover copy (or something equivalent) across to potential readers. You don't need animation or actors or original music. There are a number of sources online for free music and inexpensive or free visuals. You've got the cover image to start with, and that should figure prominently. Photoshop (or online free image editing software) can do most of the rest, and while I don't know what comes standard on a Mac, I'm sure that the video editing can be done using free or inexpensive software.

Seriously, though, don't try to do too much. There appears to be sufficient evidence that they can do some good -- they can help stir up word of mouth if nothing else. But they're not going to bring in enough extra sales to make it worth much expense.

A good example of what can be both inexpensive and effective is this one for Anya Bast's Witch Fire.

[alex swavely (from livejournal.com)]

Well, I've got whatever comes on the Mac as standard

You should have iMovie. That'll work for this.

[corvidophile.livejournal.com]

the meg books! i love those :D

[seawasp]

Well, SOMEONE must, or he wouldnt' be making SEQUELS.

Hie Thee to Amazon

[rob-thompson.livejournal.com]

Ryk - you're a superb writer. I'm really, really looking forward to rerading Grand Central Arena - and I will make sure that I do the same for you as I do for Kratman and Williamson - enter reviews with Amazon. Get your fan base motivated to do the same - it's worked for them both - moved their novels up quite a bit. Get a corner in the Bar, chat up the book, chat up the people - let the fans be your marketing department - generally, we like to spread the good word about authors we like. I may be assuming wrongly about your participation in the Bar - but, I also don't visit Eric's corners - I tend to spend my time in Kratkeller, Madhouse, Tavern and Politics. I read a lot of Flint - and I love your work with Boundary - so I'm sure you could motivate people to speak for you!
Cheers!

Re: Hie Thee to Amazon

[seawasp]

I already AM on Amazon. Have my own blog there, though I've had little to talk about lately -- I don't want to post much more about GCA until Amazon knows it's coming. I'm on the Bar too; Paradigms Lost, where I will be posting snippets of GCA about... oh, I think 6 months before release?

I'm not terribly convinced the reviews in Amazon mean anything to anyone, though.

[marydell.livejournal.com]

This one for Palimpest is pretty cool--at least, it makes me think the book is cool, which is presumably the point--but it doesn't look like it cost much to make, and it uses still images.

If you go onto flickr and do an advanced search, you can limit your search to photos that are creative-commons licensed for commercial use. It's like stock photos, but free, and often cooler than stock photos. Probably there is cc-licensed music around, too.

It's still tricky to find good free imagery when you're writing in the distant future...are you sure you wouldn't rather write about teen vampires in love?

[seawasp]

Digital Knight would be fairly easy to do that way, although I'd need someone to do a few of the supernatural images (as, aside from the first Vampire-oriented story, the monsters are not standard-issue).

[marydell.livejournal.com]

What sort of imagery would you need for GCA? Most of my digital art is pretty girly, but if you want space scenes or architecture I probably could knock some decent stills out for you (for free). I do some modeling and I also have a ginormous library of DAZ3d.com stuff that I can render.

[seawasp]

Well, I would want some character/creature images, of course, but I'll also want some images of the Arena -- ships, setting, etc.

You don't appear to have been on my Beta-reading list, so you'd have to have a copy of GCA to grasp what I'd need. I could Email you a copy if you want.

[marydell.livejournal.com]

That would be cool as long as you are ok with me not giving you a proper beta reading/critique. I do beta read for a few folks, but they all can attest to my terrible turnaround time (me=slow reader, ADD, 40 hour job, young baby). But if me skimming it for imagery and only reading it properly later when it's printed wouldn't hurt your feelings, please send it my way...my focus problems don't really affect my art, mercifully.

[burger-eater.livejournal.com]

This is a pretty good book trailer, but most of them suck. Also, I've never bought a book because of a trailer, good or bad. I wouldn't bother.

Still, if you gotta, 5k should be plenty.