So I've been noodling with book trailer ideas, and when I say noodling, I mean trying stuff and failing, though nobly. Some of it looks good, and I'm learning a few good things not to do, but the biggest problems I've faced with it include, in no particular order:
1) Should it capture the overall feel of the book, or should it simply create an atmosphere that'd get people to pick the book up? Because the overall feel of the book includes absurdity, lowbrow humor, metaphysical yearning, loneliness, foul-mouthed kids, science-fiction conceits, and an Elvis impersonator. So.
2) Shouldn't it look very pro? But if it looks too professional--even if I somehow could figure out how to do that--won't that seem slick and fake? This goes back to the question of tone, I think, and how you know you're getting away with, say, evoking a feeling of loneliness or longing (there's a lot in the book) without seeming that you're reaching or creating fake emotion. If it looks as slick as the beginning of a film trailer, with titles that fade in and out and some ominous music underneath, is that really my book at all, or just a rendering of it, and wouldn't potential readers look at the trailer and say, Maybe I'll stay away from this lonely-looking book? (When in fact, almost all the loneliness or sadness in the book comes with a laugh. And vice versa.)
3) Am I thinking about it this much because I also want to be a director of fine book trailers? Am I considering a second career as the Scorsese of the 30-second video advertisement? And should I want to be the Scorsese of book trailers rather than the Ed Wood of them? The Ed Wood would probably be closer.
4) I'd actually like to be the Kubrick of them. In fact, I wish I could just use the scene from 2001 where Gayane's Adagio plays as my trailer. When I see the cover, and that little isolated spaceman on it, I can pretty easily hear this climb of strings behind it:
