One of my assignments for the Institute is to collect different examples of book ads from newspapers and magazines and explain why they did or did not work for me. While this is all well and fine (and I've got a backlog of old NY Times Book Reviews to harvest from), it got me thinking about internet book ads and whether or not people click.
Now I've ordered many a book from book ads I've found in papers (although I've found that articles written by the authors or reviews about the book to be more affective) and I've seen corresponding sales of those books. Whether those sales resulted from people seeing the same ad, or simply because we chose to hand sell the pretty, pretty new novel/memoir/whatever, I don't know, but I've never ordered a book through an online ad.
Now partially this is because we had absolutely no internet access that would have proved useful in the store, and partially because the creation and execution of good internet advertising (where books are concerned) are still in their infancy. Also, I'm a browser by nature, and while having a bookstore allowed me to turn this into orders, being on my own and rather poor has made me a rather choosy purchaser. I've been known to go back to the same book two or three times on different visits before making a purchase, or to avoid bookstores at all if I don't have a pre-shopping list.
But I'm not necessarily the norm, so here's what I want to know:
Those of you who are authors who've done internet ads, did you consider them successful? Where did you post them? How did you make them and what would you do differently next time (if there is a next time)?
Those of you who are readers who regularly blog/site hope, have you ever been attracted to an internet ad or trailer for a book? Why or why not? Did you click or just take note of the title? Have you ever bought a book through the ad?
(On a side note, I would love to see book trailers really get sophisticated and not in the cheesy Manny way, but more like this version of Pulp Fiction as Typography.)
What are your thoughts?
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By: Bookseller Chick,
on 6/26/2007
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By: MJM,
on 6/5/2007
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By: MJM,
on 6/5/2007
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By: Bookseller Chick,
on 6/26/2007
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8 Comments on Internet Ad Space and What It Has Done For You, last added: 7/2/2007
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By: MJM,
on 6/5/2007
Blog: Book Artists (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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By: MJM,
on 6/5/2007
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I'd love to put together a really cool and edgy book trailer.
Here is something I did as a little experiment. Not a book trailer, but a multi-media fiction experience. It's part of a little vampire series I've been doing.
The Passions of Bryn--Requiem.
I think things like YouTube are a great opportunity to freshen the reading experience.
I bought "Mistress of the Art of Death" from an ad on Shelf Awareness e-newsletter. I have added a few books to my "look for" list from some blog ads.
However, I've never seen a book trailer for anything I hadn't already been made aware of through other means, such as a review.
I notice that Galleycat's been running book trailer ads for folks to vote on lately,which is pretty cool. I have to admit that I enjoyed the unofficial Harry Potter/300 parody than the two female authors meeting for lunch and fake fighting about hooking up each other's leading character(it recieved the most votes).
I do like to look at book trailers, but I look for more information on the book if it catches my eye. I haven't bought one just because of the trailer.
When I buy web ads, I hope that they'll have a cumulative effect. While people may not click on the ad, they may remember the bookcover when they see it again and be more inclined to buy. I think this is called "getting the eyeballs."
The "Manny" book trailer is really funny and looks very expensive. Will it sell books, though, or will most of the viewers be young guys who watch it for laughs?
I'm having a book trailer contest (thanks for mentioning it!) and I hope to see a better level of design and marketing from submissions than I'm seeing now, except for the very high-end trailers.
i don't think i've ever bought a book from an internet ad (despite the endless hours i spend online), unless you count online booksellers. i just don't trust an online book ad. call me retrograde, i guess.
From a reader here. The only thing that draws my eye to an unknown book/author is the cover. If it's great I almost always click to read more about it. I never watch trailers, tried once and it was too odd.If it's a text banner announcing a book, etc, I ignore it.
I have no idea if they're successful, but they're a whole lot cheaper and easier to do. Since I'm selling a combo of ebooks and print books lately, makes sense to do internet ads. I'm not sure if that's true for strictly print authors.
I stick to genre sites like AAR and
smartbitches (but not for a while)and romancejunkies
My sister the potter has paid for google placement but I don't think it's done much for her.