Written Trailer

Movie trailers consist of short, concise clips from the movie--though sometimes not actually from the movie in some instances. This portrays the feeling and setting or genre a movie will be taking place in. In a sense,  it is a sample. Concerning instances where the scene does not come directly from the movie: This is done to convey a point not made in just one scene. It can also be used to mask what is really happening in the film. Trailers are great.

Now that's movie trailers as far as that's concerned. There are also TV show trailers, that run along the same basic idea. The difference is that these trailers are shorter, and more discreet in their rapid scene changes. These don't get much more across than the title.

Where am I getting with this? Book Trailers, of course.

Some book trailers are filmed. Some people got together, and grabbed the things at their disposal. Via film, they illustrated a scene or scenes from the book. This is an interesting way of going about it, as trailers for books rarely occur. (Unless the book is being turned into a movie, at which point the movie--and thus the book--get a trailer).

And where I'm getting to for the main focal point.

If movie trailers are clips from the movie, shouldn't book trailers be clips from the book? I'm not talking about filming clips.
The written trailer is what I'm getting to. Trailers for books should be made from short clips of dialogue/scene that takes place in the book.

Making sense, now?

To make a book trailer, why not write a short one-two pager consisting of snippets that take place in the book. The options for book trailers in this written format are similar to movie trailer options. For the short trailer we can take short clips of book, and compile them into a scene-changing trailer. OR. We have the option of writing a short description/synopsis of the book. OR. There's always the chance of writing a trailer with some things cut out of the book, and other things made up for the purpose of story-spinning. OR. In the end we can write a short trailer made out of things that aren't even in the book.

Now we understand book trailers. So what about teaser trailers vs actual trailers?



Written Trailers by Jim Blow

Contingency Squad

Jim Blow here. I'm working on a second novel. This one is called "Contingency Squad".

The BOOK big idea:

People have lost faith in their law enforcement. In one last consorted effort to protect society from "Wack-o's" (murderers, bombers, etc.) the government has instituted the Contingency Squad initiative. Prisoners are taken from the jails, and are sent on suicidal missions to protect the society that imprisoned them. If they do as they're told, they get time off their sentence. If they die on the job, they're easily replaced.
So what happens when the convicts realize that they're being set up?

Ci Fisher with assorted fellow felons fight through a world of misconceptions and misplaced hopes.

Join Me (Jim Blow) in my next book: CONTINGENCY SQUAD, coming soon.

--stay tuned for later blog posts about Contingency Squad--