Booked and sold: the rise of book trailers in the literary world

Throughout history, literature has often been accompanied by imaginative artwork and illustrations. Such visual aids help readers visualise the plot and characters, but of late, authors and publishers have begun using celluloid to promote the written word. Cas in point: earlier this week, author Chetan Bhagat release a professionally shot twominute trailer for his upcomin book, and the move got many talking.

Directed by filmmaker Mohit Suri, the trailer is quite similar to film teasers, and for the first time in India, a production unit, filmmaker and actors were roped in to promote a book. Suri, who directed Half Girlfriend (2017), based on Bhagat’s novel of the same name, says, “The basic brief in the promo was to make a trailer [that was] not about people who are larger than life. You have to tease them [viewers] enough to buy the book.”

Compressing the book into a two-minute trailer was quite challenging, says Suri. “We actually wrote it like an ad, made it into a voice-over pattern, and then decided on how to shoot it. We decided on the music before we went to shoot, as it decides how the promo is going to be perceived,” he adds.

Ask Bhagat how the idea came to him, and he says, “A lot of youngsters are on their phones. I wanted to reach them through the mediums they are into right now.”

Author Amish Tripathi, who made a video trailer for his book, Immortals of Meluha, in 2010, says, “A book is not just competing with other books; it is also competing with movies, web series… anything that takes away the reader’s time. The aim should be to sell the book.”

However exciting this concept might be, there is a flipside to it. Author Manu Pillai says, “For non-celebrity writers, I am not convinced that it makes much of a difference. Unless you already have a mass following, most trailers simply languish with a few hundred views and clicks.”

The million dollar question remains: can trailers for books become a trend? Author Ashwin Sanghi says, “Video trailers have a viral effect. It is more sensible to spend moderately on a video trailer in terms of production, and to spend a lot more money on promoting that video trailer.”

Aman Arora, deputy general manager (marketing), HarperCollins India, says, “A book trailer has to be intriguing and subtle, and should give just the right amount of engaging details about the USP of the book.”