10 Best Book Trailers & What Makes Them Good

S.R. Beaston

Crafty with words, wit, and wisdom, just add caffeine to make it more interesting.

Books have a way of showing and expressing things that no other media can. Written words ask us to suspend our disbelief, to see things for ourselves, to imagine what they are trying to portray. Words allow the reader or listener to be a part of the process.
Book trailers may seem like they are going against the point of the book by visualizing and revealing elements of the story. After all, movie trailers are the worst for giving too much information. However, when you find the right book trailer, it only does what it's supposed to do: Make you want to read the book.
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What is a book trailer for?A book trailer functions as a visual and audio representation of a book's synopsis. Much like a movie trailer, it aims to pique readers’ interest.
Although indie and self-published authors often go out of their way to create book trailers to promote their work, such trailers are not yet commonplace. Traditional publishing companies might make trailers for high-profile releases, but it's not standard.
Many book trailers are fan-made or created by video enthusiasts. Regardless of who makes them, they can be highly effective.
If you're considering creating your own book trailer, or if, like me, you've been hesitant to watch them for fear of too much information, here are a few common themes to keep in mind. After all, anyone can make a trailer about anything.
Length: Book trailers typically last between one and two minutes, with shorter trailers generally being more effective.
Visualization: The depiction of characters in a trailer for a YA+ book is often vague. Features might be obscured or missing. This lack of detail allows readers to imagine the characters themselves as they read. Sometimes, this vagueness is due to budget constraints, but it also helps preserve the reader's imagination.
Text Usage: Words remain the most utilized tool in book trailers. Whether it's quotes from the book or the synopsis itself, you might see little else but text on screen and disembodied voice acting to evoke emotion.
Genre and Age Range: The type of trailer often depends on the book’s genre and target audience. Middle-grade books might use animation and detailed visuals. In contrast, trailers for older demographics may feature vague or obscured details, live action, or a focus on text.
Here are some book trailers that have generated significant interest and been very effective for their respective books, whether official or fan-made.
Gone GirlThis is the first trailer that came to mind when thinking about effective promotion. The suspense of the trailer translates perfectly to the novel, capturing the very emotion and assumptions the book aims to evoke.
Words accompany a simple outline of a woman's face, white and red accompanying both her and the text. The monologue is the opening of the book, and the character narrating seems nefarious at best. 
What’s so crazy is that the "book trailer" that comes up when searching for it is completely fan-made. The only official trailer associated with Gone Girl is the movie based on the book.
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Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar ChildrenThis trailer depicts a heartwarming moment between grandfather and grandson, reminiscent of the classic The Neverending Story. The grandfather shares a time when unique children all lived together, where they were free to be themselves, as…odd as they were.
Much like in the book, the trailer features images of peculiar children: the girl who would float away if not tied at the waist, an invisible boy, twin sisters who could converse without speaking. But, like any good trailer, Grandpa doesn’t tell his grandson, or us, much else. Glimpses of terrible things flash across the screen before he decides the story, for now, is over. 
The grandson asks the same thing we do. "When will you tell me the rest?" It’s up to us to get the book and find out. 
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The Hunger GamesThe official book trailers for all three books in The Hunger Games trilogy use the same simple yet effective methods, tying the three in seamlessly. They rely on a prominent element of televising the games to make the trailers immersive. 
There are no voices and no images, just eerie music and text that would pique the interest of any lover of dystopian literature.
Once the Capital is established from the first book, the next two trailers show a broadcast announcement from "CPTV", as it would in the books, further pulling you into this dystopian nightmare.
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PAXThough unofficial, this book trailer for PAX by Sara Pennypacker is as touching and effective as the book itself. Borrowing the style of the book cover, this middle grade story centers a fox and his boy, separated by his father's demand upon enlisting in the army. 
Though this trailer only shows beautiful imagery of a fox, a cutout of the boy, and quotes from other authors in the book's praise, its effectiveness is in simplicity and heartwarming messages.
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The Graveyard BookNeil Gaimen does not shy away from the darker aspects of writing just because he’s gearing towards kids and young teens. The Graveyard Book explores death and living, ghosts and, well, graveyards. The official trailer is no different.
By using still drawings, fast panning, and a gray scale, the scarier aspects of murder and ghosts are simply a glimpse in this trailer, while the narration explores the more positive aspects of what it takes to raise a child, be it the living, or the dead. 
This is a great tactic to lure children into reading books they feel are more mature, while staying suited for them.
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The Girl in Room 105Created and acted by the author, Chetan Bhagat, The Girl in Room 105 book trailer plays like a movie, with fun music, a fast pace narrative, and a cliffhanger that quite literally begs the question, "Wait, what happens?!"
I applaud the character acting from all involved, and the shots were framed so well. Had I not found this in my research for book trailers, I would have thought this a trailer for a movie. It leaves little to the imagination in ways of how characters look, but it presents a mystery with several possibilities without giving any hints.
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EndlingThis trailer uses simple animation and a beautiful narration to portray a middle grade-friendly story. It starts with a close-up of a wolf-like creature's eye, and within it, nature and love, war and isolation play out.
This is a simple, short, and beautiful way to entice young readers and adults alike. It gives away just a little more so that a younger audience will be intrigued. It sounds like the narration shares the story before the story, and the book is what comes of it.
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EverlessAs an official book trailer, they did not hold back. From the animation, to the imagery, to the voice acting, the Everless trailer is one of the most effective of this list for me. I had never heard of the book before this deep dive into book trailers, but with the narration alone, I feel I’m a few steps ahead of a reader who’s never seen the trailer. Her voice and emotion would certainly stick with me if I decide to read this book.
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Carve The MarkAnother perfect example of vague imagery, the Carve The Mark book trailer obscures any features of people, focusing instead on silhouettes and colors to convey the emotion of the narration. The voice acting and text complement this approach well. The music is enchanting as the narrator explains that "the current," while seemingly the source of power, life, and ability, is also a curse to her.
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The Darkest Part of the ForestWhat’s a book list from me without mentioning Holly Black? The Darkest Part of the Forest was the first book trailer I ever came across, months before its release in early 2015. It had everything I loved: beautiful animation, a story about the fae, and a haunting, chant-like song that provides just the right amount of eerie information.
The focus is the imagery, despite the song being catchy and slightly horrifying. Vines pour out of what I would assume is a dead girl’s mouth. There’s a fae asleep in a glass casket deep in the forest. At the end of the trailer, everything ties together—the imagery and the song, the music and its sudden silence. It was the first book trailer I bothered watching, and it gave me chills.
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While traditional publishers rarely focus on book trailers as a marketing strategy, indie authors and fans seem to love creating them. Learn more about $ digitally marketing your books here$ .