FollowI’m glad I got to learn more about Ashland Creek Press in this class. I had heard about her press from her travel writing workshop, and it was mentioned before in class, but no discussion ever got in depth. Now I am very excited about it. I thought it was just going to be another small press, but it is very unique. I’m confident Ashland Creek Press is going to do very well. It seems to have a solid foundation, and I think it is in the right place at the right time. I also found it interesting to learn that they have another small press called Byte Level Books, which is also very unique.
The one thing the Midge Raymond and John Yunker presented, which I had no idea existed, were book trailers. Even now that I know a little bit more about them, I still do not understand why a book needs a video trailer. The idea was and still is a foreign idea to me. However, the idea of book trailers made me wonder how hard authors find creating them. I mean summing up an entire book can be hard enough but to mold it into a two minute visual and auditory presentation? I don’t see the sense in it.
That said I thought Dennis Cass’s book trailer “Book Launch 2.0” was brilliant. I think I found it funny because that is the type of phone call seems to ring true. I could have a very similar phone call one day. It was just hilarious and I think the trailer did a wonderful job promoting him as an author.
Midge’s and John’s book trailer for The Tourist Trail and Forgetting English was pretty brilliant as well. Even though it’s not high quality, movie budget video I think that is more of a benefit than a drawback. I think it allows potential readers/audience members to connect with the authors and become more interested in viewing their work because it’s the type of video that they could have produced. I think their video makes them as authors more accessible to their audience because they feel like real people.
After class I decided to check out a few more book trailers. I looked at Jenna Blum’s book trailer for The Stormchasers (recommended by Midge in her blog) and Brian Rathbone’s trailer for The Dawning of Power. Rathbone’s trailer was all right. It had a dramatic feel, and I became somewhat interested in learning more about the book but that feeling wasn’t strong enough to get me to go check out his book on Amazon. Blum’s trailer, on the other hand, I thought was very good. It was very visual, and the questions from the video, and the hinting at what the story might be about while not giving anything away was well done. I was definitely intrigued enough to check out her book from her website.
On a side note, I just wanted to put out there that George R.R. Martin, a pretty popular fantasy writer, has an article/speech on his website called “Editors: The Writer’s Natural Enemy.” He wrote the speech in 1979, but I think its theme is still applicable today. It’s a bit humorous but I think looking at editors from his view gives us another piece to the larger publisher, editor, writer perspective that we have gained throughout the class.
[Editor’s note: Here is the trailer for The Tourist Trail. Enjoy.]
