Week 9: Book Trailers & Training Wrap Up

Assignment 2
I've never really given book trailers much thought before. If I want to know about a book, I just read the flap or some reviews on Amazon. As I read through the Chicago Tribune article and watched the book trailers therein, I found myself thinking that book trailers were a weird way to promote books. The trailer for Super Sad True Love Story didn't give me much indication about the plot of the book and it was much, much too long. I started to change my tune a little bit when I saw the videos presented by Robin Sloan. He describes these videos as "Reading Rainbow-esque" and they ran only about 2 minutes. I enjoyed just listening to someone talk to me about a book rather than watching a silly, low budget video.
The New York Times article also contained similar book trailers where the author just discusses their book. I think I liked this better because it created a more intimate experience; like sitting down with a friend to talk about a book.
I was pretty shocked to discover that fans often make their own book trailers. I watched several book trailers on YouTube, mostly for books I've already read. I can see where they might be useful for enticing some readers but they just aren't for me. I'm also not really sure how I'd work them into a readers' advisory conversation. I feel like I'd need to have a handle on how good a book trailer was before I showed it to someone. I can't see myself randomly looking for a book trailer to show a customer. I have heard of school media specialists using book trailers and that might be a more appropriate venue and target demographic.

Assignment 3
There was a lot of useful information provided through this training. Somethings were new to me and others were excellent reminders of things I've learned along the way. Remembering to recognize the appeal factors during readers' advisory work will allow me to draw from a wider range of titles. I enjoyed the section on non-fiction readers' advisory. Once again, recommending non-fiction during RA work broadens the possibilities for readers.
I signed up for a couple of newsletters during the training but my favorite is Early Word. I was impressed by all of the information on the Early Word site but I would spend way too much time poking around. The newsletter contains a more manageable amount of information. That's where I found out about Kate DiCamillo's new book, Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures, due out September 24.
In the beginning of the training, I decided to follow Stop, You're Killing Me! and I would have liked to spend more time concentrating on the mystery genre. Maybe in the future, there could be a training like this for specific genres. I also must say that the timing of this training wasn't the best for those of us involved in Summer Reading Club. But I'm proud to say I managed to stay on schedule on complete the training on time!