Book trailers: moveable blurbs on screen

Book trailers are visual shortcuts and can be part of a targeted marketing plan.
Image is an illustration of a huge book towering over a little grassy hill on which there is a red chair and a small chair. There is a golden glow over everything and a setting sun over a forest in the background with some birds in the distant sky.

We’re all used to reading blurbs on the back of books and hyperventilating praise from famous authors on the cover, endpapers and within the opening pages, but sometimes for added marketing oomph, publishers (and some authors) look to creating and releasing book trailers to support their advertising campaigns.

ArtsHub reached out to two publishers and a writer to explore this growing practice.

Unlock Padlock Icon

Unlock this content?

Access this content and more

Thuy On is the Reviews and Literary Editor of ArtsHub and an arts journalist, critic and poet who’s written for a range of publications including The Guardian, The Saturday Paper, Sydney Review of Books, The Australian, The Age/SMH and Australian Book Review. She was the Books Editor of The Big Issue for 8 years and a former Melbourne theatre critic correspondent for The Australian. Her debut, a collection of poetry called Turbulence, came out in 2020 and was released by University of Western Australia Publishing (UWAP). Her second collection, Decadence, was published in July 2022, also by UWAP. Her third book, Essence, will be published in 2025. Threads: @thuy_on123 Instagram: poemsbythuy