How to make a book trailer for $50,000

The company already has produced more than 50 spots for publishing giants Random House and St. Martin’s Press, most of them shot locally, Roth said. The 15-to-30-second spots air on cable channels such as Sci-Fi and MTV, Internet outlets including Google TV and Hulu, online gaming sites and at movie theaters. ‘We’re doing four or five of these a month, and there are no signs of this letting up,’ said Roth. ‘The budgets just keep growing.’... Roth’s book trailers cost as much as $50,000 each, and involve a full complement of actors, computer-generated effects, costumes and set designs with the high production values of a movie trailer. The book trailers, which often appear on social media sites, help to spur book sales, in much the same way movie trailers help market Hollywood films, said Nancy Trypuc, senior director for creative services at St. Martin’s Press. ‘It’s a way for us to try to excite people prior to the book’s publication,’’ said Trypuc. ‘We find, especially in the paranormal space, that fans are really attracted to things like this.’