that book trailer thing (as dissected by Tribune writer Nina Metz)

Readers of this blog know how tormented I've been about the whole book trailer thing.  Do trailers matter?  Should I indulge?  Do I have a trailer state of mind?

Well, you know what I mean.  For my home-made, no-budget Small Damages trailer, I decided to go with quiet.  With photographs I took throughout my travels in Spain, with a hand-strummed guitar riff that my husband recorded out in his old garage, and with a few words from early readers.  I knew I couldn't approximate Hollywood glam.  It seemed wrong to try.  And besides, Small Damages is a story of discovery, not just of self, but of place.  There are few places more beautiful, to me, than my characters' southern Spain. 

Lately, Nina Metz has been pondering the trailer topic, too.  She writes of it with great humor and pizzazz in this Chicago Tribune story.  Anyone contemplating the making of a trailer should take a look—not just for what Metz herself has to say, but for what her cast of interviewees contributes.  Among them is the very smart Nick Davis (who is married to the tremendously talented Jane Mendelsohn, the author of one of my favorite books, American Music).

And if you are in the it's-a-very-hot-day-and-I-can't-concentrate-on-words frame of mind, do yourself the favor of combing the story for its links to effective "trailers," particularly the extravagantly preposterous faux effort by Gary Shteyngart.  It had me snorting with laughter.