Alien romances and video

Alien romance, stands out in my mind as a prime example of a subgenre of Romance that ought to benefit from showing book videos (book peeks, book trailers, book flicks).

My Crazy Tuesday internet voices radio show was about Book Flicks in general. Tammie King, owner of Night Owl Romance, chose which videos were shown.

Madeline Hunter, Judi McCoy, Renee Field, Sandra Hill, Susan Kearney, Deborah MacGillivray, Jacquie Rogers were on the guest list, and we talked about cost, distribution, return on investment, actors... especially actors, length, sound-track, subtitles, stock footage and much more.

It was a fascinating discussion, especially since we were all able to watch the individual videos on the internet while the authors discussed their choices, mistakes, triumphs, and disasters.

Upon mature reflection since then, I tend to think that a genre like SFR (science fiction romance) might be a tad better served by a video that, say, a contemporary murder mystery.

The "Procedural" novel buyer generally knows what to expect, whether it is a coroner's procedure, or a detective's.

If there is a couple in costume on the front of a Medieval Romance novel, a video is lovely to supplement that impression-- please do not think I am snarking Historicals, because I am not-- but seeing a couple in costume moving around isn't as eye-opening as seeing, for instance, a hunk turning into a weredragon. Or seeing that the shadowy figure on the cover is supposed to be reassuringly normal and devastatingly gorgeous when he turns around.

Maybe, someone browsing the SF aisle or the Romance aisle does not know what to expect when they pick up a futuristic or an alien-vampire romance. Cover art for us can sometimes be misleading... not for all of us. I know of some authors who've successfully requested different cover art from the first offering. Most authors don't get cover approval.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a dozen frames in a fifty second video may be worth so much more. The NASA site is a great source of free images of star systems, planets, and other stellar what-not.


Whose videos convey SFR for you?
Has any video persuaded you to try a SFR that you might otherwise have not looked at?

Best wishes,
Rowena Cherry

Forced Mate
Mating Net
Insufficient Mating Material

(trying to finish KNIGHT'S FORK by mid month)!