This weekend, I’ll be on a panel at the Southern Independent Booksellers Association (SIBA) conference in Norfolk, and the panel moderator, Mary Ellen Taylor (Check out her cool Union Street Bakery series!) has asked us to be prepared to ask a question about how we’d like bestsellers to describe our book to prospective readers.

I’d like them to start by saying, “I’ve read a really wonderful book lately that I think you’ll love, too!” Whatever else they say, as a reader, that’s what I like to hear first, because I know then that a good conversation about books is to follow.

One of the hardest questions for an author to answer is “What’s your novel about?” Not because we don’t know, but because we have to guess what the questioner wants to hear. “Just tell us the setting.” “Who’s the main character?” Or “Is it romance? mystery? what?” Those are some of the impatient interruptions I’ve heard recently. Not after I’ve rambled on for entire paragraphs, you understand, but because I started out saying something that isn’t that particular reader’s cue to a good book. Truth is, I suppose we all have elements that hook us on books. I want to hear about themes, but I realize that’s not everyone’s cup of tea.So I try to get a little of each of those cues in most answers to that question.

Book trailers are designed to hook you so that you don’t care how we start, you just want to follow the images and the voices to the end, by which you will decide you can no longer live without that book. Well. that’s the idea. The book trailer for Eve’s Garden took a lot of work and the help of three talented people.

Check it out, below.

Thanks to Darlyn and Brad Kuhn from Brad Kuhn and Associates Check them out at http://www.bradkuhnandassociates.com.

I felt really fortunate to have music from my friend, Russian-Romani guitar master Vadim Kolpakov, in the trailer. I know you want to hear more! Visit him at http://www.vadimkolpakov.com.