Welcome to Trailer Park Tuesday, a showcase
of new book trailers and, in a few cases, previews of book-related movies. Unless their last name is Grisham or King, authors will probably never see their
trailers on the big screen at the local cineplex. And that's a shame because a
lot of hard work goes into producing these short marriages between book and
video. So, if you like what you see, please spread the word and help these
videos go viral.
I was there at the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association meeting when Wendy Pearl, a sales rep for Penguin publishers, held up an advance reading copy of Kristopher Jansma's debut novel
The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards and
bravely announced to the hundred-plus booksellers in the room that if the book didn't become an Indie Next bestseller, she would "eat this galley." It's the kind of passion every first-time novelist dreams of getting from those responsible for marketing and publicizing their "book babies." Fortunately for Pearl, she won't have to break her "strict, no-paper diet" because
The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards made the
April Indie Next List. I've had my eye on Jansma's book ever since that NCIBA trade show, having packed a galley in my suitcase even before Pearl's challenge. (Lack of) time and (too many) circumstances have kept me from reading it yet, but the book trailer for
Leopards certainly re-piques my interest. It's a beautiful video which is at once intimate and globally-expansive. There's just enough odd detail to intrigue us (why is the narrator's manuscript disintegrating at the bottom of an ice-bound lake?) and plenty of big-name blurbs to convince me that Jansma's novel is worth my time: "Light and airy,
The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards is a funhouse of a
novel about the outsized ambitions of authors and the sneaky power of
storytelling. Kristopher Jansma's debut is a whimsical round-the-world tour
that recalls Calvino, Millhauser and
The Confidence Man" (Stewart O'Nan). I can't wait to eat this book.
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