Top Book Trailer Producer Reaches Out To Young Readers

Young readers and young adult readers are finding out about books via the internet. With the growing popularity of sites like Facebook and YouTube and the increasing awareness of book trailers, the two mediums; video and books, have found a way to merge, creating interest in reading for young people in an unusual way. Book videos use a visual means to tell a book synopsis in under two minutes.

Circle of Seven Productions, the company that created the book trailer phenomenon and trademarked the term “book trailer” back in 2002 is reaching out to young readers in a variety of ways. The company won two EMPixx Awards in the category of Children’s Audience earlier this year and was awarded a Silver Telly Award recently in the same category for their book video Indigo King.  The Telly Awards are the top awards given for commercials and online video. Other Silver Telly Award winners included BET, Chicago Tribune, Comcast Entertainment, ESPN, PBS, SciFi Channel and other notable companies. Only 7-10% of videos entered into the Telly Awards win the top, Silver Award. Circle of Seven Productions (COS Productions) has set its sights on the young reader market with its new video distribution platform and a new young reader website that will go live this summer.

The company also works with author Deborah LeBlanc and Literacy Inc. , a non-profit organization that sends books to high school students and challenges them to read, giving prizes including scholarships. “Deborah goes to the schools and talks to them about why it is important to be able to read. She is passionate about reaching these kids and we want to support that in any way we can to help her with that mission.” says CEO Sheila Clover English.

COS Productions works with the University of Central Florida with their Digital Booktalk program that reaches out primarily to middle school age children. “We help supply resources and make ourselves available to teachers. The program is amazing!” says English. “The kids get to make book videos instead of doing a book report. You can tell in just a couple of minutes if they understood the concept of the book by what they put in the video. Plus, they have a blast with it!”

According to the company’s top management they are making an effort to reach out to readers using technology and social media in an effort to remind them of how engaging, entertaining and educational books are.