Help readers know how to talk about your writing
How Rebecca Green communicates the feeling and purpose behind her books
Today I want to share a case study on how to help readers talk about your writing in a manner that feels meaningful. I will center this on the new book trailer that author and illustrator Rebecca Green just released, why it works, and how you can use these ideas for yourself.
I first met Rebecca back in 2018, and have shared three interviews with her since that time:
Navigating Creative Burnout, My Interview With Rebecca Green (Jan 2018)
“I don’t want my art to be good or bad, I want it to be me.” (March 2019)
“I had to think, what kind of artist am I, and what do I want to be doing?” (April 2021)
She was gracious enough to hop on Zoom with me yesterday, and answer soooo many questions about the trailer and sharing with her readers. Here she is in her studio:
Over the years, she began teasing an original set of characters she was developing, and then announced a book series featuring their world. The first two are being released this Fall!
They are the subject of the book trailer we will analyze today. You can view it here:
It was written and produced by Rebecca, and directed, edited, and photographed by Joseph Kolean.
Let’s dig in…
Show Readers How to Feel About the Books
The very first shot in the trailer focuses not on the book, but Rebecca herself, working at her desk, with dozens of sketches and art supplies surrounding her:
Then, it shows a closeup of her drawing the characters:
Why is this interesting? Because she is starting by showing the journey. To show the person and ideas behind the characters. This is a fascinating decision to me because the very first thing it does is show the creation of these characters as pencil drawings. Rebecca is bringing us into a story we may relate to or become fascinated by: her own. In voiceover she says:
“So, I’ve been working on the Henri & Miko books for over six years.”
She then shares something that every author or artist knows, that it’s difficult to talk about your work: “Every time I explain them to someone, I just say like… bllaaaaaahhh… it’s about a mouse and a bee who live in in a cider press.”
There is such a conversational tone to her voice. This is not “movie trailer” voice, but “two friends sipping cider next to a fire” voice.
She then goes on to explain the characters and story: “And that is true… Henri is a sweet and creative mouse. And her friend Miko is fiery little bee who loves to cook and throw parties, and together the two dwell in a once abandoned cider press that they now call home.”
The entire time, on the screen are flashing dozens of sketches and final artwork, showing her process for developing each character and aspect of the visual design. It’s behind-the-scenes of who these characters are, as well as her creative process as an artist and writer.
She then moves on, “But honestly, there’s so much more than that.” She really inflects her voice in this line, it feels so genuine. Like a friend showing you something that really matters.
“Each book contains paneled stories, poems, recipes, a treasure hunt, so much detail and seasonal charm. The first two books in the series are an ode to autumn, and to winter.”
In some ways, this is a listing of features the “product” includes. But the feeling I had was more like stepping into a Wes Anderson film, where there are layers and layers of details that you could never fully explore. Rebecca is not just showing you a book, not just showing you characters or a storyline; she is welcoming you into an entire universe.
But instead of making it seem complicated, the fact that the trailer focuses so much on Rebecca herself, her life, and her creative process, it makes it seem very accessible.
Showing Readers How Talk About the Books
Then she covers the themes of the book, saying the books focus on:
“Friendship, celebration, and everything cozy.”
We see Rebecca herself, in her home, where she says, “My work has long focused on celebration, or the fact that we can create our own celebrations. Simply by lighting a candle, hanging some bunting, maybe taking the time to bake a special apple desert for a friend. We can turn an ordinary day, into one worth remembering. One worth savoring. One worth celebrating.”
We see her do these exact things:
One thing to note is that the trailer is really geared towards adults, even though in many ways, these are kids books. She and I discussed how her books straddle these worlds, and how really, she is creating these books for herself at her current age, as well as for her younger self.
She says, “It’s very different when you make something versus like how you explain it to people. I‘ve really had to like consider how to translate that.”
What I considered most with the trailer is how it helps show her readers how to feel about the books, and how to talk about them with others. In some ways, these are relatable ideals a reader may want to support. Not just “a fun book of two woodland creatures,” but “I am someone who honors slowness, coziness, and meaningful moments.”
None of us have read these books yet, but it’s easy to consider how to talk about them after watching the trailer, “I love that Fall is coming up! Can’t wait for the coziness of hot apple cider, wearing flannel, and reading Henri & Miko with my kids.”
She is showing you the impact these books may have on your life, to embrace the idea of coziness being an intention, and something you can create.
Rebecca told me how the trailer was the opportunity for her to really nail down how to explain the book and talk about it. She says, “For somebody who’s never seen these books before, I need for them to understand it.” Joe’s original vision for the trailer was a montage and music, but as they developed it, Rebecca felt strongly that it needed a voiceover. She worked on the script, and recorded a minute and a half voiceover, the length of the entire trailer. From there, Joe had creative freedom on where and how to use elements of it. She told him: “I think we have to be very clear with what we’re saying. I want this thing to come across in a very clear way.”
I love that kind of focus on clarity in communication. To not just rely on vibes alone, but to spell out to your ideal readers what this book represents.
Readers Want to Engage with the Passion and Purpose Behind Art
As I mentioned, Rebecca is so present in the trailer. I think a lot of writers try to hide, justifying that readers only care about the work itself. They try to remove any reason to show themselves in how they share about their writing.
Rebecca infused herself into this trailer, and I think it’s a huge benefit to it. People are curious about the passion and purpose behind one’s work, and you become a gateway to that. (I wrote a whole book on this topic: Be the Gateway: A Practical Guide to Sharing Your Creative Work and Engaging an Audience.) When you remove yourself from the work, I think you miss a lot of opportunities to connect with readers. Rebecca dove in, and the feeling of the video is amazing because of it.
Of her artwork and the books, she says: “It’s all done by hand. And it was a tremendous amount of work. So I wanted to show that. It’s been important through the whole process to have all these physical things because I love seeing physical things in museums as part of processes from other books.”
This is a decision to make herself part of the promotion. But it is also the thing that connects all of her work together. She began sharing online more than 15 years ago. I just looked up her first blog post here, which is so Rebecca:
“This is my first blog? And I’m how old? Yeah, well I have been too busy eating almond cookies so don’t hold it against me.”
When we chatted yesterday, she told me how much she loves food, and that in the Henri & Miko books, the characters are constantly holding food or a drink.
When her editor first saw the book trailer, she commented to Rebecca: “You are Henri and Miko.” Rebecca replied she hadn’t even considered this before, but that really landed with her. She said, “I will be honest, doing this Henri & Miko book for a long, long time, I felt a little bit insecure because I don’t think it’s “cool.” Like, they are not cool characters. But then I was like, ‘I’m not cool.’ I’m sweet and like to make apple crumble for my friends.’ That is literally what these characters are.”
This trailer is about welcoming you into Rebecca’s world, which Henri & Miko are a part of. It is Rebecca’s passion and craft that has made all of this possible, and I think that on a human level, so many can relate to that.
This is why we watch interviews, and learn stories about the making of art. It’s why we want to see songs performed by a real person in concert, not just listen to a song on Spotify, removed from the human who created it.
As you share your own work, consider how you can share who you are as well.
Investing in Craft When You Can’t Prove ROI
Why a book trailer? Has she calculated specific return on investment, exactly how many additional books this may sell? No.
Rebecca says, “Video is essential nowadays. I think really video is the way that we share things now.”
One of the first questions I asked her was: “What did the trailer cost to make?” She had shared with me lots of behind the scenes footage and info, and yet, I was surprised at her answer.
Joe had been asking her for years to collaborate on a book trailer, and when she pitched this to her publisher, Tundra Books, felt it would be worthwhile. In the past, Rebecca paid for her own trailers, but in this case Tundra paid Joe directly. Rebecca paid for his lodging, food, and airfare.
Joe shot the entire trailer on a Bolex SBM 16mm film camera.
They bought 5 rolls of film, and could shoot up to 28 seconds at a time. The camera doesn’t record sound, so they recorded that separately. However, her studio had too much noise from the traffic outside, so they had to redo the sound another way.
Each 10 or 20 second shot would take 10 minutes to setup to get it right. The camera was mounted to a tripod, a light meter had to be used and settings adjusted. She summed it up as: “It was a tremendous amount of work,” and completely different from how we are used to filming something nowadays, where we can easily record unlimited digital video, with the sound built-in.
For what to include in the trailer, she had hundreds and hundreds of pieces of artwork, and found it overwhelming to consider which pieces to feature and how to set them up.
In terms of time, there were four days of shooting the film footage, and I appreciated how Rebecca said it was something her entire family had to work around, she and her husband have a 10-month old daughter. Some was filmed in her studio, some in the woods, some in her dining room, and some in her yard:
They had to work out every single shot before he arrived, which culminated in a detailed shot list:
Rebecca had to spend a couple of days cleaning and organizing her studio, since it would be used as a set.
For a few weeks after filming, she and Joe went back and forth every single day on editing and creative decisions. In the end, they created the trailer in two formats (landscape and vertical for social media), made a 2nd trailer (not yet released), and other videos that will be used for Instagram Reels. Rebecca has also created two half-hour long behind the scenes videos for her Patreon audience.
So this is a huge investment in terms of time and resources. When I asked why this mattered to her so much, her answer was amazing:
“I will only be this person, this age, in this studio, with this family, with this home, right now. I want, in 30 years, for me to look back and say, that was that time. I’m really nostalgic, so the way to do that is to see it in video. I knew that Joe could capture that and so it’s almost a selfish thing, if I’m honest. I want this sort of time capsule to celebrate these books, which are the most rewarding project I’ve ever worked on.”
She and Joe have known each other a long time, and collaborated before. She cited how that relationship really helped this project, and allowed them to have really honest conversations about how to best share this book with the world.
This is Work
I think it would be easy to see Rebecca’s trailer, her artwork, her studio, her videos on Patreon, and convince oneself that this is the natural output of someone who is a passionate creator.
But this is work.
She began creating Henri & Miko in 2019. She sent an official pitch to her editor in 2021. By that time, she had created hundreds of images of these characters already, and it took another year to sign a contract. At first, they intended on a two-book series. But as the work developed, and a year or two went by, they realized it needed to be four books. So they reworked the agreement. It took another year to work out the book map and layouts.
When the book is a released and you hold it in your hand, it will be so easy to say, “Wow, Rebecca is so talented!” And that’s true.
But my days are spent with writers, helping them get clarity on how to communicate and share what they create, how to bring their work to readers, how to preparing marketing campaigns and book launches. I worry that writers hope it all just feels natural and easy. Because if it doesn’t, they justify it is not authentic.
But this is work. And I love how Rebecca has found a sense of deep fulfillment and joy in the process.
Something I noted is this: there are around 60 cuts in the trailer. That means 60 separate images on the screen, each one a decision that she and the director had to make. There is a short animation, photos of the books, photos of sketches and finished artwork, and filming in multiple locations, each which had to be lit separately.
After all of this effort, the goal is to for the minute and a half trailer to help you feel something about these books. And I think it does that so well.
You can find Rebecca and her books in the following places:
If you pre-order both books, you qualify for this adorable pre-order bonus: “Cozy Celebration Kit.”
Her newsletter
Her Instagram
If you want to explore working with me, there are two ways I collaborate with writers and creators:
Recent videos available to my paid Substack subscribers:
Why we resist sharing our writing (25 minutes)
Sharing what is real in an age of AI-perfection (25 minutes)
Agency Vs. Algorithm: On feeling a sense of purpose in how you connect with others on social media (23 minutes)
As always, thank you so much for being here with me.
-Dan
Kids of the Week: Celebrating the 13th anniversary of moving into our home:
He was excited to show me his new art supply organizer for his desk. Top layer: craft sticks, craft stick cutter, glue, pens/pencils, and glass beads:
Bottom layer: sooooooo much ribbon:
This is so beautiful! AND it's very effective cause I just pre-ordered the book lol. Can't wait to have a magical October with my new mouse & bee friends
I am blown away by the magical feel of this trailer and how the camera captured something digital just cannot do!!! So inspiring!