Mare di Libri organizes and promotes Ciak, si legge! the first nationwide book trailer competition for teenagers.

What is a book trailer?

It is a short video presentation that promotes a book, just like a movie trailer promotes a film. It is designed to attract readers towards a particular novel by sharing a glimpse of its story – though not revealing the ending!

 

The Contest

The idea of a contest dedicated to teenagers that combines both reading and visual media came from the experience that the Mare di Libri volunteers had with a book that was given to them still in draft so that they could work on it before publication. Over the years other publishing houses have decided to collaborate with Mare di Libri, offering drafts of unpublished novels and thus contributing to the growth of Ciak, si legge!

Three minutes to tell a story

To enroll in the competition one chooses one of the unpublished novels made available and makes a video of a maximum of three minutes. The videos must be ready by mid-May to be submitted to a jury that selects a candidate for each title in the competition. After that the book trailers are screened at the Mare di Libri Festival and a combined jury of experts and keen readers select the winner, who receives a rich prize in books.

The book trailer finalists are always published on our YouTube channel a few weeks before the Festival.