Somesuch Editions Gives the Book Trailer a Cinematic Second Life

Book promotion has long relied on jackets, window displays, reviews, and a short line of praise. Somesuch Editions is adding another form to that vocabulary: the book trailer treated as a compact piece of cinema rather than a moving advertisement.

The imprint grows out of Somesuch, a production company built around film and storytelling. After more than a decade publishing the arts journal Somesuch Stories, the studio expanded into books under its own name. That shared foundation lets its publishing and production sides work together, bringing filmmakers, photographers, artists, and designers into the life of each title.

A visual blurb

The approach is especially visible in the campaign for Cenac Rollins’ debut novel Now Burns Blue, a story about former lovers moving through a hot London summer. Director Frankie Spence translates the book’s southeast London setting into an atmospheric montage of markets, hair salons, pavement games, and passing faces. Spoken lines from the novel mingle with the city’s sound, suggesting character and place without trying to summarize the plot.

It is a useful distinction. A conventional trailer sells a sequence of events; Somesuch’s films establish tone. They act more like visual blurbs, offering a point of entry for readers who may encounter a book first through a screen. The format extends a novel’s world while leaving room for the private act of imagining it.

One story, several forms

Somesuch tested the model with Kimberly Campanello’s Use the Words You Have, its first work of fiction, published in 2025. Zaineb Abelque directed that title’s trailer, while Nanténé Traoré’s cover image, Marloes Haarmans’ photography, and Guest Editions’ design gave the physical book its own charged visual identity. For Now Burns Blue, Georgia Semple created the cover artwork and Haarmans photographed the edition.

The result is less about making books behave like films than allowing each medium to sharpen the other. A trailer can carry rhythm, gesture, and ambient sound; the book can remain slower, interior, and open-ended. Somesuch’s most convincing move is recognizing that readers do not leave visual culture behind when they pick up a novel.

Explore Somesuch Editions, watch Frankie Spence’s official Now Burns Blue visual aid, and read the original feature at It’s Nice That.

Featured image: Now Burns Blue by Cenac Rollins. Cover artwork by Georgia Semple and photography by Marloes Haarmans. Courtesy Somesuch Editions.