Book Marketing – Book Trailers!!! One of the hottest trends to help with book marketing these days are book trailers. Book trailers are a great tool for authors to use to generate book buzz, so I decided I would do some research and see if I could develop one for The Gemstone Chronicles Book One: The Carnelian. Before I show it, I wanted to go through the process that I used. Maybe it will help one of you readers with your own trailer!
Steps:
I started my trailer by developing slides in PowerPoint. You don’t have to do it that way. There are services that will create a trailer for you. Or, you can do it yourself. Step by step, it works something like this:
- Decide what you want to say about your book – write a script if you need to
- Find some images that fit what you want to say in your script
- Find music that fits the images and your book
- Make sure you give attribution for the images and music. Sometimes you have to pay for a license to use the images and the music, so do your research! I used www.incompetech.com for the music.
- Edit it all together and there you have it – a book trailer
I know this is a greatly simplified set of directions, but if you follow steps like this, you can make a trailer. You can Google it to find many helpful hints, examples, and step by step instructions. Once you’ve made the trailer draft, I recommend running it by friends, family, and other authors, and be prepared for some criticism (constructive, I hope). I ran my rough draft by a whole group of people (that fit the recommendations listed above) and got a ton of feedback. As a result, I reduced the length, changed the font, and made a few other changes. It made the end result much better, I think!
Formats:
Making the trailer wasn’t all that difficult. It can be a slide show or it can be converted into a .mp4 or .wmv (or other formats, depending on what devices you want to be able to view it). I converted mine to .mp4 so viewers can see it on most devices. The conversion from PowerPoint slides to the .mp4 was easy, too! Just save the file as .mp4 and PowerPoint converts it. Works the same way to save the file as a .wmv, so easy as can be!
Where to post the trailer?
Now that the trailer is made, what do you do with it? I will post mine on my website, include it on MyBookTable, put it on my Facebook fan page, and I might even start my own YouTube channel. I will be at the Augusta Literary Festival March 7 and I can run it at my table during the day. As a part of my overall marketing plan, I intend to use it extensively to generate interest in the book and I will be working on trailers for the other books of the series!
Finally, here is the trailer! Take a look and let me know what you think!!
Have you done a book trailer or had one created for your books? I would love to see them, so post a link in the comments. Who knows, I might end up buying books based on the trailers!
Connect with me:
If you want to connect with me, I can be found on Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads, or you can contact me through email at bill@williamlstuart.com.
I like the book trailer. I think the music selection was perfect for the book as well. The only issue I had to watch it twice (I guess that’s not a bad thing) to read all of the narrative. The reason is that each narrative came with a picture and I found myself looking at the picture then reading the narrative, so I did not have time enough to read the entire narrative.
But great job, I like the trailer!
Thanks for the feedback Steve. It was my first effort and I learned a lot about how to do it. I hope my next will be even better!
Hello Bill,
I’m a fellow author and a retired AV producer. I watched your promo, but it went by too quickly for me to read the copy. A rule we used about copy in a film was to leave it on long enough to read the message twice.
Then I clicked on the link to your e-mail, and couldn’t get through.
All best,
Julian Padowicz
Hi Julian. Thanks for the feedback. I will take a look at it and perhaps make some changes. I will also check into the link, too!
I like your trailer. Possibly too much wording? But I think the music is apropos, and I really liked it.
Below are links to the trailers for two of my three books. The third will be available later this week. Unfortunately, I’m not as talented as you are, and I had mine made. But I will say I’m more than happy with them!
Twisted Engagement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKMmKHfCTFs&feature=youtu.be
Dancing With A Cowboy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6kYaPum6eU
Hi Sandi! Thanks for the feedback. I appreciate you taking the time to have a look. I looked at both of yours and I liked the way they were done. I know you said you weren’t as talented as me (kind words, but untrue, I think), but I don’t have a budget for trailers and other marketing efforts, so I had to do what I could. Luckily, I have to use some of these tools at work, so I was able to manage it. I look forward to making another one!
Wow Bill, thank you so much for this. I have been dreaming about doing a book trailer for my Y/A novel, LongbowGirl, to be published this Sept by Chicken House. Now I have your how to and incentive! Really useful. Thanks again, Linda
Hi Linda! Go for it and best of luck with both the trailer and your book. When you get the trailer done, please send me a link. I would love to see it!
Bill,
Please contact me when you make another! I’d love to see it. And believe me, I didn’t pay a lot for mine.
Will do Sandi!!
Hi William,
You have some great images, but they are struggling to hold their own against all those black borders surrounding them. More color via backgrounds that enhance the colors in your images and make viewers feel like they are in a fantasy world are needed, and the images need to be larger, if possible. On another blog, I wrote an article on a way to deal with those borders. If you want me to post the link, let me know.
Also, unless the trailer is viewed in the full-screen option, the font is difficult to read and needs to be larger, if not replaced all together. Some of the writing is so lengthy that it disappears before a person can finish reading it. Those longer passages can be shortened or the writing spread over several frames. I’m not sure why so many characters’ names are included. The pronunciations aren’t easy and trying to absorb all those names can be off-putting.
I don’t mean any offense by my comments, but a trailer that is serious about promoting a book must be visually engaging to viewers or they won’t connect with the book and they won’t seek to find out more about it. The overwhelming blackness, the size of the images and the font along with the text moving so fast, it can barely be read are the kinds of distractions that prevent the trailer from promoting your book effectively. But these are aspects that can easily be corrected.
Finally, I’m not sure if this is a YA fantasy. If it is, then the music needs to be a little faster so that it will appeal to your targeted audience.
You asked for links to book trailers, so I’m sharing one to a trailer that I created for an author.
http://youtu.be/NkoArCpnozM
Thanks for your blog post.
Thanks for the information, Kathy! There is a lot of good information here and I will look closely at it and see what I can do to make adjustments. I appreciate you taking the time to comment.
These book sounds great, Bill. I’m definitley going to be checking them out as your reviews have really piqued my interest.
Have a lovely evening!
Thanks for the kind words, Jim! I hope you enjoy them!!
March 1st I showed you two videos I had made. I read, and re-read everything you said about making a video (trailer). After a great deal of thought, I gave it a shot. I sure would appreciate your thoughts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iP0XUsuag2o&feature=youtu.be
I took my name off the credits as a friend told me it was “pompous”. She said Sandi’s book, Sandi’s web site, Sandi’s Facebook, Sandi’s Linkedin, etc. I’d like your thoughts on that as well.
Hope you’re having a great week!
Hi Sandi! I liked the music and I liked the way you did the transitions. I did think the wording went by a little too quickly and the green font was a little difficult for me to read against the green eyes in the background. Overall, I liked it! Good job!!
When I created a trailer for my fantasy book, I tried to give it a movie trailer feeling while making it very mysterious, which is also the language of the book. I think it’s important to capture how the novel is communicated and replicate that in a trailer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ohzBmykg6M
Hi David. I looked at your trailer and i was very impressed. I think it captured the essence you were trying to convey very effectively! Great job!!