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Book Trailers
Though I think the term “book trailer” is copyrighted, so I’m just going to call them book videos.
There are several different ways to handle book videos as a promotional tool for books. I think they’re pretty fun, myself. I like the visual representation (outside of the cover, of course) of my book. Plus, there’s fun music. maybe this makes me a bit on the sick and twisted side that I like them so much, but that’s probably not surprising to anyone who knows me or has read any of my books. Sadly, I am an open book…I wish I had a little more mystery to me.
In any case, the big options I’ve seen are the Do It Yourself (DIY) method and the hire someone else to do it. Either way, you have to go through the same process. First, you usually pick the music that works for your book’s theme. Then you decide on the script for your trailer. Believe me, this is harder than it seems. It has to be broken out into tiny sentences that work with the pictures. Then you cruise a million and one stock photography sites to find the perfect pictures to work with your script. The final put-it-together-and-make-it-pretty part with transitions and matching the words and pictures to the music is handled by the hired person in the second option, and by you in the DIY option.
Samhain even has it’s own channel on YouTube were you can check out book videos for some of your favorite Samhain books. Check it out here
If you click on the “Read More,” you’ll find examples of different kinds of book videos I hunted up for your amusement.
These were handled by Harmonic Threads for R.G. Alexander and my April 2008 releases:
Treasured by Crystal Jordan
Regina in the Sun by R.G. Alexander
Here’s one Angie James put together for the I Dream of Dragons Anthology:
And here’s a DIY book video done by Jennifer Leeland for her Liquid Silver release Taking Command (sorry, I didn’t know any for sure DIY Samhain book videos!)
Hey there! I’m a Samhain author and my book video was a DIY. I learned a lot, but it took me a whole week to get it all just right. Plus, I had to enslave—uh, I mean—talk my husband and a friend into helping me shoot the video portions. The castle and stone circle footage was from my vacation a few years back! I dove into Garage Band for the music and created it myself using short clips. It wasn’t easy, but I thought it was fun and the finished product was way better than I’d expected.
Click here to watch my book video on youtube
Hey, that’s awesome, Rina! Thanks for sharing!
WOOOOOT! I love doing book trailers and the one for “Treasured” ROCKS. “Taking Command” was so much fun to make.
Thanks honey.
I’m currently doing a book video for my current release, Satin Lies, and it’s a whole lot of fun. Finding the right music has taken ages but the process has brought out the latent movie director in me :)
I love making book videos. The very first one I made was for Savage Retribution and I had a ball.
I didn’t know Samhain has its own youtube page. Thanks, Crystal :)