Making a Book Trailer
for YouTube or Your Website
Marg McAlister
The latest way to promote your book is through video.
Some authors (used to playing around at home with video software to record family events) won't find it very difficult to move on to doing something similar to make a book trailer. Actually, it can be a lot easier!
What is a Book Trailer?
We've all seen movie trailers. They're short, and they show a few key scenes that encapsulate the story without giving too much away. That's exactly what your book trailer has to do. Your book trailer (or video) can contain photographs or other graphics (like clipart, cartoons, drawings or diagrams); text, music, and smoetimes film or animation. The key is to KEEP IT SHORT. Most book trailers are around 1-3 minutes in length.
How Can You Make Your Own Book Trailer?
Option One: Make Your Own.
Step by step, here is what you'll need to do:
1. Start by researching. There are a gazillion book trailers on YouTube. Check them out to get a good sense of what they're like. You might be surprised to find that they're not as complex as you expected. Take note of how the voiceover (narration) and images work together. Watch how the transitions from one scene to another are managed. Take note of how music is used to create the mood. And especially take note of how the book trailer arouses curiosity about the book without giving too much away!
2. Read through your book and decide on the key scenes or message. The back cover blurb will give you a good starting place, because it should sum up the story and whet the reader's appetite without spoiling the ending. What would appeal to readers?
3. STORYBOARD your ideas before you go any further. If this concept is new to you, do a little research on it first. Essentially, it simply means laying out the scenes for your 'story' or book trailer in order, before you start. Each scene will have a purpose - to give an overview of the story and perhaps tell readers why it is such a good read. (Of course you won't be pedantic about this.)
Each scene card will look something like this:
- Scene [put the number here]
- Description [what does it show?]
- Graphics/Text/Video [what pictures or video are you using? What will the image show?]
Voiceover or narration [What does the soundtrack say?]
- Audio [any music or sound effects]
- Transition [how are you going to move from one scene to the next? Most movie editing programs have plenty of interesting transitions build in.]
Warning: Make sure that you have the rights to use any images/photos/art work/music that you use. Copyright laws apply.
4. When you are happy with the sequence, create your book trailer. [Below are some suggestions for software to do this.]
5. Preview your trailer just as you would edit your story. Make sure that it all flows smoothly and that it's not too long... if it's longer than 3 minutes, trim it.
6. Upload your book trailer to YouTube or your website. YouTube has some information on how you can upload your video.
Option Two: Get Your Book Trailer Made for You
There are many businesses on the Internet that will make a book trailer for you, but for the moment, working on the KISS principle, I'm going to recommend just one: Ghostwriter Extraordinaire [GWE]. This company not only does a good job, but also does it quite cheaply ($49 USD at the time of writing) AND submits your book trailer to sites like YouTube where people will find it. You can view other book trailers that they have completed - as you will see, they are old hands at this.
What do you have to submit to get your book trailer made? Not very much, actually... you can see the form you have to fill in here:
I recommend that you go along and have a look.
So there you have it... how to create a book trailer yourself (and have fun at the same time, probably, not to mention the glow that comes with creativity!) or how to have someone else do it for you then upload it to YouTube.
Software Suggestions for Making Book Trailers
These are just suggestions: I don't recommend any one more than another. Google them to find information about cost and availability.
- iMovie (for the Mac)
- MovieMaker (from Microsoft)
- PowerPoint (part of Microsoft office)
- Ulead Video
- PhotoStory3
- Adobe Premiere Elements (for Mac or Windows)
Other Tools That Might be Handy
| 
Ann Harth
