Book trailers are still a tool that is used too seldom by authors. Nevertheless, this is a great option to gain attention from future readers online. Through platforms like YouTube you can even do so for free!
The following points should apply to your trailer:
– Generate curiosity.
– The trailer shouldn’t influence or even destroy the imagination process of the reader.
– It should transport a certain mood or atmosphere and not be illustrative; the reader should still be able to interpret it in the way he images the book.
– Generate attention.
Sure, creating a film trailer is easier than creating one for a book as all contained sequences already exist bevor hand in the finished product, however there are still great options to create your book trailer.
First of all you should decide if you want to set the focus of your trailer on the author or the content of you book.
In the following you can find options for both variations:
Descriptive/ lyrically/ romantic
In this case your trailer would be a short film, which displays parts of the content of your book through acting or short clips of locations that transport the mood of your eBook.
Factual/ in a documentary way
The content of you book would get shown in a factual and a documentary manner. The clip would contain some background information and would have a certain journalistic mood.
You could, for example, show short clips of the author, his live and work or insert an interview with him.
Slideshow
Your trailer could be a slide show if you insert images or text passages directly from or connected with the book, accentuated with music or a voice over.
Voiceover Trailer
Voiceover trailers are slightly animated and musically accompanied reading samples, you can easily read along with the reading sample. The big advantage here is that the imagination of the reader doesn’t get influenced.
In the following you can find 3 easy steps to a successful trailer:
1. Concept
While creating a concept for your trailer, please considered the following questions:
Do I want to lie my focus on the cinematic element of the trailer or on the content of my book?
Who is my target group?
What does my target group expect from my book?
Which statement will gain the most interest?
Tip: Involve your already existing fans in the process by asking there opinion on clips from trailers or letting them choose between different cuts of your trailer. This will strengthen the connection of the readers to you, help you find information on the popularity of certain aspect of your trailer and pull new readers towards you.
2. Material and Technical Aspects
After you wrote your concept down the next step is to collect all needed material, cast, if needed, actors and to film your clip or to create your slideshow.
Please make sure that you have all required rights on the materials you are using.
Next in line is the editing process. Expensive editing-programs are not mandatory to achieve a professional result. Especially for beginners easy to handle programs such as Windows Movie Maker or iMovie are perfectly fine. If you already have some experience with editing programs we would recommend affordable programs like MAGIX Video deluxe or Pinnacle Studio.
3. Spreading the “Word”
Publishing and making your trailer known is as important as the creation progress. Uploading it on a platform such as YouTube is step one in the process, as soon as you have done this it is important that you make your book trailer appear on several platforms, blogs and social media platforms this will insure that as many people as possible will see your problems. Don’t forget to share your trailer on your own blog and social media profiles.
