MAKE MINE PARANORMAL

Creating a Book Trailer: Getting Started

I’ve been checking out book trailers lately. They fascinate me.  Like a movie trailer, they can reeve up your interest in a snap even if you didn’t think you’d be interested at all.

As a writer, whatever you can do to drive interest in your work is worth at least considering for inclusion in your book marketing platform.  A book trailer might be one of them.

I could go for a trailer.

Okay. Good. That's what I said too. There are a number of aspects you are going to want to consider when creating a book trailer. Will it be a DIY effort or will you hire someone to create it for you?  How do you envision your trailer? What resources should you check out before you get started? What tools and skills will you need to create your book trailer? 

Look before you leap.

Before you start putting together your book trailer, it helps to look at some examples for yourself.  This will give you a feel for what jumps out and grabs you as a potential reader.  You’ll also figure out what leaves you a little cold.  I got a few new books for my reading list from the trailer review process and I didn’t know about any of them beforehand. 

You can check out trailers at the YouTube Book Trailer Channel. Just type “book trailer” into Google or Bing and you’ll find a number of book trailer sites pop up.  It also doesn’t hurt to visit the website of a company that produces book trailers such as Circle of Seven Productions or Ghost Write Extraordinare  to see what you might get for your money if you decide to have someone else produce your book trailer.

Now that you’ve gotten a good feel for what book trailers look like, you are probably psyched about getting rolling on putting one together. For the purposes of this post, I'm going to assume you are going the DIY route. That's what I did.

Take a breath and stop.

Do some research on the process before you begin.  It will save you time in the long run and you’ll be happier with the final product.  A good comprehensive place to start your research is the 43 Book Trailer Sites. I particularly liked the 4 day series of posts on Author Culture by Lynette Bonner that I found there. It was comprehensive and helped me focus on some important details of the process for developing my own trailer. Here’s the link to Lynette's Day 1 post to get you started:  The Making of a Book Trailer ~ Day 1.  Of course there is a Wikipedia article on book trailers.

I did my research. What’s next?

So now you’ve looked at some book trailers and dug in and done sone some research. All that's left to do is get started on your own book trailer - right?  Well, yes, but first you have a few process issues to consider. 

There is a lot to decide before you put all the pieces of your trailer together:

• what tool you will use to create it
• where you will get your images/video
• what the script for your trailer will look like
• how you will integrate audio – narration or music

Getting at least a few of these items sorted out before you begin will help you avoid false starts.

I’ll be writing about tools, images, scripts, and audio for a book trailer next…

Getting Started at Make Mine Paranormal

Each writer's journey is an individual trek through a landscape of personal peaks and valleys and sometimes, the outlying suburbs. Actually, having to earn my daily bread means that I spend a lot of time in the suburbs while staring hopefully up at the peaks and crawling out of a few valleys. I'm okay with that. Sometimes, it's pretty funny.

I've been in love with writing for a long time - maybe, much longer than I understood. Before I realized that I loved writing, I knew that I loved reading. From childhood, I've had my nose stuck in a book. That's never changed except now, you might find me with e-reader in hand as well.

My purpose in blogging here at Make Mine Paranormal is to share some of my experiences, perceptions, and at least a little bit of what I learn along the way on my own writer's journey.

Here we go!