Blog of Monica Valentinelli, Writer & Content Consultant

Posted on July 9, 2009 - by Monica Valentinelli

Promote Your Work with a Book Trailer

Hi, everyone. If you’ve been following my quest to learn how to create videos, you probably remember seeing my book trailer for Argentum. Well, I did another one recently. This time, I put together a fantasy book trailer for The Dragon Hunters by author Paul Genesse.

After working with Windows Movie Maker and a site that provides royalty-free images located at either http://www.istockphoto.com or http://www.sxc.hu, I used photo manipulation software to make the images the right size. (For these trailers, you can do an 800 x 600 pixel canvas.) From there, I ensured I had permission to use the music for the book trailer. You can also find royalty-free music online or you can use what are known as public domain songs as well. For more about the free video software, you can watch and learn how to use Windows Movie Maker online.

Below is my latest trailer. This time, I decided to keep it short and go with an “impression” style theme, where color was a focal point. This trailer is a bit different from the other two, because it doesn’t tell a story. It’s more of an “ad.” In my opinion, the book trailers I’ve liked the best have been short — especially if there isn’t any action in the vid. It is very hard to keep up the pace for five minutes or more if you have nothing but still frames appearing in your trailer.

Video can sometimes work great to promote your book, simply because it alludes to a mood rather than cover the entire back blurb. However, there is more than one way to put together a book trailer. This is just the start for me, and I’m finding I enjoy storyboarding and playing around with film.

Check out the book trailers I linked to above, or view this one for a horror anthology dubbed, “Buried Tales of Pinebox, Texas.” Thanks for sticking with my blog, and I hope you share a link to your trailer, too!