Guys, this is so exciting. We're on the red carpet, with Jennifer Lynn Alvarez, author of the amazing GUARDIAN HERD quartet. Jennifer is one of the most gracious and professional authors I know, and so I'm fanboying and pretty much swooning that she chose Project Mayhem to be the space for the book trailer premiere of her new RIDERS OF THE REALM trilogy. The first book in the series, Across the Dark Water, releases on May 1st, 2018. (Swoon again!)
Even more exciting, Jennifer will be giving away a signed copy of the finished book for ONE lucky reader chosen from comments on this post. (US readers only.)
Without further ado, let's settle in our seats, grab the popcorn, and turn down the lights. I present to you the book trailer for RIDERS OF THE REALM:
I love the illustrations, the music, the drama: basically everything about this! (For future consumption: I'll be reviewing Across the Dark Water on Project Mayhem in a couple of weeks!!!)
Jennifer Lynn Alvarez
Thank you, Jennifer, for honoring Project Mayhem with this premiere. We're big fans of yours!
Book trailers can be a great teaser for your book. Necessary?
No. Fun? Yes!
Video watching continues to rise. 300 hours of video are uploaded
to YouTube every minute and almost 5 billion videos are watched on YouTube
every single day. Here are more mind
blowing YouTube
facts.
Last year I created my first book trailer for book one in my
Lightning Road series. Trailers can run
you from do-it-yourself bare bones price to thousands of dollars. I set a
budget of $500 and came in around $400, all-inclusive. Most importantly, I
wanted a trailer that had quality even within a small budget. What do you think?
I originally thought in creating this trailer that I could (ahem, meaning my techie husband
could) create my trailer in a movie making program. But we had a learning curve
and the clock was ticking with the book release, so I decided to create what I
could and enlist a designer/editor to put all the elements together. It worked out great! I had control of content
and design and she put it all together with tech glitz.
With book two in my series releasing August 30th, Joshua and
the Arrow Realm, I decided to re-visit the same process but go a step further with
promotion and have a book trailer reveal. You can signup here for my book trailer reveal with giveaway on August 15th. But first,
let’s talk creating.
WHAT I LEARNED ... TIPS TO CREATE:
Write a script and make it brief. Under two minutes. Read it
out loud. Some experts say even less than one minute. View two well done examples here of
a shortbook trailer and here,
and an example of a longer book trailer.
To see great book trailers done on small budgets by two of my friends,
check out the booktrailer for Kathryn Craft and the
book trailer for Kit Grindstaff.
Thrill viewers in the first few seconds.
Introduce the main character and setting and focus on their
problem or goal by creating a series of scenes that quickly show the story
without summarizing it.
End with a cliffhanger. Don’t give away the ending!
Script it with the theme of the book in mind. Time each
slide with the copy and music. My trailer for Joshua and the Lightning Road is 100 words.
Think of how to show the story while keeping excitement levels high. Less is
generally more.
On a budget? Simpler can be better. In Joshua and the
Lightning Road trailer I used one video and one song. My editor added in a few
other animated elements.
Purchase affordable video clips and music (or find for free.
See resources below) to incorporate after you’ve scripted. Keep in mind the approximate
length of your trailer before purchasing any clips.
Practice reading the script
aloud with the music, allowing a few seconds for each slide. Purchasing a
longer music track is fine as you can use what portions fit the trailer best.
Include your book cover, blurbs, and publication information at the end of the trailer.
Bottom line: go for simple and classy vs. complicated and
cheesy.
RESOURCES:
Music I use: 300Monks.
Can search by genre, mood, or setting. Most under $50.
For free music check out Free StockMusic.
Video/photos I use: iStock. For my
recent trailer in production now, I purchased 3 video clips from Essentials
Videos (lowest priced). The Signature Videos are more expensive. Total was $170
in credits purchased but I found a 20% off coupon and it cost me $136. Other
resources: ThinkStock, VideoBlocks, and Fotolia. For free photos search Unsplash and Gratisography.
Editor/designer hired: Depends on time involved. It pays to have all
of your elements, copy, and vision prepared before working with an editor as more
revisions can mean higher cost unless you agree on a set amount. Feeling techie?
Than try a movie making program like
iMovie or watch a tutorial on Windows Movie Maker. Or tryFiverr!
Here is a great Pinterest board
with 1,000 book trailer ideas and tips. Check outfour well done book trailers that are professionally done but provide great
examples of what works well in a book trailer as far as timing, suspense, and
music.
I highly recommend my designer, AmandaFroehlich. She also created my bookmarks, business cards, and poster!
PROMOTION TIPS:
Host an onlinebook trailer reveal. Ask bloggers to participate in revealing your book
trailer on the same day. Include an excerpt and a Rafflecopter giveaway
(participants can gain more entries by following you on social media. Extra
bonus for you!). Here's an example of a giveaway in my book trailer reveal. All products I already have on hand for many uses, except for the gift card. See what you have on hand already of value to include!:
Upload your book trailer to Vimeo and YouTube (it’s the #2
search engine in the world because Google owns it. Yup, that’s the world’s #1
search engine).
Link your trailer in these places:
Website home page (having it embedded on your home page boosts your SEO which
increases searchability for your website)
Thunderclap
campaign (see example of mine)
LinkedIn Profile
Twitter profile
Amazon author page
Email signature
Instagram
Other social media!
Promote your trailer in your social media outlets, author
newsletter, and on your blog.
Play your trailer at book events and school visits, if a
children’s author. From my experience, including your trailer in your
presentation is a BIG draw at school visits and inspires students and
librarians to purchase your book. Tip: request that the teachers/librarians
coordinating the school visit play your trailer before your visit to introduce your book to them and get them
excited about it!
Research video distribution services. I haven’t used them
but hereis an article reviewing services, some free and some paid. Here’s one
company, COS Productions, that
focuses on book trailer production and you can purchase video distribution separately
if you create your own trailer.
Video has longevity. I still get mileage out of my trailer at school visits, re-posting on social media, and at book events.
There is so much more to know about making book trailers and
promotion out there. Authors and designers, share your tips here! Readers, what do you like in a book trailer? Share a favorite!
It was a total surprise to me when my editor told me they
were working on a trailer for Surviving Bear Island, due out in March 2015 from Move Books. It is mostly visual, and the
audio is all sounds in nature—some cool growling noises at the end.
I’ve put the trailer below if you’re interested in checking
it out.
I’m curious if you
watch book trailers when you come upon them, and what you think of the concept
of book trailers in general? I didn’t give them much thought until I found out
there would be one of Surviving Bear Island. In your opinion what is the
role(s) of a book trailer? Where do you think a book trailer would have the
most impact? If you have thoughts on this topic I’d love to hear them in the
comments.
If you attend the Los Angeles or New York SCBWI conferences,
chances are you've seen Tina dressed up for the costume contest or interviewing
authors and illustrators in the hallways for their tips of the day. Today she
shares a promotion tip for getting school visits.
Promotion Tip of the Day: School Visit Promo Video
I am always looking for new and interesting ways to bring up my
cyber presence on the internet. After my book came out May 2012 I found
myself hired continually for book fairs and school visits. Being a book
trailer producer, I thought a good way to get my message out there would be tomake a trailer for my school visits (click highlighted text to see the video).
To make one for yourself there are a few things to remember.
Make a school visit promo under 1 1/2 minutes.
Use royalty free music.
Get photo permission from schools to use kids.
Make sure you put an easy contact phone number at the end.
A lot of my school visits came from my easy contact number.
Tina
Nichols Coury is an author, award winning multi-media artist, blogger, producer
of book trailers and all around Renaissance woman. Tina’s Book
Trailers.
Tina
grew up in Los Angeles as the youngest of four children. Her single mom worked
in the school cafeteria where she perfected the art of making Sloppy Joes. During
her twelve years of parochial school, Tina found writing a sure way to impress
the nuns. In third grade, Tina wrote her first play, What Santa Wants for
Christmas, and the class performed it.
Her debut picture
book, Hanging Off Jefferson's Nose: Growing
Up on Mt. Rushmore, won the Silver
Honor Winner Eureka Award 2012, is a Grand Canyon Reader Award Nominee 2014,
Goodreads Top Ten Books to Buy 2012 and named by the National Council for
Social Studies Best Children’s Book List 2013.
Download her acclaimed Common
Core Curriculum guide.
Tina loves to perform for schools, libraries, community
events, book festivals, conferences, and fundraisers. Her award-winning book, Hanging
Off Jefferson's Nose, about the boy who helped build Mount Rushmore,
resonates with young audiences. Tina lives on the beach in Oxnard, California
where she reads, writes, paints, and watches dolphins play in the ocean.
In two months (just in time for the start of school!) my middle grade novel, MALCOLM AT MIDNIGHT, will be in bookstores. Needless to say, I'm a little excited. Anyway, to help send Malcolm on his way, I’ve been tinkering on a book trailer. It's been done for a little while, but the end of the school year has been so crazy, I haven't done much about it. Until now! Project Mayhem seemed the perfect place to post it (try saying that ten times fast!). Anyway, to help celebrate, I'm also giving away an ARC. Please enter below.
So, without further ado . . . here it is: MALCOLM AT MIDNIGHT, a funny middle grade mystery starring classroom pets at midnight, complete with ghostly shrieks, school hijinks, instances of valor, the occasional cheese puff, and . . . footnotes.
When I first heard about the idea, I thought: Brilliant! The twelve-year-old me would have flipped to see theatrical previews of her favorite books. And a trailer is way better than seeing an adaptation for film, because, let's be honest, the book is always better than the movie.
While we're being honest, we all know there's some rough trailers out there. Cringeworthy, even. It's enough to scare me away from doing anything that won't turn out as fabulous as this:
Or how about this one?
What do you all think? What are some of your favorite MG book trailers? What makes them great? What do YOU like to see in a trailer?
I think my favorites are based around sketches. Like this:
And, out of respect for my twelve-year old cat obsessed self, I have to include the marvelous WARRIORS trailer:
Okay, my friends, it's your turn. Share your wisdom. Or some links to your favorite trailers. Or at least something to appease us cat lovers. M
