Let’s have fun creating & promoting book trailers! by Donna Galanti

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.

Have fun! 

And don’t forget, if you have a blog, I'd love for you to signup to be part of my trailer reveal for Joshua and the Arrow Realm on August 15th! 

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! 

Showing children our world – good and bad – through books by Donna Galanti

 

As a mother, nothing comes close to my primitive urge as a mom to protect my child. So, I thought it ironic to visit a playground in North Carolina with a warning sign of alligators nearby.

This sign hit me with the realization that while we can provide our children with the resources to defend themselves and make good choices, ultimately we have to let them go out there to frolic amongst the good guys and the gators. This includes opening their eyes through media and books to not-so-nice things that go on in the world.

Especially books. They can open up our child’s eyes to events in history, just and unjust. Books have opened up many dialogues with my son about slavery, civil rights, oppressive religions, women earning the right to vote, the Holocaust, bullying, and terrorism.

When my son was six we got a wonderful book called The Man Who Walked Between the Towers by Mordicai Gerstein (since made into a movie). In 1974, French aerialist Philippe Petit threw a tightrope between the two towers of the World Trade Center and spent an hour walking, dancing, and performing high-wire tricks a quarter mile in the sky. This book paved the way for us to talk in depth about the twin towers and terrorism. My son said at the time he hoped that bad man would be caught and the towers would be rebuilt.

One out of two so far. I was able to report to my son not long after that the bad man had been caught and killed. My son wanted to know how he was found and killed, what happened to his children, his wives, and if his being caught meant this kind of thing would never happen again. I wish. But, I hope in having these discussions (as I hope parents are having everywhere) that we are changing the world for the better – one discussion at a time.

As my son got older, middle grade books opened up discussion for us. Here are some of them:

Wonder by R.J. Palacio: about being a disfigured kid in a “normal” world.
Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper: what it could be like to have a voice but not be able to communicate.
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs: the difficult decision of choosing where you belong.
Rules by Cynthia Lord: on autism and asking “what is normal?”
Holes by Louis Sachar: about friendship and believing in yourself.
Hatchet by Gary Paulsen: being separated from your family and having to survive in a strange place.
Hoot by Carl Hiaasen: on endangered animals and ecology.
Duck by Richard S. Ziegler: about standing up for yourself when the one person who protects you is gone.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: fearing middle school and then finding out how cool it really is.

Books. They open us up to new worlds and help us as parents relate the good and bad of the world to our children. They reveal the beauty and the darkness that co-exist in our world - and within us. They inspire feelings of sadness, joy, compassion, or outrage.

Books. They open up conversations with my son about life and death and right and wrong. I watch him as he struggles with these issues and tries to figure out his place in the world.

And while I empower my son with information and send him out there to navigate the battle field of life with as much armor as possible, I hope the good guys outnumber the gators. I hope he witnesses more glory than gore. And even if the gators in disguise try and get him, I hope it's “just a flesh wound!”

Are there books you've read with your children that opened up discussions about the world around them? 

How MG Books Make Miracles Happen by Shannon O'Donnell

 A Teacher's Dream . . .

As a teacher, I have learned that some topics will, without fail, be met with loud and heartfelt groans when the kids discover it's THAT time in the curriculum. One of those topics is poetry.  Any fan of middle grade literature is familiar with Sharon Creech--author extraordinaire--and more than likely familiar with LOVE THAT DOG. This little book is a miracle worker! 

Whenever I start a poetry unit (following the customary moaning and groaning), I begin with the poems found in the back of LOVE THAT DOG. The kids are unimpressed. Then, I read the book and something magical happens. Suddenly, poetry isn't so bad. Suddenly, those poems are all awesome! Minds are opened for every poem that follows, and the unit even becomes fun for most of them. Oh, and did I mention . . . I teach HIGH SCHOOL students.  **MAGIC** 
 
Because of the overwhelming teacher and kid feedback to LOVE THAT DOG, Sharon responded by writing a companion title, HATE THAT CAT. Many of my students even prefer it. Both books are phenomenal.

Of course, these are not the first or only books to work miracles with students in the classroom. That is the beauty of literature. 

• Patricia Polacco's PINK & SAY is a powerhouse for helping students feel empathy and gain insight to the Civil War and  AUNT CHIP AND THE GREAT TRIPLE CREEK DAM AFFAIR is wonderful for media literacy. 
• I love to use THE BULLY by Paul Langan with my freshman. It opens eyes to the realities and emotional consequences of bullying more successfully than anything I've ever seen.   
• MONKEY ISLAND by Paula Fox is powerful and sad, but it says so much about the human spirit and hope and second chances. It also opens our eyes to a societal issue that is too often overlooked.  
• And then there is the long, long list of titles that have helped non-readers discover a love for reading. 

Books open doors to learning that my students would otherwise resist. To me, that is magic.

"Books are a uniquely portable magic."

~ Stephen King

What are some books that you would consider "magical" for young readers? I'd love to hear your thoughts or experiences.