For the launch of our sixth novel, Meddling with Murder we decided we wanted to make more of an impact rather than our standard “cover reveal” and the “Lo, behold, our new book launching today”. We wanted to go video. Many authors have been using video for a while now, so we were relatively late to the game. Something that had been on our “to do” list for ages – time for action.
First thing we were considering was a type of a video link aka Sophie Kinsella talking about Shopaholic and Baby…
But then we thought again. Even though our talented nephew Anthony is a budding film-maker with all the know-how and camera equipment, we realized: A) we’d never scrub up that well or look that dignified and well-dressed. Lorraine would probably have straw in her hair and Pam mud on the knees of her jeans. B) Apart from being camera shy, we could never maintain a straight face for that long. Even having our photo taken usually ends up in ridiculous girly giggling. C) Every time we’ve had to talk about our books, we’ve gone blank and have no idea what they’re about. And D) most important of all – we live thousands of miles apart. When could we do this? Pam was flying out to Colorado for the launch / Lorraine’s birthday party but we needed it beforehand.
So having ruled out “us” we concentrated on the more important thing “the book”. We’d do a trailer instead. We thought about commandeering our nephew again – he’s a computer whizz as well as a film-maker. We wanted something a bit like this we said…
but selfishly he read our begging email and hot-footed it to San Francisco on a “hugely busy” schedule.
Next thing we considered was just doing it ourselves. Pam’s pretty good at PowerPoint, Lorraine has an Apple Mac and can do Apple-ly things on it. Surely it wasn’t too hard. We’d just have to be creative.
We scoured the internet. First we found someone that had made a pretty good one herself through https://Animoto.com. Pam made a quick impromptu attempt but Lorraine’s reply was “bleurgh!” Just for grins we’ll show you anyway. Ignore the spelling mistakes – Pam says she was just playing really…
https://animoto.com/play/XsfoK1NB5UYWMwV1PO2WQA
The photos weren’t up to scratch either. We had the book jacket but Pam’s kids would probably have lumped her if she’d put them up on display to the world. Also we were finding it hard to condense the whole book into a few lines. First, how many slides? How many words on a slide? How much was too much? What would look good? Which music? What about copyright? etc.
Our last option, which turned out to be the best, was to hire a professional. We googled book trailers and scoured through ones we liked. Checked to see who’d produced them and Rachel Bostwick’s name kept coming up. We contacted her and followed her instructions. She would have written the script and selected all the photos, but we thought our own photos might work. They didn’t. Example below. For a start there are no cowboys in Meddling With Murder.
She was right to ignore them and choose ones from her own collection.
Then we waited. Not our strongest point. A week at most.
And this is the result
After one tiny edit, we were really happy with it. She found the music, played around with the wording and just did the magic with what we had given her. It’s like having our own little movie!
We’re already planning our next one…
What a fascinating article – and I love the result. I recently made a trailer for my new release ‘Beloved Enemy’, using Windows Movie Maker and ‘Dreamstime Images’ (Not forgetting Jimmy Thomas, the ‘hero’ on the cover. If you fancy taking a peek it’s at
It was time consuming but I enjoyed doing it – not sure how good it really is though, I think it may be a tad on the long side at 1.35 minutes. By the way, I’ve called it a ‘teaser’ as I read somewhere the term ‘book trailer’ is copyright, just a thought.
Best of luck with the video and the book!
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Loved the book trailer, Lyn. Great music and very beautiful. I gave it the thumbs up! Yes teaser is probably a better word than trailer. Might use that in future.Thanks for commenting.
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Thank you so much – I’m delighted you like it, makes me feel it was definitely worth doing! I hope your article inspires others to have a go.
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Love the trailer, Ellie! Much better than Sophie Kinsella’s. I guess she can get away with talking for five minutes because she has a huge fan base, but it is a bit long winded. I loved Marian Keyes’ one, but yours is short, visual, intriguing and to the point. Great work! Where are you putting it? Website and Facebook? Anywhere else?
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Hi Jenny. Thanks for commenting. Yes, we posted it on our Facebook page, website, twitter and will be posting it elsewhere nearer the publication date.
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Another great place to add book trailers, Jenny, is to Goodreads and Amazon author page. Can also be used in Amazon giveaways 🙂
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Reblogged this on jennyharperauthor and commented:
What about a trailer for your new book? Check out Ellie’s Campbell’s post on the Take Five Authors bog.
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Such a professional book trailer. Loved the music and also the cat sitting beneath the bicycle! Well done. 🙂
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Hi Rae, Thanks for commenting. Yes this was the picture that Rachel found for us, she’s great.
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Very interesting post. I’ve thought about doing a trailer but other than asking my sixteen year old son (who’s been as helpful as your nephew!) I haven’t got any further. Love your trailer – seems like going to someone who knows what they’re doing might be the best option 🙂
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Hi Kathryn, Yes I think so. Maybe after we have a few done, we’ll be able to do it independently but until then it’s great that someone is doing this for us.
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Great post. I’ve never done a book trailer. I liked the Marian Keyes example but thought Sophie Kinsella’s was too long and more about her than the book. I like the one you have come up with and I think if I did give it a go I’d have it done professionally – for some of the reasons you give at the start of your post! I hope you’ll let us know how well it works out.
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Will do Mary 🙂
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Love this post! And I really like the trailer, too. One of the biggest mistakes I see with book trailers is that they are far too long. This is short, intriguing, and to the point. Good luck with it! I’d be interested to know the impact it has, as I’m always in two minds as to whether trailers find new readers or make no difference at all.
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Hi Barbara. Thanks gor commenting. Yes it’ll be interesting to find out. We’ve just put it up two days ago and it’s had 266 views so far. Hopefully if it’s done well it will pull in readers. And it’s good to have a view count through YouTube.
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Sounds very exciting! Will keep my fingers crossed for you!
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I have never done a book trailer, but it does look like fun. Perhaps I should give it a go. .
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I make my book trailers in animoto with Lego characters (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKw2tfji_jE if you want to see). No one really watches them, but I have fun making them.
I should probably hire a professional to do it, really. Good plan.
Meddling with Murder looks like fun.
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Hi Rhoda. Thank you. Just watched yours for Please Release Me. Looks like a great read and the trailer really pulls you in. 🙂
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Thank you! I had a lot of fun making the trailer. 🙂
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