Book Video Trailers

How To Guide

I've wanted to do a book video trailer for one of my books since I started writing three years ago. This comes next after the dream of one of my books being made into a movie.

What is a Book Video Trailer?

A book video trailer introduces your book and makes people want to read it. It allows you to reach new readers. They can be one minute, fifteen seconds, or thirty seconds long.

Why do you need one?

You don't need one if everyone knows you and your books, but that is likely not true. An adequately made book video trailer can communicate this in fifteen seconds to people who don't know you or your book.

What makes a good book video trailer?

Think of a good book trailer as a mini-movie trailer. It should captivate your audience, leaving them eager to delve into your book's world. For a comprehensive guide on how to create a compelling book video trailer, check out this excellent article on Rocket Expansion. It has suggestions on where to find music, what software and hardware to use, and where to locate music and stock images.

One of our subscribers and guest authors, Ellen Y Mueller, took the initiative to create a trailer using Canva. When I mentioned I'd be writing about trailers and asked for authors who had experience making them, she was generous enough to allow me to share her trailer with you. She made it to promote her book, Run Girl Run. demonstrating her confidence in her promotional strategy.

NOTE, IF YOU HAVE PROBLEMS PLAYING ANY OF THESE EMBEDDED VIDEO BOOK TRAILERS, PLEASE GO DIRECTLY TO SUBSTACK AND READ THE ARTICLE THERE AND PLAY THE VIDEO DIRECTLY FROM THE SITE OR, GO DIRECTLY TO ELLEN’S WEBSITE AND PLAY IT THERE.

If you are going to do this yourself, make sure you can create something professional. Be honest with yourself. Only do it if you have the time and energy. This is not you fooling around with an Instagram post. You're representing your book, something that you spent six months, a year, or more of your life writing. Now, you're distilling the entire book to fifteen or thirty seconds to persuade someone to buy it.

Also, be aware of copyright laws and usage. For more on this, watch this excellent video from Youtube. No sense in getting sued because you "borrowed a photo," you shouldn’t have. There are places you can purchase music (AudioJungle) and images (Pond5, Dreamtime, Bigstock Photo.) I agree with Ellen that Canva is an excellent site, but I found another one, Flexclip, that you might want to check out too. The other thing to consider is to make sure Canva or any app you use is appropriate for the use you have in mind. Are you using the Book Video Trailer to sell your book in a Facebook ad? Then, this goes beyond personal use for a social media post. This delves into commercial use.

Flexclip. They have some fantastic book video trailer templates available for your use. And if I have a month or two to dedicate the next time, I might try this app. The drawback with Flexclip is that with the free version, they limit you to one free stock photo for each project. You aren't going to do much with that, and you'll have to upgrade to a more expensive plan. I would check the same thing here as Canva. Is this for personal use only, or can it be used for business purposes?

If you’re looking to make video’s specifically for Reels and Tik Tok then Cap Cut app is the one for you. Again, I like that they have templates in place. It helps you get the hang of things. You get instant gratification, can amaze your friends and family when create something beautiful when only moments earlier you were screaming at the computer screen. All of the above apps have free versions, so give them a try,

There are reasons one would not want to create their own book trailer video besides being a coward. I've created video content for Reels and had a TikTok account briefly (and I hated every blessed second of it). I realized it would take me a long time to create the book trailer video I would be proud of. Realize that outsourcing will most likely cost you money unless you get lucky, like one of my subscribers, Lenny Cavallaro did. He had his book Series.The Passion of Elena Bianchi made into a video book trailer after he responded to an ad on Facebook, by International Book Promotion, they offered to do a free one. Lenny said, "The only problem was that I didn’t like their music, but my son (Jacob Alan Wax Cavallaro) was able to delete it and instead add a piece of my performance of the slow movement of Beethoven’s immortal *Sonata #9 in A Major* (known as the “Kreutzer” Sonata), the work that dominates the first book (IF MUSIC BE THE FOOD OF LOVE) and arguably the entire series (THE PASSION OF ELENA BIANCHI). [The violinist is Rachel Shiryayeva.]  In that opening novel, Giovanni (pianist) and Elena (violinist) are brought together to perform Beethoven’s masterpiece. They fall in love, and the rest follows. The series evolves into a very unusual “romance,” though, in that it involves classical music, hard core kink, the Holocaust, the Mafia, the psychic/occult world, a two-thousand-year-old Curse (personified, with capital “C”), and an esoteric notion of reincarnation known as “soul fractions” (probably better left in quotes!). I pitched it thusly: << IMMORTAL BELOVED meets FIFTY SHADES OF GREY, SOPHIE'S CHOICE, THE GODFATHER, and THE REINCARNATION OF PETER PROUD"! "

How much does it cost to have a book trailer created?

You can find people on Fiverr and the web. I've seen prices as low as $35.00 on Fiverr, but the person could live in Malaysia. You can also find Craig in the US charging $75.00, and he will include mockups, music, and graphics with a seven-day turnaround. Read reviews and look for work samples to make sure it's what you want. If it isn't any better than what you could do for yourself, why are you hiring them?

Others:

Electrafox: This company offers several packages, one of the least expensive being $99.00. This makes the most sense if your budget is low and you want to focus on a reader review, but it misses the point of what a book video can do. You send them your book cover, a review, and a webpage address. They add your book cover, review, and a call to action. It already has a design and music embedded.

Film 14. They offer several packages. This company is on the upper end, at least that's what I thought until I did further research. You'll find a 30-second video going for $1000.00 and 15-minute teasers for $500.00. If you want a longer one, they have them. You can find numerous examples of their work on their website and receive a free guide by providing an email. They use stock videos but they can hire actresses etc., too, but it will cost more.

Working with a film company like Film14 will indeed require a time and money investment. If you don't already have a synopsis, you'll need to prepare one to contract with them. However, the good news is that their turnaround time is impressively quick. In my case, I received my teaser back in just a week. I chose a 15 second teaser as I believed it was the optimal length for viewer engagement, although it ended up being longer, 23 seconds total length.

Film 14 provided my Book Video Trailer Teaser in horizontal and vertical square presentations. They did provide a way for me to give input before signing off on the final submission. Overall, I was happy with my video, but because my book heroine grows marijuana, I won't be able to put this on some sites, TikTok, for example, because it violates their content policies. Film 14 also suggested putting the CTA in wherever I ran the video, whether on IG or Facebook or if I run on pay-to-play websites, because that way, I can have it go back to my website, Amazon, or wherever I run it and use a Livelink. According to the company spokesperson, they don’t often put CTAs within the video because the link isn't live. I did notice some of their video’s had CTA’s at the end and some did not.

Any trouble playing the above video, please RETURN TO SUBSTACK TO THE ARTICLE AND WATCH IT FROM THERE OR PLAY FROM my website. On my website it is setup to play without sound the first time and then you can play with sound if you choose to by turning unmuting the sound.

Be wary of other sites advertising book video trailers. When researching for this article, I found many. When I sought more info, I found the companies were book publishing sites, charging the author money to publish and market their books. They then hired someone else to make the book video trailer, charging $2000.00 or more.

Now, we get to the good part. What can you do with the finished book trailer?

You've had this terrific piece of art made to promote your other piece of art (your book), so you need to get it out there. What can you do with it?

1.   Whether it's on YouTube, Vimeo, or both, spend time researching keywords and putting text and links into the description. Also, find an attractive thumbnail. I have always had a difficult time with this part.

2.   Find blogs that might be interested in showing the video. This can be a game-changer for your book promotion. If you are doing a book launch, this becomes easier because as soon as you tell the person launching your book you have a book trailer, they get excited and seem to know what to do. Put it on your website; the more visible, the better.

3.   Embed at the end of your signature in all emails.

4.   Put on Goodreads Author Page. I decided to forgo this as my content has drug use, and I have not made it available to those under the age of 18.

5.   Hire a BookTuber to promote.

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   That is all for today, I’ve had quite enough of embedded video’s and other technical stuff. I need a drink.