Book Trailer Anyone? #4 Native American

On my quest for book trailers for some of my novels, I took advantage of an offer made by the organisers of the mini litfest at FantastiCon held recently. The novels didn't have to be SciFi/F so I opted for my Native American historical Beneath The Shining Mountains.

I did not discover the identity of the trailer's creator, but the requirements seem more or less universal. It was seen with others in a loop playing at the Con, which was the first time I saw it. Now it's all mine. What do you reckon? I think it turned out rather well.

For more info on the novel and a full set of buying links, visit The Historicals page.

Next year's FantastiCon, to be held during Hull's City of Culture 2017, is scheduled for the weekend of 02-03 September. 

Book Trailer Anyone? #3 - Result!

After months of drooling over book trailers on YouTube I decided to have a go at creating one for my Horror Short Scent of a Böggel-Mann. Catch up on my tentative steps – and coming to my senses – in Post 1 and Post 2.

When an expert is needed, an expert should be researched. One of the best places to start is on Fiverr.com. Jobs, "gigs", begin at US$5, but I’d already discovered how much work is needed to create a book trailer, so surely not? Well, Yes and No.

Offered services are explained and each provider has samples to view. From this I drew up a long-list, which became a short-list, which became a choice. For me that service provider was yourbooktrailer. The requirements included 3-4 phrases, 4-6 high quality photos... the sort of thing I’d been practising. So while I was searching for another couple of images I practised some more. It paid off.

These are some of images I sent. See how they were utilised in the trailer via this Blogpost or direct on YouTube.

Not only were the text font, effects and music sourced by the provider as part of the gig, I received a draft to review. I had the temerity to ask for tweaks, and received them almost by return. I doubled the fee by way of a tip. Why wouldn’t I? For a trailer supporting a title that retails at 99p, it remains a bargain.

Now all I have to do is utilise it as a marketing tool. Any suggestions?

NOTE: prices and requirements have adjusted a little in the four weeks since this gig was actioned, but it remains amazing value.

Book Trailer Anyone? #2

Following on from my last post HERE, a book trailer there will be. But as can be taken from this post’s non-appearance last weekend, there proved more to producing one than simply making the decision. It’s a job for a clear desk and a clear mind.

Let’s backtrack a bit. The main elements needed in creating a book trailer are:

• software
• images
• text captions
• music
• a host for viewing the finished trailer

Going the DIY route does not mean purchasing a top-of-the-range software application. My Windows laptop came bundled with ‘Movie-Maker’; an AppleMac may have ‘iMovie’ lurking on its hard-drive. If you are intending dipping your toes for a test run, these will suffice. A search of the Web will flag other free applications available to download.

Having the software doesn’t get over the time element, not only of learning to use it but learning to use it well. It is one of the reasons I now rarely create my own book covers; I’m better at manipulating words than I am at manipulating images. But if I had the time I’d certainly give it a go.

Even with my tentative try, I learned a lot, and that knowledge colours future decisions. Advice: first, go onto YouTube and watch a few trailers. Make a note of the links to those you particularly like and those you particularly dislike. As I found, there’s a reason for this, so bear with me. Okay, back to your own.

A book trailer needs to be planned – storyboarded – to give an idea of the number of images and/or amount of video, plus the amount of text needed. Start with the basics and work outwards.

The priorities are the cover and the link to buy the book. Make that link short. Use Bitly or Booklinker or something similar, and alter the link to ensure it reflects the book’s title. Viewers won’t be able to click the link; they need to recall it. These two elements encompass your call to action. All else is the tease that leads to this.

The next consideration is the genre, and if appropriate, sub-genre. If the book is Romance, is it Comic Chicklit or Historical Drama? If Crime, is it Cosy or Urban Noir? This relates to the tone of the trailer, both in the types of images and the soundtrack to be chosen.

The text comes next. Even if video clips are used, unless you have the right sort of voice and can act well, written text is less problematic for the DIYer and cheaper if the trailer is produced by a third party. In the first instance take the book’s back-blurb / product description and cut it to the bare bones. List the sentences or phrases 1 to -- then put it aside.

Re-watch the book trailers, paying particular attention to the ones which catch your eye. Is there a common denominator? Watch them again and again; slo-mo the action and write the text in the order it appears. Are full sentences used, or is a sentence split? Into how many words? Did the text give a taste, or the entire story? Did it finish on a question or an denouement? Re-watch the ones you disliked. By now you should be getting an idea of why you disliked them. Moved too fast? Too many words? Music too loud, didn’t fit the genre? Each time you do this you are honing skills for your own.

Back to your own text. Does it stand scrutiny? Mine didn’t, and after another edit I binned the lot and started again with a different approach. Writing copy, and that’s what this is, proves very different to writing fiction.

From this point, for me, it became a two-handed search: for the images to go with the words, and editing the words yet again to go with the images. If you have an account with one of the larger royalty-free image distributors, such as Shutterstock or DepositPhotos which charge for their downloads, now is the time to open a lightbox on site and begin trawling for suitable images to longlist. If you’re looking for total freebies you’ll have less of a choice, but try Pixabay or Morguefile. Read the instructions and fulfil the conditions. Remember, you can’t just use any image you find on the internet. Most are copyrighted, just as your book will be copyright to you. And we hate our work being pirated, don’t we? The bigger distributors use digital robots to sweep the internet for their wares, and they don’t just issue ‘take down’ notices, they issue expensive invoices.

With a longlist of possible images to complement my book’s cover and genre, I turned my attention to background music. Search something like free music clips for videos and a whole new, and *enormous* world opens up. Again, read the instructions and fulfil the conditions: some need crediting via a Creative Commons attribution.

However, it was here that I drew the line. I simply couldn’t afford the time necessary to DIY. So I shall be looking for a third party producer to fulfil the promise – cheaply yet effectively. Then I shall look to create an account with YouTube to host the trailer.

AMENDED: And I did. Read all about it on Book Trailer Anyone? #3 Result!

Book Trailer Anyone?

Writing a novel is easy. Marketing that novel is akin to climbing the Game of Thrones' Ice Wall using only a couple of toothpicks. 

Okay, so I exaggerate: writing a good novel is damned difficult, but the rest about marketing it still applies.

Late last year, when I was coming out of creative hibernation, I ran a post on using images via Twitter. That I felt I could manage. Now I’m thinking Book Trailers.

Trailers are part of every movie’s marketing plan, and they are ubiquitous on television when promoting drama. I’ve just watched the trailer for series 2 of the BBC’s historical Poldark. Catch it HERE, because it encapsulates all the necessary ingredients:

It’s short. The Poldark trailer is 60 seconds long, but it is live video, out of the financial reach of most indie authors. When dealing in only text and still images give it a bit of leeway, but no longer than 90 seconds in length. Then cut it by 15 seconds.

Keep each text snippet down to a snippet. Viewers will be taking in tone and atmosphere from the still images (and the accompanying music) as well as from the text, and they need time to collate all three into a reaction. Aim for a tease, not an explanation. The initial Poldark voice-over used four snippets of 3 / 4 / 4 / 6 words – notice the lift to a crescendo, in length, meaning and to a flurry of emotionally-charged images. The voice-overs that follow are far longer, but it takes less time to listen than it does to read, so that luxury isn’t available to a text & images trailer.

Still images need to be in keeping with the book’s content. If the cover has a multi-image scope it may well do on its own via close-ups and panning. But keep the speed down; images that flicker past the eye detract from the focus, and the text.

Music. Ever watched part of a movie without its background soundtrack? Unbelievably bland. When choosing music make sure the tone fits the genre, but as with the Poldark trailer, it doesn’t have to match the period or its genre – just its tone.

I’ll talk about the steps of putting one together next time, but for now watch these for inspiration, not produced by the authors, but by their small press publisher, the power behind FantastiCon:

Young Adult – The Boy In Winter’s Grasp by John Scotcher HERE

SF – The Methuselah Strain by Stuart Aken HERE

Comic short story collection – On Shallowed Ground by Walt Pilcher HERE

If you own a good one, or have watched one that spoke to you, please add a link in the Comments section. I could do with all the help I can get!

AMENDED: See how I fared in Post 2 and Post 3 Result!

#TheBullAtTheGate Pre-Launch Promo Update

The edits are in and it is time for The Bull At The Gate to be formatted. Release date will be finalised in a couple of days.

The discount on Beneath The Shining Mountains has given my name a boost – the 99c/77p discount will now finish Monday 10th March [incorrectly stated 3rd] so don’t delay. The ebook is currently riding at #22 in the Amazon.com Native American chart. Today I'm blogging about it at LindsaysRomantics. Come read an excerpt.

Torc of Moonlight will be discounted from Wednesday 5^th. Sign up on the right to have notifications sent straight to your Inbox. 

And lastly, a big thank you to all the bloggers who offered to host my launch blog-hop. There'll be a full list here shortly.

It’s getting exciting, folks!

#TheBullAtTheGate Pre-Launch Promo 1 - Discounts!

Exciting news just in from one of my advanced readers - no, it's hush-hush as to tell all would mean a spoiler. But it proves that a lot can happen in a few days. I've also found that sometimes it's hard to keep up with technology. 

"...pacey and fascinating..."

Partly as a trial run for *Visibility* purposes, I am discounting the Kindle edition of my Native American Historical, Beneath The Shining Mountains, from its usual $2.99 / £2.00 to 99c / 77p from today until midnight 3rd March. According to Amazon's instructions it would take around 12 hours to filter through. It took one hour to go live on the USA/UK sites - which took me somewhat by surprise.

But what, I hear you mutter, if readers don't have a Kindle? That's where the speed of technology has overtaken me. It is available in all eformats on Smashwords but due to the time constraints of feeding price changes to its distributors I've gone instead for a Discount Coupon Code. This I will be offering first to my Newsletter subscribers. Now there's an incentive to subscribe (top right - easy-peasy).

Beneath The Shining Mountains has gained nine 5 star reviews on Amazon.com since it was published - or republished by me - it sold 30,000 copies in print when it first saw the light of day under another title.

Watch out for the Tweets, or you can help spread the word by Tweeting this blog. It's all very much appreciated. And for those who haven't read it yet, enjoy the novel.

PS: Saturday 22nd I'm blogging about this novel, with an excerpt, at HistoricalFictionExcerpts