Friday, April 10, 2009

Make a Book Trailer...


Now, If I Can Do It, Anybody Can!

A book trailer can sell more books than a $500 ad in a trade paper. There's just something about music and video combined in a catchy manner that makes folks pay attention. Well, having seen all those fabulous trailers on YouTube, and being rather technically inept, I was ready to pay a professional $199 to make me a great book trailer.

But then I saw some fabulous trailers that other authors had created on their own, with their own software, and I decided to try my Windows Movie Maker, as well. Okay...I got one all set to record, and the program went belly up, dumping all ten hours of hard work. %$@*)*^&*&%$!

I read a bit about the program, and found that this is not unusual, so, in desperation, I Googled! I entered "video creation software". You'd be amazed at how many people sell video-creation software!

Well, since I didn't have a couple hundred bucks to spare, I went to YouTube, clicked on a whole bunch of trailers, and noted the creation software credits, the music credits, etc. The one that came up most was OneMedia. So I Googled that. Bingo! I got a membership, and began playing with the online tool until I had a couple of fun and easy videos using vacation photos, and viola! The online tool even uploads your video for you to your MySpace, Facebook, or YouTube account!

I noticed that most video trailers used loads of neat photos and effects, but when I tried to get those same neat-o photos and effects, I found that they were not free. And I was broke. So I brainstormed. I had one very hot cover. Hot cover models. So I played around with the online tools, and managed to come up with a completely free nearly 2-minute video. The music was free on the same site.

Now I have book trailer. Not the greatest, to be sure...but effective. And it was all FREE!

6 comments:

  1. Hi Fran -- thanks for checking out our blog!

    Helen
    www.helensheroes.blogspot.com
    www.coloradovixens.blogspot.com

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  2. I soooo want to do a trailer but I'm sure I'll gunk it up!

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  3. Hey Fran! Where did you find the cool black and white pic??? I'm dying here. I've been looking for something similar to that ALL DAY!

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  4. Thanks for the heads up on One True Media. I just made a book trailer on my latest release.

    Like your video, too.

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  5. Thanks so much for this post. I never thought I'd be able to make one of these and now I'm almost done with mine.

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  6. Fran, YOU are an inspiration! (And talented, too, because--FOLKS--Fran made one for me for my first EC novel, MIA DOLCE--and the video is cool AND HOT, I gotta say!) So I have saved the link to the software sight Fran used...but I haven't gone there yet. YET, being the op. word.
    BUT recently I went on a gorgeous, deliciously divine trip through the Greek Isles and took buckets of pixs! And natch, I am going to write about one, maybe 5, of those luscious places I visited. I even took movies.
    With Fran's encouragement, maybe even I (who would rather cook and drink than mess with software!!!), may try this.
    Kudos to FRAN!
    Ciao, my lovelies!
    Cerise

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Thanks so much for leaving a comment...it helps me know that people really do read my blog posts. If you read back through my prior posts, you will notice that I get very few comments. :)