No budget for a trailer?
If you’re an author who is dying to have a book trailer for your newest publication, but you’re stuck because you don’t have the budget to hire someone to make one for you, you can make a trailer yourself. It isn’t much harder than writing a pitch or synopsis… which, if you have a novel, you’ve done already.
This revelation comes from a fellow Stonecoast alum, Alison McMahan, who recently gave a workshop on making a book trailer at the the Florida Romance Writers, her local RWA chapter. As a screenwriter and filmmaker, she knows what she’s talking about. She has over twenty years of experience in film production, both in the U.S. and abroad, she’s taught film history and theory and screenwriting in numerous venues. She is the president of Homunculus Productions LLC, which produces training films, industrials, PSAs, documentaries, and, occasionally, fiction films. If she says it’s not that complicated, I believe her.
How to:
About making your own book trailer, Alison says:
Book trailers are great marketing tools and a fabulous addition to your book’s webpage. Trailers spark discussions about your topic and draw readers to your site. Book trailers can be expensive, but a short, simply designed book trailer is not hard to make, using the resources most writers already have. For the more cinematically ambitious we will look at ways to make a live-action movie with an ipad, and how to use stop-motion, animation, and other effects with easy-to-find apps.
First step
First, write a script. Alison’s basic considerations for this are simple. The book trailer should be short, less than a minute long. Avoid text over black, especially at the opening. Convey the same information as in your synopsis: the hero, the antagonist or love interest, the main problem, the outcome. Be sure any sentences in your book trailer script are grammatically correct and correctly punctuated.
Consider your trailer script a form of writing. Your writing skills will be judged by it. Writing a book trailer often forces you to examine any weaknesses of your synopsis, and by extension, of your story. Alison says, “It’s a good exercise to write the book trailer script even if you aren’t going to make a book trailer. The exercise also helps you pitch your book.”
To read notes from her workshop and watch several video examples of self-made book trailers, see HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN BOOK TRAILER – PRESENTATION FOR FRW
Linda K. Sienkiewicz is the author of In the Context of Love, adult contemporary fiction about one woman’s needs to tell her story without shame. Angelica Schirrick had always suspected there was something deeply disturbing about her family, but the truth was more than she bargained for.
2016 Sarton Women’s Fiction Finalist
2016 Eric Hoffer Book Award Finalist
2016 Readers’ Favorite Finalist
2016 USA Book News Best Book Finalist
2015 Great Midwest Book Fest Honorable Mention.
“…at once a love story, a cautionary tale, and an inspirational journey.” ~ Bonnie Jo Campbell, author of National Book Award Finalist, American Salvage, and critically acclaimed Once Upon a River,and Mothers, Tell Your Daughters
“With tenderness, but without blinking, Linda K. Sienkiewicz turns her eye on the predator-prey savannah of the young and still somehow hopeful.” ~ Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of the #1 NY Times Bestseller, Deep End of the Ocean
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What a marvelous idea! It looks like so much fun. Linda, you always present the most informative and interesting tools for writing! Thank you!
Thank you, Diane. It is fun, and it doesn’t have to be complicated. Glad you stopped by!
I made mine with Microsoft Movie Maker.
Shelley – your book trailer is simple yet so effective. I remember being impressed when I first saw it. I love the shot of the old newspaper advertisement– it really brings home the “based on a true story” aspect, and the x-rays of the hands say so much. Chilling.
Interested readers: Shelley Stout’s outstanding trailer for her novel RADIUM HALOS at http://youtu.be/COLVBAReSZ0