The making of book trailers is nothing new in the writing community. It has become more trendy and fashionable in the past couple of years as a very important promotional tool for authors with upcoming books and novels. It seems that each year technology advances in every aspect of our lives, and with computers and readily available software from many different sources, making a video, and in this case, a book trailer is a much more pleasant and easier experience.

As I began to write my first book, I was aware of the concept of book trailers and how they played a role in marketing. But as I got over halfway done I realized that if I was planning on making one, it needed to be done prior to release. That’s when the reality of it hit me. It wasn’t so much about the book trailer in whole, but more about its place as part of the marketing tool as a whole. Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads are all part of the social networking world. Creating a website and or blog is probably the most important part of the promotional process. The book trailer is a different animal altogether.

There are many places to promote and show your video, with YouTube being the biggest and most popular. For my book, Purgatory I actually made two trailers. I made a pre-launch video using free software available on YouTube’s website. It didn’t take me long at all with their simple tools, and after adding a couple of my own images I had it up and running. I was surprised at how easy it was to get something that I now consider critical, on the web and available worldwide. After I had it up on YouTube I was easily able to embed it to my website. The process was almost seamless and gave me the “trailer” fix I needed until I had time to work on the official version.

By now I was almost done with my book and had my website up and running, along with all of my social media. As I was doing my final editing and getting feedback from beta readers, I began working on, what I call the official trailer. For this I used Windows Movie Maker. (I prefer the older version over the newer one.) A little info on Purgatory; it is a collection of 13 horror stories and I wanted a picture to go with each story. Sort of like its own book cover. For some of those images I purchased the royalty rights through websites that made those available. But for a few, I went to the actual sites where the inspiration for the stories took place. Most of the stories in my book are real places with my own twist on what might happen in a dark horrific way. Along with that I drove down the actual Evergreen Road, one of the stories in my book and shot video, which I then incorporated into my trailer.

Making the trailer itself took some patience and a bit of hard work but it was one of the more pleasurable experiences in my whole making of the book journey. In the end, the book trailer came out very well for someone on a self-publisher’s budget. I uploaded it to my YouTube channel at the end of last year and then embedded it to my website.

Has my book trailer created any sales for my book? Maybe, maybe not. But as I see it, no pun intended, it is another form of creativity, much like writing a book. If that form of creativeness can be seen by the reading masses or the general public, then it is yet another way to express your creative ideas and product. I hope to see your book trailer soon! ~ALJ~