Book Trailer Guide - do it yourself or hire a professional?

 

The newest trend in fiction is book trailers, which are like movie trailers only to promote books. The plan is to make a connection with the Internet generation, the young crowd, for books they might otherwise never hear about. Here are the how-to resources for book trailers, including common problems, and costs to hire it done.

 

A number of authors have done their own trailers, such as Cicily Janus, whose self-published book The Face of New Jazz was recently bought by Random House/Watson Guptill. Mystery chick-lit writer Diane Craver credits her book trailers for an increase in sales. Libraries are posting book trailers on their websites for readers and research shows big city commuters are book readers, so it’s effective to post short videos on TVs in trains and busses. However, most book trailers end up on streaming video sites like YouTube.

 

If you’re a do-it-yourselfer, you’ll be happy to know the last couple of iterations of Windows include Windows Movie Maker, a program to create your own mini-movie. Detailed how-to advice is available on-line from award-winning Christian romance author Brenda Coulter or chick lit mystery author Diane Craver.

 

 

You’ll probably end up forking out about $100 for music, video, and pictures, although some authors are boasting they spent less than $10 altogether since a lot of this stuff is free on-line. You’ve just got to find it. Brenda’s page on making book trailers includes how to find free ingredients for your trailer, but there are also links near the bottom of the page for more resources.

The main problem is time, like forty to sixty hours, which includes the author’s learning curve. Matthew Koumalats, a television producer in Fort Worth, Texas said he started doing book trailers part-time after he and his wife found themselves with a new baby girl and a new mortgage. He founded ReaderHook.com initially for his mother, New York Times best-selling author Jodi Thomas.

 

Matt says many authors want trailers pre-publication. “It helps build anticipation, especially if there’s a fan club involved. The idea is to create interest, but not tell the book.”

 

I asked Matt for the earmarks of an amateur trailer. Poor video quality, pacing that’s off, inconsistent sound, and length are some of the main problems. Poor video quality is usually because the author tries to keep the size down. But Matt says there’s no benefit to small video and resulting lower quality.

 

Inconsistent sound has to do with spikes or drops in volume. Pacing problems can be stills/video that drag, rushing through images, or sound not synchronized to the video or pictures.

 

But the biggest mistake is trailers which are too long. “A lot of this stuff is viewed while people are at work taking a ‘web break.’ Very few people will watch a five-minute video. Most won’t even watch three or four minutes.” Matt doesn’t do book trailers that are longer than ninety seconds, but most of his average a minute in length.

 

Jodi Thomas told me for Texas Princess she spent the most time on voice-over talent. Matt posted a script on a number of voice-over sites and people sent back audio files.

 

How long does all this take? “If we have good communication with the author, we can go start to finish in three to four weeks,” Matt said.

 

 

Prices vary for video book trailers. ReaderHook.com asks $475 for video with sound or music and still photos and text but no voice over, to $1,400 for stock video, custom voice-over, and music. Circle of Seven Productions (COS) is an award-winning video production site, who has trademarked the terms “book trailer” and “book teaser.” According to their latest brochure, prices start at $300 for a trailer with just your cover as the still, to $1,500 for a “teaser” with stock video and stills. More custom work with actors and voice-over talent is bid by the job, but company representative Shelia English said publishers have paid from $2,000 to $10,000.

 

Usually production houses have a questionnaire they ask the author to fill out along with the cover art and promo copy from the book. You can expect they’ll throw in uploads to video streaming sites with corresponding links you can put on your website. However, creating a distribution plan for the trailer to fit the author’s goals is COS’s specialty. This plan, done up front, may include up to 5,000 libraries, B&N.com, and even showing the trailer on buses in major cities via Transit TV (for an additional charge).

 

Matt’s advice, should you decide to hire help, is: “If you don’t feel the trailer represents your book in a way that you’re happy with, don’t compromise. Get the editor involved and work with them until you have something you are happy with. You should be proud to show this to your friends and family.”

 

Are publishers paying for video trailers? COS said in 2002 it was all on authors, but now it’s about fifty-fifty. But if you can present a solid case, you might negotiate the cost of a book trailer into your next contract. Who knows?

 

 

 

      ReaderHook.com (Matt Koumalats)

      Circle of Seven Productions

      Trailer to the Stars

      TinkerTime Productions

      Pulse Point Design

     

 

      Christian Book Videos

 

 

Brenda Coulter’s video trailer guide

Writer’s Weekly how-to article by Diane Craver:

       

 

      Stock.xchng

      iStockphoto

      BigStock

 

 

      Sounddogs