Painting With Light

 
The Official Book Trailer for “Street Light”

They say every indie author needs to have a book trailer to promote his/her work (do you ever wonder who “they” are?)

Well, I’ve made one for each of my books. Yep … each one.

So, whoever “they” are should be deliriously happy with me. Reichold Street. Zebulon. Tinker. One Way Street. All of them have trailers.

Now there’s one for my new book, Street Light (you saw it above).

Why?

Well, to my way of thinking there’s only so much marketing copy you can write about a book before you’ve saturated your audience (not to mention your own overworked brain).

But in three minutes or less you can tap into the visual, auditory and emotional senses of your potential reader. Like its cousin the movie trailer, a book trailer is designed to get the buzz going and, at the very least, generate more interest.

What makes a good book trailer?
Make sure your message is authentic. The tone and feel of the video should accurately reflect the content of your book. Getting and keeping a viewer is essential, so it’s important to respect their time (not to mention their attention span) and keep it under two minutes.

Most television commercials only last for 30 seconds. However, as a viewer I’m sure you’ve seen some where even that brief span can seem far too long.

If you have strong, recognizable endorsements, don’t be shy about dropping the testimonial into your trailer … but you don’t have to think box-office smash to get results. With the right images and editing, you can produce a quality trailer that doesn’t look like it came out of your garage.

Finally, as simple as it may seem, you’d be surprised at how many people forget the (rather major) detail of ending with an image of the book and convenient purchase instructions.

Will a book trailer broaden your audience?
I don’t know the answer to that. However, I do know we live in an age where fewer people are reading, and more people are watching. There are those (“they” again) who might argue these trailers simply contribute to our increasingly short attention spans.

My hope is just the opposite. I hope that book trailers help draw more people to the beauty, substance, and power of books.

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My books have garnered some terrific reviews. You can see the stories I have available by using the Amazon link below.

You’re also invited to visit my web site, BROKEN GLASS, or like my Book of Face page. You can also follow my shorter ramblings on The Twitter.

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Comments posted below will be read, greatly appreciated and perhaps even answered.

Tags: award-winning writing, book marketing, self-publishing, using social media

This entry was posted on July 3, 2015 at 9:07 am and is filed under Award-Winning Fiction, Book Trailer, Branding. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.