Make Your Own Book Trailer

I like making videos.  No, they're not going to win any awards, but it's fun regardless.  Sometimes I like to make them for other people's books.  Here's one I made for a YA book by Kerstin Gier called Ruby Red.  One-line summary: Gwendolyn's cousin was supposed to inherit a time-travel gene, but (surprise!) Gwendolyn inherits it instead.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTpHV6PTfHc

Here it is in German.  (Sometimes I like to dabble in German because I speak it and also because Ruby Red was originally written in German.  (Rubinrot)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1hMjiuOlxI

I made both trailers using a free program called Animoto.  It lets you create free videos up to 30 seconds.  Anything longer, and you have to pay.  They come with music, graphics, etc.  In a nutshell, you fill in your info, and Animoto creates the video.  The good thing is that most people will watch a 30-second video.  Anything longer, and their attention span starts wandering. 

So...now we create our own videos!  I made this one about a local author's romance/mystery novel. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRQWHzIaV48

A Soundtrack For Your Book?! Why not?

Movies always have soundtracks, but why not for books?  If you're a writer, you probably listen to certain music when you write.  That's cool.  Depending on what I'm writing, I listen to no music when writing pen to paper and then listen to music while typing it.  (Yes, I write the first draft the old fashioned way.)  However, sometimes you find that one song that describes one of your characters to a T. 

Make a playlist of songs for that character.  If it helps you develop the personality and to visualize what's going on, make a whole soundtrack.  Sometimes songs remind me of a critical scene in my books.  It helps me to visualize the scene as if it were a movie.  Then I replay it in my mind with my soundtrack going, and it helps to write. 

Take it one step further.  Make a whole soundtrack and then BURN THEM TO A CD--just like an old-fashioned hard copy CD, complete with a cover.  Find some clipart online if you're not an artist.  Put it on your writing desk so that you can see it.  I know it sounds cheesy, but it works.  Post them on your website so your fans can read and listen at the same time.  

...and now you can "write" those scenes in your head when you're driving, all with lovely background music from your book's soundtrack.