I make no comments or opinions about the book since I have not read it. What I write is about the trailer only.
For a prime example of how a book trailer should be done watch the trailer for the book Startup CEO by Matt Blumberg.
In a clean, but approachable gray scale color palette with punctuations of red, the slides come and go at a swift, effective pace. The theme of silhouetted graphics and line art is consistent and restrained which projects a professionalism that we will expect to find in the book and its knowledge.
I'm even okay with the voice over, something I normally dislike in book trailers. It lends a human touch where just captions might be too cold, or overly dramatic, or require the trailer to move more slowly. Brad Feld (I hope I got that right) speaks just quickly enough, getting the message across without hyperbole.
I make no comments or opinions about the book since I have not read it. What I write is about the trailer only.
This book trailer for the book Jazz Baby by Beem Weeks shows a much more restrained effort from Fresh Ink Group than what I saw in my previous post.
They've apparently got a wide range of special effects, design options and talent at their disposal. But the secret to a successful book trailer is to decide on a theme -a vibe - and stick with it throughout.
With the Jazz Baby trailer they do that. The newspaper on screen with bold headlines and with photos alive with black and white video clips is very clever. It really sets up the story question, and a clear idea of time and place. The jazzy score is kinda perfect.
I make no comments or opinions about the book since I have not read it. What I write is about the trailer only.
The book trailer for Fantasy Patch by Steven Geez is the silliest thing I've seen in a long time. I think it may actually be a joke. Maybe a satire of book trailers?
This thing is all over the place with no theme, countless unrelated images, video clips, goofy special effects, varied fonts, and the dreaded voice-over. Adding so many elements is distracting, rendering this trailer as comical and ineffective.
I still don't know what the book is about, but I did get a good laugh. That is what they were going for, right?
I make no comments or opinions about the book since I have not read it. What I write is about the trailer only.
The video for Taylor Marsh's Below the Beltway is a tidy, near perfect book trailer. Although I don't care for the typeface chosen here, and the font size should have been more consistent, the trailer is put together simply and effectively: The book cover appears at the beginning and end, and the captions introduce the characters, the setting, and the conflict/story question.
The images show us time and place, and the musical score has a seductive vibe. All in about one minute.
I make no comments or opinions about the book since I have not read it. What I write is about the trailer only.
Wow. This book trailer for Happily Never After: As it is Written by TL James is fine for an overly-produced video with a pounding, dramatic score. But what the heck is the book about?
The whole point of a book trailer is to pique interest, to compel the audience to go buy the book. In this case, there's no story question, no indication of who the characters are.
Ah. Perhaps it's all done in fun. It's supposed to be silly. Kind of a parody. I get it now.
It's question I didn't need to ask myself since I have some graphic design know-how, Photoshop, and was able to work my way through the process using Animoto. They've got an easy-to-use platform, nice templates, subtle effects and a large selection of license-free music.
I'm not suggesting I've made my two book trailers with the production level of a professional service. But in deciding between the make-your-own and pay-someone options you'll need to consider two things.
Mostly, you'll need to consider how much it will cost to make your trailer. If you're willing to pay someone, I found two sites online, The Books Machine and Circle of Seven Productions.
Between the two, The Books Machine has the prettier website, and offers other services to both readers and authors. I didn't investigate further on those other services, but looked at what they do for you in terms of a book trailer. Their package comes in currently at $390.
Both sites make great looking (if a bit over-designed for my taste) book trailers.
I've never added it up what I spent to make my trailers. I'll do that now, calculate what I spent to make my book trailer for Loveweaver.
I previously had spent a lot of time at Dreamstime searching for images of my hero, heroine, and background images that I used to make my book cover. Even though the money was already spent, for sake of this calculation, here's the total for those plus two additional images I needed: About $100. For other needs, I did hunted around online for "free" low res images that I could blur or revise for background detail.
I used Animto's trial version online until I got the hang of it and then purchased one month of official use for $42.
So, it cost me just under $150 to make my own trailer. The trailer for The Maiden Seer was done via the same scenario, although, I had already purchased the month of Animoto.
The other thing to consider is do you have the skills and talent to design a trailer yourself? You'll need to search for images that suit you, choose the appropriate music, and create an effective storyboard.
Anyway, what I'm getting at a dozen paragraphs later, is that it's very possible for you to create your own trailer if you want to save some serious cash. It's at least worth going to Animoto to play around and see.
