Yes, you CAN create a book trailer, a helpful promotional tool for your print or e-book. The photos and music in the video convey the feeling of your novel. The text intrigues the viewer by telling just enough of the story to make the viewer want to know more. So you must include the BUY link at the end of the video for more information AND to close the sale. Add your author website also especially if you have more than one book available. If your book release is in the future, your link will give the information the viewer will need.
Depending on your finances and your time, you may decide to pay a professional to make your trailer or you can do it yourself. I have done a few vidoes just for the fun of it on the MS Movie Maker that is on my laptop. So I had minimal knowledge of how to deal with putting it altogether. I have also experimented with the movie maker on Picasa. It is a simple one to use. I have seen some fantastic trailers as a result of using Animoto. I have not tried the service, so I have no first hand info on Animoto.
To create your trailer–
1. Write the text portion using your synopsis to guide you
2. Select the photos, clip art, and graphics and place them in a file which you can easily access to pull them into the movie maker. If you select photos from the Internet, be sure they are royalty free clips. Google free clip art to find some.
3. Music is fun to choose. You can listen to so many pieces trying to find just the right combination of notes for the background sound for the mood of your story. No, you cannot use your favorite tune from your favorite artist. It is probably copyrighted. Incompetech has a wide variety of free music for you and organized into genre themed songs. Kevin McLeod just requests you credit him for the music.
Now it’s time for you to put on your director and producer’s caps to create the perfect book trailer to sell your book. Have fun with it!
Here is the trailer for my mystery/horror e-book, Sunshine Boulevard.
J. Q. Rose 