Making Book Trailers in 6 Easy Steps

Are you looking for new ways to market your book? Would you like to share your story with a wider audience? Have you wanted to make a book trailer but thought it was too expensive or complicated? Lots of authors find the idea of making a book trailer daunting. But with just a few simple tools, and programs like Animoto or IMovie, you too can make book trailers that shine.

Step 1: Think of your elevator pitch. How can you condense your story into just a few sentences? Write them out.

Step 2: Download IMovie, other movie making software, or subscribe to a service with built in templates like Animoto which is just $8.00 a month.

Step 3: Make a file of photos that convey the mood of your book.

Step 4: Begin to add photos and captions to the templates.

Step 5: Watch your movie, make changes to scenes that feel off.

Step 6: Share on social media.

Here's my first attempt with an Animoto template.

I like how it conveys the book in a gentle way. However, it didn't have quite the excitement I wanted.

So with my second novel, I went back to the drawing board. How?

1. I took my book cover and cropped a a few elements to make multiple images.
2.  I browsed through the Animoto templates. I watched dozens until I found one that felt right for me.
3. I began to drop in photos with captions, watching the video multiple times with the preview button until it felt right.

Here is the final product.

I was pretty jazzed about how it came out. Not to mention how friggin' fun it was to create in a new medium.

I hope you all enjoy making book trailers a much as I did!