Book trailers are videos shared on social media that get readers excited to engage with a story. Many self-publishing authors find book trailers a helpful way to market their novels. Creating a book trailer isn’t hard but there are several things that authors should keep in mind while putting together their book trailers.
1. Know the Parameters
Book trailers take some planning to maximize effectiveness.
The self-publishing author should consider where their book trailer will be posted. Some social media sites have different rules about video length and size.
In most instances, book trailers can be shared on multiple social media platforms though this may require minor changes to the video to meet site parameters.
2. Don’t Overshare
The point of a book trailer is to get readers interested in picking up a self-publishing author’s book.
Self-publishing authors should use the book trailer to show readers the genre of the book, introduce them to the characters, present tropes, and summarize the primary conflict of the narrative. Book trailers shouldn’t give much more information than the synopsis on the back cover of a book.
3. Visuals
Book trailers are visual representations of the contents of the book. The self-publishing author should attempt to align any videos, images, and graphics with those contents.
Most self-publishing authors will need to use stock images to create their book trailers and often those images aren’t the same as what’s on their book cover.
Characters depicted in the book trailer should align as closely to the book descriptions and cover as possible. This can be difficult but there are many design tricks that self-publishing authors can use.
The colors represented in the book trailer should align with the tone of the book to give the potential reader clues about what the book holds so they know if they are the right audience for that book.
The self-publishing author should also include their custom book cover in the video so that readers know what book the trailer is for and can locate the book on sale sites.
4. Music
Different social media websites have different rules about appropriate music that can be used in videos on their website. Some contract with music artists to allow creators to use sounds for their website but those contracts don’t extend to all social media websites.
Self-publishing authors using book trailers may choose to add royalty-free music provided by the website they use for creation, buy music rights, or use music contracted through their social media platform. Each of those comes with pros and cons and the creator will need to be conscious of laws surrounding music use in their situation.
The chosen music should align with the tone of the book being presented.
Additionally, text-heavy book trailers may benefit from having music without lyrics so the viewer isn’t trying to read text while also hearing words at the same time.
5. Voice-Over
In some cases, a self-publishing author may choose to use voiceover for their book trailer.
Generally, a voiceover should align with any text presented visually. If a voiceover is used and there is no text written, the self-publishing author should provide captioning to make their book trailer accessible to all viewers.
The voiceover should be clean, clear, and comfortable to listen to. The self-publishing author can personally record the voiceover, use AI-generated voiceovers, or contract with a voiceover artist.
Book trailers are a simple and effective marketing tool for self-publishing authors. For custom illustrations to include in your book trailer as well as anything else you may need during the book publishing process visit InstantPublisher’s website today. They are a book printing and binding company that works with authors and provides a wide range of self-publishing services.