Tips for Creating Book Trailers
The wonderful people at the NSW branch of the CBCA are running a book trailer competition.
Details of the competition will be released very soon (I’ll link to these when they are available). As I have been planning some book trailers for some new releases I have coming out next year, I thought it might be a good time to share some thoughts on the subject.
Book trailers come in all shapes and sizes and are limited only by your imagination (and lack of props/sets/costumes, no special effects budget and no access to Hollywood stars) so, with that in mind, here are some helpful tips …
PURPOSE
Remember the purpose of a book trailer. It is to hook the viewer and entice them to read the book.
I wouldn’t give away the whole story, just give enough so they want more.
You should definitely try to convey the mood of the book. Is the book mysterious, funny, action-packed, magical or something else? Try to capture that mood in your trailer.
You could treat it like writing the sizzling start of a narrative.
SCALE IT BACK
Trailers are short so keep it simple! Maybe pick a scene from the book, or an element of the book and focus on that, rather than the book in its entirety. Alternatively, you could choose a theme of the book and focus on that.
MUSIC HELPS
Music helps establish mood and tie all your elements together. The great thing is, there are heaps of places online where you can get royalty-free music to use. When someone creates some music and allows others to use it royalty free, it means you are able to use it without paying money for that right.
This page here has some great suggestions for where students can access music. It is a good idea to enlist the help of teachers or parents to ensure the music is both FREE to download and ROYALTY-FREE to use.
Alternatively, you can use software such as Garageband to create your own moody music.
AUDIO IS KING
We will forgive your camera work if it a little shaky. We will forgive you if things are a little out of focus, or the quality of the shot isn’t great. What we can’t forgive though is if the audio is bad and we can’t hear what you are saying.
To help with this, use microphones, or make sure your camera/device is close to the person speaking, or, maybe record your audio as a voice over at the end.
AN EXAMPLE?
Here I have a book trailer that I quickly created for my novel Bad Grammar. I didn’t have great equipment, or any crew to help me, so I focused on the story elements instead.
Bad Grammar has a mystery element to the story but also it is funny, so I wanted to create a mood that was both mysterious and funny. I found some creepy music to put under it, which really helped.
I hope this helps, and happy book trailer making!!!!!
