Many authors now create a book trailer that they use to advertise and create a ‘buzz’ about their book. Basically a book trailer is a short promotional video, similar to that of a movie trailer. The book trailer is a relatively new development and has only really been around in the last couple of years. If you browse on any author website or dedicated author page, particularly Goodreads and Amazon, then you will notice that many have a book trailer posted there for you to view.

So the important question is how do you, as an author, go about making one?

First, keep it simple, short and limit the video to a few scenes and a few words. You are not retelling the whole book but merely giving a taste so that potential readers know what the book is about.

It is also important to remember that you are a writer not a film director, so unless you can hire someone to make one for you, you need to do the hard work. If so, then you can use the many online tools available to help you. They are simple and easy to use and most importantly most of them free.

Animoto is one of the most popular with authors and you can create a book promo using a mixture of video images, photographs, text, as well as there being a selection of audio files to choose from. The basics of Animoto are that of a slideshow presentation, so if you are comfortable with this process then you will be fine with this tool. There is a limit of 30 seconds for the free version, but you can create longer videos with the paid version.

Stupeflix allows you to easily create video montages using their own online images and audio clips. It is very similar to Animoto but adding text to the images is easier. However, there are not as many audio soundtracks to choose from, but you can upload your own audio clips. One bonus is that you can use more than one audio clip with this service during the montage which you cannot do with Animoto.

Flixtime is a video creation service and is similar to Animoto and Stupeflix in that you can create 60-second videos by adding images, video clips, and audio. You can add your own or choose from their various galleries. An additional benefit of this service is that you can add your own voice over.

Finally, Masher is also a free tool that creates video ‘mash ups’. However, what this service offers is a wider range of video clips to use from the BBC's Motion Gallery. There is also a really good selection of music from their online music library.

So when it comes to the book promotional trailer, every author should really make one to help promote themselves and their book. What is even better is that they are easy to make and usually free to do so.