A book trailer is a short promotional video which gives a general overview of your book.

Every author now seems to have a book promotional trailer. There is no escaping them. So as an author it is a good idea to make one yourself, but how do you go about this and, more importantly, how do you make a really gripping and eye catching one that will make people remember it and want to buy your book?

What are the basics that you need to know?

Keep it simple and short. Limit the idea to a few scenes and a few words; you do not want to bombard your audience with facts and figures - you simply want to give them a taste and to get them interested. They just need to have a rough idea of what the book is about, therefore simple is definitely best. You also do not need to re-tell the whole story, something that fiction authors need to take note of; a brief summary will suffice of key characters and a plot outline.

It is also a good idea to find other book trailers that are based on a similar subject to your own so that you get a general idea of how they are presented.

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.

The basic components are visuals and music or voice over. They will have an impact upon the viewer in the way that they are presented. Do not use too many images, or images that are on the screen for only a few seconds. You are best served using a selection of video clips and images with text taken from the book. Begin and end with your book title and make sure that an image of your book cover is included. The type of music that accompanies the video will also greatly impact upon the viewer so choose wisely. The genre of music also has to match your chosen genre of book.

One of the easiest online video making tools that can help authors to achieve an eye catching book promo is Animoto. This 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. The only downside is that for the free version you can only make a 30-second video. However, if you upgrade to a paid account then you can make longer videos with more images.

The book video promo is a powerful marketing tool; make sure you make a good one.