The book trailer can be the author’s best friend. It is simply a short video ‘promo’ which gives potential readers a taste of what the book is all about and how they can go about buying it. It helps the author to both market and publicise their book.

The easiest way to make one is by creating a slideshow. One of the easier sites to use is Animoto which you can access for free, although this will only produce a 30-second video. You can upgrade to the paid version and by doing so will be able to make more complex and longer slideshows. Other free programs include iMovie, for use on a Mac, and Moviemaker for the PC.

Animoto is fairly self-explanatory so you just need to make sure that you have all of your images, videos and any text ready to insert. You will need roughly 12 photos in a.jpeg or .png format and a sound track. However, you can choose music from their gallery which is free. If you are using any images or music that is not your own then ensure that you have permission to use them in your video as not doing so will infringe copyright laws.

Once you have all your images to hand, play about with them. Put them in different orders and see how they look as a collective; try different soundtracks. When using Animoto you will only be creating a 30-second video so this should be a fairly easy process. To get an idea of what it could look like you can watch some of the demos provided.

If you decide to use more complex software then you can create a more visually stunning trailer. One such useful device to use is that of the voice over and in particular narration using your voice. People will be very interested in hearing the author’s voice so if you can add narration do so; this will add a personal quality. One way of doing so is by combining the written word on the screen to the audio. So, for example, on screen it could say, ‘this is the story of a mother, a child and their destiny’ and you would repeat the exact words while the words were on screen. This will have a most dramatic impact.

Once you have made the trailer, remember to add it to your author website; it is also a really good marketing strategy to add the link to your book trailer to your email correspondence.

So the actual process of making a book trailer can be as easy or as difficult as you like; it very much depends upon your level of expertise. Just remember that the process should be fun and remember to include the following: your book title, book image, author name, and links to where you can buy the book. If you do that then you can’t go wrong.