A book trailer is a helpful marketing tool to promote your book. Adapted from the term movie trailer, a book trailer is a short promotional video distributed across multiple platforms to help you increase your online presence and reach a wider audience. It also gives readers a unique way to be introduced to your book and marketing message, other than a traditional book summary or review. While a great book trailer can be a powerful addition to your book marketing campaign, a poorly-designed, unprofessional book trailer can do more harm than good. Here are seven essential elements of an effective book trailer.
"The better you know your potential readers, the better you can cater your message specifically for them."
Before you begin creating a book trailer, you must know your target audience. This is true for any marketing effort. The better you know your potential readers, the better you can cater your message specifically for them. What motivates them? What inspires them? Where do they find their next books to read? Create a profile of your typical reader and craft your book trailer accordingly.
A book trailer should highlight your book's hook—it's what makes your book unique from all of the others in the marketplace and will attract readers. You should be able to define the hook in a brief headline or sentence. Concentrating on expressing this hook will keep your book trailer focused and simple, instead of muddled with too many details. In an effective book trailer, you don't need to summarize your entire novel nor do you need to express the lesson of each chapter of your nonfiction book. Knowing the hook is helpful in all aspects of writing, publishing, and marketing your book. A powerful hook lays the foundation for a great book trailer.
People have short attention spans when it comes to online content. Keep that in mind when creating your book trailer. An effective book trailer should be thirty to ninety seconds in length. Viewers may tolerate longer book trailers depending on how and where they are viewing it. For example, people visiting your website may be more likely to watch a longer video than those who see your book trailer linked from Twitter. Consider creating a short and long version of your book trailer if the short format seems too constricting.
"Knowing how to incorporate these elements takes an eye for design and knowledge of the latest trends and software, so consider hiring a professional."
The benefit of using video to help promote and sell your book is that you can use powerful imagery to express the tone of your book. But with this great opportunity comes the risk of setting the wrong tone. One way to ensure you set the right tone is to rely on high-quality, professional photos, graphics, and videos. Knowing how to incorporate these elements takes an eye for design and knowledge of the latest trends and software, so consider hiring a professional. If you want to be featured in your video, be aware of how you appear on camera, including what you wear, how you speak, and the location. If you wish to portray fictional characters from your story in your book trailer, hire professional actors. Good acting takes skill and practice. Also, fiction readers often enjoy creating their own images of the characters, so you may want to avoid images of characters altogether, unless they are already included in your book.
Along with imagery in video, audio also impacts the viewer. When you create a book trailer using mostly text and images, music can be the ingredient that pulls it all together and helps set the tone in your book trailer. Additionally, you may include voiceover in your video. The key to an effective voiceover is not only what is said, but how it's said. Find the right voice for your book, whether the voice is dark, soothing, or energetic. You don't need to use your own voice. Voiceover, like acting, takes skill and expertise. Viewers know when someone's voice sounds natural or sounds like they are reading words from a script.
When creating an effective book trailer don't overlook the importance of a call to action. The call to action should appear briefly at the end of the book trailer and direct the viewer to the next step. In most cases, you want the viewer to purchase your book. Simply include a closing screen message briefly stating where to purchase the book such as "Available on Amazon.com now" or "Download on Kindle today." You may wish to include your website URL or other information, such as your Twitter handle, but avoid overloading the viewer with too much information.
"The more places you can share your video, the more chances you have to capture the attention of readers and promote your book."
The last element of an effective book trailer is distribution, which is key to your video's visibility. Once you have your finished video, upload it to the major online video websites such as YouTube and Vimeo. Next, utilize your platform to increase the visibility of your video. Embed your video on your website and blog. Share your video through social media accounts such as Facebook and Twitter. Ask other bloggers and experts in your network to share your video or post it on their websites. Share a link to your video in an email to your list of contacts. The more places you can share your video, the more chances you have to capture the attention of readers and promote your book.