How I Made My Book Trailer in One Hour, for Free

I invite you to view the book trailer for Valley of Thracians and get your impressions of it. Not of the book, but of the book trailer itself. What do you think?

Viewers of the trailer have told me that it gives a good sense of Bulgaria, a country that they have never visited, and one about which they know very little. Also, viewers have said that the trailer is very suspenseful, highlighting the mysteries that await readers of the book.

So, take less than two minutes of your time to view the trailer, and then I'll tell you how I made it in one hour, absolutely for free. I'll tell you upfront that I have no experience editing videos and I've never done this before. If I could do it, so can you.

Feel free to comment and tell me what you think of the trailer, but that's not the point of this blog post. Instead, I just want to tell you how easy it is to create a book trailer for your book. I am convinced that if you prepare a good trailer, potential readers will quickly, and most importantly visually, understand what your book is all about.

To prepare the video for my book, I used a program called Stupefix, with which you can "mix photos, video, music, and create stunning videos in seconds". The program is really simple to use. You can choose the most appropriate themes, soundtrack, and type of transition between images. You can upload your own music, add text and subtitles, and even use Stupefix's built-in robots to read your texts aloud if you don't have voiceover audio bits on hand.

Note: Stupefix is closing as of December 31, 2018.

Before you start to make your book trailer, here are some points to help guide you:

1. Prepare an outline of what you want to tell the viewer in the video. This could even be a detailed storyboard depicting the "action" frame by frame, or you can make your video on the fly.

2. Don't tell the entire story of your book in the video.

3. End with a sense of mystery, with the viewer asking, "What will happen next?" This is true for any genre of book, not only mysteries and suspense stories.

4. Prepare your pictures in advance, so that you're ready to upload them when creating the video. My advice is to only use pictures for which you have full legal rights, either your own photos, or those you have purchased through stock photo agencies. Stay legal!

5. Don't transition too quickly between images/texts. The video should flow at a pace that is easy to view.

6. Don't use too many texts. After all, this is a video, not a book.

7. Use voiceovers if you want, but have them ready when you start making the video.

8. Keep it short! No one wants to watch a five-minute book trailer. (I suggest no more than 2 minutes).

9. Don't forget to clearly list the name of the book, the name of the author, and where it can be purchased.

10. Include an image of the book cover. Oops! I forgot to do this. If I had to redo the trailer, I would have ended with the cover.

Obviously, just as no two books are alike, the same is true for book trailers. You have to experiment a bit to get the right look and feel that is appropriate for your book. It can be a trial and error process, but if you do it right, you will end up with an excellent marketing tool to help promote your book!