How to Make a Professional Book Trailer
Promoting your book is a huge undertaking that requires a lot of hard work and strategic marketing which may, or may not, be your forte. As an author, you may be great at writing press releases and book summaries that you can share with others to generate some excitement and interest in your book, but are you familiar with the essential elements and production requirements that go into creating a professional book trailer?
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In today’s busy and incredibly fast-paced world, video is absolutely vital to the success of your book launch. Creating a professional book trailer that combines the elements of storytelling, technology, and video production can help your book become the next bestseller.
Beverly Boy Productions knows how to make a professional book trailer that will make your written works stand out and get noticed by your desired audience. Give us a call at 888-462-7808 to learn more about our book trailer production services.
Knowing what to include, and how to include it, in your book trailer is vital to the success of your book release. Let’s take a look at the most important things to include in a promotional video that highlights all the vital elements of your book.
1. Start with Analysis of Your Target Audience
Knowing your audience is important to creating a book trailer because the goal of the book trailer or promotional video is to connect with that specific audience and motivate them to purchase and read your book.
Analyzing your target audience will help you to plan out essentials information such as:
- Who your potential readers are.
- How you can craft a message that your prospective readers can relate to.
- What motivates your audience or inspires them to read your book.
2. Write a Script that Highlights Your Book’s Hook
Learning how to make a professional book trailer requires extensive understanding of script writing and film production. While you may know very little about video production, there’s a good chance you can help out with the script!
Your script should highlight the hook that makes your book attractive to readers and will grab the attention of your target audience.
Consider including the following elements of your hook in your script:
- A quick summary of your book.
- A brief reading of your favorite part of the book.
- A specific quote that is included in the book.
- A question that directly piques the audiences’ interest in connection with the book.
3. Keep it Short & Engaging
When it comes to making a professional book trailer, it’s important to keep in mind the fact that people have shorter attention spans now than ever before.
Additionally, attention spans tend to be much shorter when it comes to engaging with online content versus doing something like, reading a book. Thus, it’s important to take time out, in creating your script or when producing your book trailer footage, to ensure that your trailer is short and engaging.
Most professional book trailers are between 30 and 90 seconds in total length. Depending on your target audience, the topical coverage of your book, and the style of your book trailer – you may be able to keep viewers engaged slightly longer than the average 30-90 second trailer.
However, be careful with anything beyond 90 seconds as your audience will likely lose interest rather fast after that point.
Some authors decide to produce both a short, and a long-form version of their book trailer so that they have formats that are ideal for varied uses. This might be an option if you feel it’s difficult fitting everything you want into your video, and believe there’s an audience for the longer-format content.
4. Include Reviews & Endorsements to Draw Interest
Including relevant book reviews and endorsements from reputable sources can help you to draw further audience interest with your book trailer.
If the New York Times has recognized your work, or a particularly well-known or respective author has left you an amazing review of the book, consider incorporating these reviews and endorsements into your book trailer to garner audience trust and interest in your work.
Great endorsements & reviews can go a long way in helping your book to stand out and appear as a “Must Read” work of art!
5. Show, Don’t Tell
Knowing how to make a professional book trailer is really something that takes time to perfect and requires a visually artistic side – that’s why many authors choose to hire a professional production crew like Team Beverly Boy to assist with the entire process of creating a book trailer and promoting the book.
As production specialists, we realize the importance of using visual cues, imagery, and audio to express details – we know how to show, rather than to tell.
Promoting your book through a video that incorporates powerful images that express the unique story, tone, and underlying value of your book requires a lot of understanding of imagery and how to incorporate visual cues, photos, videos, and graphics into the script in order to connect with the intended audience.
6. End with a Strong CTA
Ending your professional book trailer with a strong CTA that captures the interest of the audience and compels them to take action is important to the success of your book trailer.
Your CTA may encourage the viewer to purchase your book, read your book, or share your book. Perhaps it motivates them to take the next step to find out what your book is about?
Whatever steps you take in creating a professional book trailer, working with a professional production crew like Team Beverly Boy can help you to succeed in achieving your book launch goals. Give us a call at 888-462-7808 to learn more about creating a book trailer and the services that we can provide to assist you!