What Should a Book Trailer Include?
A book trailer represents a unique marketing tool that authors use to promote newly released books with the hope of increasing readership and growing sales. This short, promotional video can be distributed through a variety of platforms including virtually any social media site, through email marketing campaigns, and through personal web pages, landing pages, and similar efforts. At Beverly Boy Productions, we frequently work with authors to produce book trailers and the most common question that comes up is, “What should a book trailer include?”
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Knowing what to include in your book trailer is vital to the success of your book launch. When clients ask us, “What should a book trailer include?” We typically provide them with this list of important features to consider when creating a book trailer.
1. A Brief Synopsis of Your Book
You want to give a brief and engaging synopsis of your book but you don’t want to give away too much detail because if you give the audience all the answer, they’ll have no reason to read the book itself.
Don’t give away the plot or any of the major elements of your story — save all of the most important scenes and details for those who pick up the actual book! Simply include an interesting hook that will captivate your audience and motivate them to purchase, and read, your book in the future.
Don’t just summarize the book though. Instead, use narrative cues to spark the attention of your desired audience and engage them while you encourage them to take action and read your book.
2. A Few Relevant Reviews & Endorsements
If you’ve got reviews or endorsements that people have left for your book, make sure that those are included in your book trailer. Any kinds of reviews from a well known artist or from another author that has been recognized in the past for their work, can help you to promote your own literary works.
Consider including quotes, recommendations, endorsements or other relevant insights into your book trailer.
3. Use Imagery & Audio to Show Your Story
As we look at answering the question that many authors come to us with, which is, “What should a book trailer include?” one of the key elements that comes to mind is the use of imagery and audio to share the background story of your book.
The use of audiovisual combinations that can entice your audience to engage, and imagine reading your book is the first step towards motivating them to take real action and purchase your book to read.
Throughout your video, the use of powerful images that help your audience to visualize the tone, style, setting and various other elements of your book is important.
Working with a production company like Beverly Boy Productions will help you to ensure that high-quality, professional visual footage will be created for your book trailer. Keep in mind that the best book trailers use images and audio to share the story in a way that readers can easily connect with.
4. A Powerful Call to Action
Incorporating a powerful call to action into your book trailer will encourage your audience to purchase your book. In fact, when authors ask, “What should a book trailer include?” we tend to explain the most important details to them and remind them that every great book trailer includes a call to action that invites additional readers and fans to experience all the fun!
Your call to action could be as simple as a closing statement that mentions “Purchase Now from Amazon” or “Call now to learn more about XYZ Book.” Many authors choose to include CTAs that encourage downloading books for Kindle or that describe where books can be purchased.
The goal of the CTA is to help the reader to know exactly what you expect them to do after they watch the book trailer – whether you want them to download the book, purchase it from a particular place, or read it and share with others.
So, now that we’ve answered the common author question, “What should a book trailer include?” Are you ready to take the next step and begin producing a book trailer for your upcoming release? Give Beverly Boy Productions a call at 888-462-7808, today!