Making a Book Trailer

I enjoy the creative aspect of self-publishing, especially having a go at designing book covers and, more recently, a book trailer. Although, I'm no expert at creating videos, I have to say I enjoyed the whole experience - especially distilling the novel's theme into a clip that runs for just over a minute.

I tried to keep the text and imagery as simple as possible, using AVS Video Editor. I bought the images from www.istockphotos.com and used podsafe, royalty-free music courtesy of www.musicalley.com

Part of the video-making process was having a look at other book trailers out there. Some are wonderful, but have obviously had big budgets - especially those that use customised animation! Mine cost around $50 (the AVS Video Editor license fee and the istock photos). I felt that some of the lower-budget trailers I viewed on YouTube were too long (I really think anything over a minute and half gets boring for the viewer) and were overambitious with the use of fonts and images. Many trailers also try to squeeze in the whole story, whereas I see it more as a taster.

So, here is the trailer for Dark Under the Cover of Night. Bear in mind that it's a first effort, but any comments or suggestions would be welcome! :-)