by | February 12, 2016 · 2:19 am
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Guys! Guys! I MADE A BOOK TRAILER!!

UPDATE: I revised it as best as I could, given my still too-limited skills:

Ok, just look at it! I’ll tell you all about how I did it and how much it cost (in terms of time and lost hair) right after, I promise!

What do you think? I really wanted to make BDSM appear first and the explanation later, but to tell you the truth, this was so difficult that I will need a week to recuperate before I’m ready to try again…

So, how did I do that? How much did it cost? Did it make any impact on sales?

I made the clip myself, at a total cost of $0 and about 10-12 hours of customising, watching tutorials and searching self-help forums. The clip was created with Adobe After Effects CC, and I started the process with a free template from After Effects Templates and added  “Playing to Win” soundtrack from Free Stock Music.

Easy-peasy, right? If you don’t mind, I’m just gonna whine a bit now. If you’d rather focus on the positive stuff, just skip the following paragraph.

(Oh, my God, it hurt! I’m all for “you can do it!”, but in this particular case I have to warn you – it was hard! If you are pretty good with Photoshop, then definitely go ahead and try – just please don’t brag about how easy it is (like the kids in tutorials, seriously!). If, however, you don’t understand Photoshop layers, then save yourself from this stress. Not only the software is hard to understand, it was a nightmare to try and upload the clip directly to Twitter. After hours of trying, it turned out that while Twitter technically allows MP4 and MOV files, you can’t upload MOV from the desktop, only from mobile. What? And  for whatever reason, my After Effects does not have the option of saving the file as MP4 (perhaps because it’s a trial version). Then if you think you’re so clever, and you email the MOV file to yourself with the intention of saving it to your phone and uploading to the app, the phone refuses to save the file, as it is apparently unsupported. What? I’ve managed to start a YouTube channel and posted a YouTube link to Twitter, but it just looks like a boring link on the phone, and no matter how hard I’ve tried to figure out how to embed a YouTube link, I couldn’t. If anyone knows, really knows how – please help!)

Ok, back to the positive. I HAVE A BOOK TRAILER!! Yay! I have uploaded it to my Goodreads author page (easy YouTube link and instant upload) and Amazon author page (direct upload and up to 24 hours of processing). I don’t know if I could ever tell if this makes an impact on sales, but it sure gives Shizzle, Inc an aura of a professionally published book…

Once my nerves settle, I may try it again – in fact, I was thinking of perhaps running one of the free giveaways with the option of either a book cover or a book trailer. Again, if this interests you, make sure to sign up for the Don’t Miss It! email list (see the floating banner on the right).

Gotta go look at the trailer one more time…nope, it does not get old!

70 Comments

Filed under Self-publishing and marketing, Shizzle, Inc.

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70 responses to “Guys! Guys! I MADE A BOOK TRAILER!!”

  2. SyedaFR
    February 12, 2016 at 2:45 am

    Wowwiiieeee! I am so happy and excited for you! You rock girl 😍😘💋💋

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  3. Annette Rochelle Aben
    February 12, 2016 at 2:49 am

    Pretty dang cool… My next big project is to figure out how I can make a trailer with whatever it is I have at my disposal! Cheers!!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • Ana Spoke
      February 12, 2016 at 7:10 am

      Thank you, Annette! I will definitely make it an option in my next giveaway, looks like its the next frontier that’s just too hard to cross for most authors. Have a look on fiverr – there are multiple offfers to make one from a template, at a decent cost, maybe worth the risk?

      Like

      Reply
  4. Tony
    February 12, 2016 at 3:26 am

    I liked the trailer when you explained what was going on. I saw this yestersay and wondered what was up. So now I understand. Congratulations on your hard work on this trailer

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  5. Izrael
    February 12, 2016 at 3:38 am

    Good job on the book and the trailer! I know how difficult it is to edit out the entire video 😅

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  6. petehurrey
    February 12, 2016 at 4:22 am

    Very cool. You may want to add about ten frames to the BDSM panel for clarity. Great job. How much would you charge a fellow author for one of these?

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
    • Ana Spoke
      February 12, 2016 at 7:05 am

      Thank you, Pete! I will have to figure that out…
      Right now it takes me too long, so it would be hundreds of dollars of my time, but I do intend to get better and perhaps start doing these things to support my writing habit 🙂 I’m now sure that I will include it as an option in my next free design giveaway – make sure you’re either signed up to Don’t Miss It list or check back regularly. I think once I’ve done a couple of these, it will be much faster and therefore cost effective (otherwise I would be better off with a job at McDonalds 🙂

      Like

      Reply
  7. Cee Tee Jackson
    February 12, 2016 at 4:48 am

    Well done, you! That’s excellent. The BDSM bit is clever, if a bit fleeting. I love this idea, as i have several others of yours, but for me, I think this one is just one (giant) step too far. I’m not clever like you! Or patient. 😀

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  8. buff327
    February 12, 2016 at 4:49 am

    Wow!…That was awesome. Very professional. Hollywood could not have done better. I showed my mother and she liked it too. It would have been perfect for the Superbowl ads the other night.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  9. freakinjane
    February 12, 2016 at 5:07 am

    Woohoo!!! Nice work!! I’ve made a couple of humorous family Christmas videos on iMovie so I know how daunting this can be. That was amazing for your first try, seriously! The biggest cost is always time…

    It’s really great and I’m sure you have no desire to go back and do any more editing, but the BDSM was so quick I didn’t a have time to read it! Add 3-5 seconds and you’ll have some serious shit. 🙂

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply
    • Ana Spoke
      February 12, 2016 at 6:59 am

      Haha, thank you! I will have to figure that out, and maybe that whole thing with just BDSM appearing and then the rest getting spelled out…for now it was just too much for my brain and Surface Pro processor – we were both close to blowing a fuse…

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  10. K. Hules
    February 12, 2016 at 5:42 am

    Love it! I second freakinjane’s comment on the BDSM bit though.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  11. iamphoebejane
    February 12, 2016 at 6:34 am

    I agree with petehurry, freakinjane et al. Extend the BDSM screen. Otherwise, AWESOME job!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  12. colingarrow
    February 12, 2016 at 7:30 am

    Looks great, Ana, very professional.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  13. Carolyn Watson
    February 12, 2016 at 8:35 am

    Nicely done. It was a bit fast. I didn’t have time to read it, but the images are great.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  14. L. J. Potters
    February 12, 2016 at 9:36 am

    Good for you! 😀 The trailer looks awesome, and I know how difficult making such a thing is, so I feel your rant. It does get easier, although for my part I was something like 30 hours into using my editing software before I started feeling like I *might* know what I was doing. Ugh.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  16. shadowlight996
    February 12, 2016 at 10:14 am

    Short and to the point, good work! And don’t feel bad, though I’m not THAT old yet, but some of the younger people make me ill how can bang photoshop items out.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  17. nagrij
    February 12, 2016 at 1:24 pm

    Not sure what you’d use a youtube book trailer for, exactly, but it looked good to me. perhaps a trifle short, if we’re speaking ad power. Might try and find a way to stretch it about 5 more seconds? I know, I know, more work… but if you mean to use it to advertise somewhere, it couldn’t hurt.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  19. adeleulnais
    February 12, 2016 at 10:09 pm

    I like it. Snappy and straight to the point. Music is good too. Excellent and thank you for the non positive as well as the positive.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  20. readersandmore
    February 13, 2016 at 1:29 pm

    Great job!! So many amazing achievements you have achieved 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  21. marypamela
    February 13, 2016 at 4:09 pm

    Ana after reading your post on how difficult it was to make it, you can ignore my comment on your YouTube trailer. I liked it, but I kept missing the BDSM meaning. Great job! It does look professional.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  22. olivia barrington
    February 13, 2016 at 5:59 pm

    Your trailer turn out great! I really enjoyed it. The pulling out of hair paid off. You have some questions about something to do with it and I know of someone who might be able to answer them for you. You follow each other on twitter @AnaEliseMeyer. She just did two book trailers for herself and another author. Take a look at them and DM her. She is a local author around where I live and has offered to do a trailer for my book when I finish it. I’m sure she would answer your questions if she knows the answers. If you go to my twitter account her two trailers along with yours are posted at the top of my tweets so you can watch them if you like. Or go to her account. The two of you are very good at doing the trailers. Hope this helps you get your questions answered.Once again your hard work paid off. The next one will be easier!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • Ana Spoke
      February 13, 2016 at 6:28 pm

      Thank you, Olivia! Just watched and retweeted hers. Good news is that I had another couple of hours playing with it and have learned heaps – so if you got to see the version with red BDSM letters, I managed to slow that sequence down. Unfortunately this is the kind of thing that’s impossible to do over email, unless she just fixes it for me, but then I don’t get to learn…and OMG, I love learning 🙂

      Glad you liked it, thank you for letting me know. Hey, sold 3 books over the last couple of days, maybe it had something to do with that!!

      Like

      Reply
      • olivia barrington
        February 13, 2016 at 8:06 pm

        I’m sure it had something to do with it. Look at the size of the audience you reach on YouTube. I like to learn new things all the time, it drives my friends crazy. Hope your book sales keep going up and up from this, I’m sure they will. I’ll have the bookstores for you by the time you go on leave from work. Waiting on a few phone calls. Let us know if book sales keep going up!

        Like

  23. Susan
    February 14, 2016 at 8:39 am

    Wow, you’re a brave woman to tackle that! It looks really good.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  24. Julia
    February 14, 2016 at 8:50 am

    This was a seriously funny post. Your voice is awesome! Love the trailer too.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  25. pezoldo
    February 15, 2016 at 7:30 am

    I continue to be impressed with how invested you and are and with the stuff you turn out. Awesome

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  26. Sarah Potter Writes
    February 18, 2016 at 5:25 am

    Congratulation! I’m tempted to give it a try, but don’t want to end up bald! I’ll wait and see if you think it impacts on sales, and then wait for a day (or 2 or 3) when I’m feeling calm enough to attempt it.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

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