7 ideas for a book trailer video

Did you know that you should already start your book promotion while you are still writing? For many writers, that sounds vague and scary. One of the options you have to promote your book is a book trailer video, which is actually very concrete and even fun to think about.

You can use your book trailer video on your website, on social media and you can even send it to the online bookstores where your book is sold, along with the description. It is important to keep your video short (1.5 minutes max) and to really make the link with your viewers/readers.

Here are 7 possible formats for your book trailer video, a number of examples, and a tip where you can have such a video made for a reasonable price.

1. Basic and simple

For those who don’t want to make it too difficult, and don’t want to spend a lot of money, but do want a nice video for their book (moving images simply attract more attention), this type is fine. Includes the cover of your book and some sample pages you want to show.

2. Compilation

How about creating a summary with existing material, for example from interviews, podcasts, and original videos. You can even include testimonials from customers or readers. You can make it as complicated or expensive as you want. Michele Obama’s book trailer for her book ‘Becoming’ features excerpts from her interview with Oprah, and photos from the book. The video is only 30 seconds short; that’s only for authors with a whole promo team and budget… 🙂

3. Movie trailer

This format is becoming increasingly popular among authors. Check out this example. There are a number of providers who can make such a video for you for only $5. You take care of your book cover and the text, they make a (standard) movie trailer for you, which can often look quite impressive.

4. Talking head

For my first few books, I simply recorded a short video, in which I introduced the book in a minute and a half. This is the video for my first book ‘What is your excuse?’ You just share the ‘elevator pitch’ for your book and add some text and photos. This is a tried and tested format, which still works well. You can also focus a little more on the problem you’re solving for your readers, so don’t focus on your book, but on the theme of your book.

5. Artistic

Depending on the type of book you’re writing, you can also let that speak for itself. My artistic brother just made a really nice booklet with his own poems and illustration by different artists. I am jealous of the promo video he made. He even wrote, played, and sang the music himself! Get inspired.

6. About the Author

Your video can be about your book, about the theme of your book, or about the author. Then it becomes more of a profile of the writer, as Warren Adler has done in this video.

7. Q&A session

You can also answer frequently asked questions about your topic in your promo video like this author does. His video is very long, but that might be related to his topic: Was the Moon Landing faked?

Are you inspired and do you want to try something yourself?

On Fiverr.com  you can find people who can create a book trailer for you for a few bucks. Take a good look at their offer, their examples, and especially the reviews before you hire somebody.