I haven’t yet learned a great deal about making book trailers. I’m interested. I am aware of a few resources that have been useful, and some others that might become useful. While it seems clearly possible to build a book trailer with the multi-media tools available to almost anyone with a computer, there is quite a learning curve to the task, and it is difficult to create an effective trailer without some artistic skill. On that note, there appear to be many professionals whose job it is to make beautiful and captivating book trailers.

That triggers the issue of cost, which in turn triggers the issue of reach. Does a professional book trailer draw enough new readers to warrant the expense of the trailer? I believe it can, but I would like to know more. Ultimately, of course, it is up to each writer to determine whether to use professionals (a) after drawing enough market attention to afford a professional with book income, or (b) as part of a plan to obtain market attention with the goal of later making enough to warrant the early investment.

Is this one of those expenses that should be worked into an initial release marketing plan, or is it something to boost sales later in an already successful launch? Suggestions or thoughts on this subject in the comments section below would be appreciated.

On the question of self-made trailers, here is a short book trailer I created for my 2014 release of Hearts in Ruin using Animoto. It didn’t take much time, and Animoto makes it fairly easy to accomplish. It offers free sample tools, which I used here, and offers paid packages with greater variety, longer videos, and other features.

Other tools include Prezi and Photoshow. If you do it yourself, you need to obtain the rights for your images and music. There are services for those. There is no shortage of how-to instructions on the internet. If you use a professional, that should hopefully be included in the package price. Either way, given the popularity of short videos, it seems worthwhile to look into it further.