Making a Book Trailer

Swag Bag Giveaway

The winner of the Swag Bag is llamannerdymom.
Please contact me at dakota@dakota-banks.com.
If I don't hear from you within 3 days, I'll choose another winner. 

Thanks to everyone who left comments!

Having failed in my last attempt to make an exciting book trailer myself, I learned a lot for my next try, with Deliverance: Mortal Path Book 3. Why even consider making a trailer myself? The type of trailer I wanted wasn't the still photo with text overlay that was the least expensive type. The kind I wanted was full of action and music. It would cost up to $3,000, and I would have limited opportunity to make adjustments to it. I like tinkering with things myself, getting everything just the way I want, without having to worry about whether I'm on my third change or my thirtieth. That plus the cash outlay convinced me to try my hand again.

Last time, I made a video with my own video camera and narrated it myself. The lighting was poor, the filming was jittery, I can't believe my voice sounded like that, the script was lame, and there was no action. (If you want to see this trailer, click here--and brace yourself.) I don't display this one on my website - I'm not sure if I ever did.

One of the first things a professional trailer production company wants from the author is a working script. Another reason I hesitated to go to the pros was that I didn't have a script and couldn't seem to come up with one. I seemed to be writing one almost as dialogue between two characters - focused and limited in its representation of the Big Picture. I finally threw out all my drafts of that script and wrote a new one in five minutes. It dealt with concepts rather than details. Shazam! Pictures began forming in my head for the visuals to go with the words. To see how high-level this script is, here is the one that freed me:

Sumerian demons survive to this day
causing chaos, destruction, and death
with the help of Immortal human assassins.
Maliha was an Immortal assassin
until she defied her demon
and became a rogue with a new agenda ...
balancing lives she’s taken with lives saved.
Immortal Jake is Maliha’s true love
or is he?
Maliha’s mortal friend and partner
is kidnapped.
Maliha must watch him die
or accept a sinister new master.
She’s damned if she does ...
and damned if she doesn’t.
Is there a way out for her?

Notice that it's broken into short lines that are easy to read and dramatic when presented one per "page" of the trailer. This is the first step in making a quality trailer yourself. Each of these lines suggested an image to me (except lines 2 & 3, which go together with the same image). I looked for places to purchase still images, video clips, and music, and ended up using istockphoto.com, which in my opinion has the best selection. (Others are bigstockphoto.com and shutterstock.com, plus many more.) These are media that you purchase a Standard license to use, and don't have to pay any royalties per use.

I used Windows Live Movie Maker, a program that came with Windows 7 and is available as Windows Movie Maker in earlier versions of Windows. You might want to play around with it by using some family photos and text overlays just to get the hang of it. You'll end up with a nice movie you can share, too.

When you select images or video clips that go with your script, you can initially download a "comp" - complimentary - version with a watermark that can be put into place in your trailer to see how you like it before you pay for it. This is very useful! I ended up building my entire trailer, including the music, from comps so I could see how it flowed before buying any of the media. There finally comes a time when you have to lay down your bucks, though, because the watermarks are a dead giveaway that you're using unlicensed media. Before distribution, then, pay for everything and substitute the real stuff in your movie.

In my case, I used Photoshop to crop some of the images, but there are a lot of image processors for simple editing, like Picasa, that will do the job for free. You may end up buying a video clip that runs for a minute and only want to use 20 seconds of it. You can do that kind of editing right in Windows Movie Maker, which allows you to specify how long each image or clip stays visible on the screen.

Ah, music! Wonderful, talented people write original scores (with symphonic performances, no less!) just for movie trailers and I found a perfect match for mine. I ended up buying two trailer productions, one for the main part of my movie and one for the section at the end that I use to display quotes I've obtained for the book. I'm really fussy about music and I found that the variations in volume from one part of my purchased music to another didn't sit right. I used a program called MP3Gain Pro to automatically even out the volume level without losing too much off the top or bottom. The results were terrific, but as I said, I am fussy and you can get along without this step.

Total cost: about $400. Plus some time finding the right images and sound, and learning to use Movie Maker. It was a rewarding project for me and I know I'll confidently tackle making the trailers for my books from now on! And here it is:

Do you make video clips of your own and upload them to YouTube? If so, post your link below! How do you think the trailer turned out? Leave a comment and you'll be entered in a giveaway of my Swag Bag: a tote bag, signed copies of Dark Time and Sacrifice, bookmarks, pens, and magnets. If you want me to be able to contact you if you are the winner, include your email in a disguised way. Otherwise, you'll have to come back and check the top of this post to see if you've won after the deadline. The giveaway ends at midnight CST on February 1st. All my giveaways are international.

Easy Tweet: On @superntrlUnderg Blog: @dakotabanks talks about making a trailer for Deliverance; enter to win a Swag Bag! http://dbanks.me/yHMen3

12 Days of Christmas: Counting Down

Winner of the signed copy of Sacrifice plus the $25 Amazon gift card:

Michelle Bledsoe! 

Thanks, everyone, for sharing your stories here. - DB

The Christmas that made me cry - three times


It was going to be a memorable year for me, but I didn't know it yet. It was right after Thanksgiving.
I was eight years old and had heard a lot of talk at school that Santa Claus wasn't real. To be on the safe side, though, I wrote a letter to Santa during the first week of December. My dad mailed it for me, because there weren't any mailboxes we could walk to, and the post office was far away.

A few days later, I thought of something else I wanted to say. Can't remember what it was now, but it was one of those burning things that had to be conveyed. I went looking for a clean piece of paper in my sister's desk. She was fifteen years old and had stationery with roses on it and stamps in her desk. I intended to make off with a sheet of rose paper and only admit it if she noticed one was missing. (Did I mention we were sisters?) 


Inside her desk drawer, I was shocked and surprised to find my opened letter to Santa, along with a half-written reply. How could she have my letter unless...? Crushed by the realization that the kids at school were right, I hid out for the rest of the day and cried myself to sleep that night. Dad caught the scent of trouble the next day, and after I blurted out my problem, he explained that Santa did exist, but not as the man in the red suit. Santa was the spirit of Christmas that made us glow when we gave presents to others and gave to charity. The letter-writing, reindeer, and all that? Something to help the "little kids" until they had grown up enough to understand. I took right to this explanation. After all, I wasn't a "little kid" anymore, and here was the proof! Eight years old might seem like an advanced age to be figuring all this out, but it was a more naive time then. When it came time to tell my sons about Santa Claus, I have to admit I went for the magic. But I talked about the way different people around the world envision Santa Claus, including some stories from other countries, so my kids wouldn't get too hung up on chimneys and reindeer. I actually think they knew at least a year before they asked me.

If only Santa revelations had been the worst that Christmas had in store for me that year! Two days before Christmas, my cat Sugar died. It was some disease; all I knew was that she had been feeling bad, went to the vet and didn't come home. Oh, Sugar! I miss her to this day. She was a sweet, tiger-striped cat with a red nose I'd loved all my short life. Tears poured from me and I couldn't be consoled. On Christmas morning I opened my presents without joy and thanked everyone in a dull voice. It was too soon to be happy. Then my mother brought something in from the kitchen, and I heard a tiny mew. I couldn't believe it when Mom settled a little gray ball of fluff into my lap. I loved Sugar Two from the instant I laid eyes on her. This time there were tears of joy. 

The holidays tend to stir old memories and sometimes deep emotions. I'd love to hear one of your old holiday memories.

I've donated Mortal Path Books 1 & 2 for the Grand Giveaway at the end of this very special event. Right now, I'm giving away a signed copy of Sacrifice: Mortal Path Book 2, plus a $25 Amazon gift card so that you can enjoy even more books. I'll choose a random winner from those who comment by Friday, December 23rd. To make it easy to get in touch with you if you're the winner, please leave your email in some disguised form.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Good Night.