How to Create a Book Trailer from Scratch

Liza Brown

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

These days, the way we market books has certainly changed a lot. Now, a lot of publishing houses and authors come up with an interesting book trailer for their audience. If you look up on YouTube, you will find hundreds of book trailer examples – but some are just better than others. If you also want to ace the marketing for your next book, then start using a professional book trailer maker. In this post, I will let you know how to come up with interesting book trailers in no time.

• Part 1: What is a Book Trailer?
• Part 2: What Should a Book Trailer Include?
• Part 3: How to Create a Book Trailer with Filmora?
• Part 4: Expert Tips to Make Your Eye-Catching Book Trailer

What is a Book Trailer all About?

Ideally, before the release of any book, two major videos are released – a book teaser and a trailer.

Book Teaser: This simply includes the name of the book and details about the author (or the genre). In some teasers, only the release date of the book is shared. These teaser videos are pretty crisp and are mostly shorter than 30 seconds.

Book Trailer: This is just like the trailer of a movie, letting your audience know about the book and what they can expect from it. Mostly, it introduces the major characters (or the lead protagonist) and their current situation. The video depicts the narrative arc of the story without giving too much about it. The aim of a book trailer is to have a promotional push and to let the audience know about the release of the book.

What Should a Book Trailer Include?

There are several book trailer examples on the web that you can watch to learn. Ideally, in most of the trailers, you will find a common theme that is more focused on the story. You can consider including the following things in your book trailer as well.

1. The Synopsis

This would be the introduction of your book to your audience and must be the most captivating part. Most of the publishing houses and authors focus on the central character of the book to make the audience familiar with their present state of mind. You can see something similar in this book trailer example.

2. The Story Arc

Once you have made your audience familiar with the central idea of the book, simply provide a glimpse of how the story would progress. Make sure that your book trailer will not narrate the entire story, but should only tease your audience. You can leave the trailer at a pivot point to intrigue your audience. If you have enough funds to spare, then you can even act a scene out as a trailer like this example.

3. Soundtrack and Effects

Apart from the story, the background track, voiceovers, and other visual effects would also make your book trailer standout. To add these things, you can use a dedicated book trailer maker as well.

4. Book release date and other details

At the end of a book trailer video, you can just share details about the release of the book. This would include things like its title, expected release date, publisher, author information, pre-order link, and so on.

How to Create a Book Trailer with Filmora: A Stepwise Guide

Now when you know about the major components of a book trailer, let’s learn how to create one on your own. I would recommend picking a DIY video editor like Filmora that you can use as a book trailer maker. Without any prior editing experience, you can use Filmora to create all kinds of book trailers in minutes.

• Filmora by Wondershare is a DIY and user-friendly video editor that would let you work on different storyboards and timelines.
• You can import all kinds of video clips, photos, and other media files to the application and work on everything in one place.
• There are seamless options to clip, crop, perform color correction, and do other edits on your videos easily.
• In the application, you can also find a wide range of effects, transitions, presets, royalty-free audios, filters, etc. that you can easily apply to your videos.
• You can also instantly add voiceovers to your book trailers and export them into multiple formats.

To use the Filmora book trailer maker and work on your next book trailer, I would recommend following these basic steps.

1. Come up with a Storyboard Idea

Before you start working on your book trailer, make sure that you have all the content handy. For this, you have to come up with a central idea for the trailer and how you plan to execute it. You can write the things that you need in a storyboard and use various online resources to get royalty-free content.

2. Import the media files to Filmora

Great! Once you have all the media files ready, just launch Filmora on your system. Go to the Import section from the top and choose to import media files to your project. This will open a browser window, letting you locate and add files to Filmora.

3. Edit your Book Trailer Video

The interface will display all the media files that you have added. You can now drag and drop them to the timeline or click on the “+” button to add them to your project. On the timeline as well, you can further move the media files (like photos or clips) around.

Just above the timeline, you can get different options to edit your media files. You can crop any file, split the video, apply color correction, and perform several other operations.

There are also multiple options to add soundtracks and voiceovers to your video. There is a microphone icon below the preview window to add voiceovers. Furthermore, you can go to the Audio section from the top to add soundtracks to your book trailer. You can find several royalty-free tracks in Filmora or can import any other audio file as well.

To add texts to your frames, you can go to the “Titles” option. Just select the titles and drag-and-drop it above the respective frame on the timeline. You can go to its Advanced Options to edit how the book title or any other text would appear on the video.

Filmora also offers a wide range of effects, transitions, and other elements that you can easily insert to your video. For instance, you can go to the “Effects” section, select a filter, and simply place it on the timeline.

4. Preview and Export your Book Trailer

That’s it! Once you have worked on the book trailer maker, you can watch the video on the preview window. If you are happy with the results, then go to the “Export” option from the top. This will open a dedicated window, letting you export your book trailer video to a desired format and resolution. You can also browse and select a location to save the processed file in the end.

Expert Tips to Make Your Book Trailer Stand Out

By following our guide, you would be able to make the most of Filmora as a professional book trailer maker. Besides using the right tools, you can also consider the following suggestions to come up with impressive book trailers.

1. Divide the trailer into parts

Just like your book, you should also consider dividing your trailer into parts. After all, your book trailer should narrate your story in the best possible way. Come up with a captivating beginning, a flawless middle, and an intriguing ending that would keep your audience waiting for more.

2. Keep it simple!

A lot of people make the rookie mistake of making their book trailers overly length. This might bore your audience and they can end up losing interest. Therefore, your trailer should only have essential details and never include the entire story in it.

3. Keep it consistent and related to your book

Try not to involve too many elements in your book trailer just to make it overly dramatic. You can easily come up with a minimalist yet effective trailer if you use a reliable book trailer maker like Filmora.

Also, the overall look and feel of your trailer should match with the central idea of your book. For instance, if your book is targeted to kids, then the trailer should not have any violent or horror music.

4. Check for any copyrighted material

If you are making a book trailer on your own, then you might end up using the background music or pictures that are owned by someone else. Once you post a video like this on YouTube, your account might get punished for copyright issues. To avoid this, watch other book trailer examples first and make sure your video doesn’t include any copyrighted material.

5. Always include a CTA

Most importantly, your book trailer should always include a call-to-action in the end. Experts recommend including the release date of the book, where to buy it, and its pre-order link in the end. You can also include the pre-order or the purchase link in the description of the video so that your audience can easily buy a copy online.

I’m sure that after reading this post, you would be able to come up with some interesting book trailers as well. As you can see from some book trailer examples, the right visuals can make such an impactful difference in a video. For this, you can pick a reliable book trailer maker like Filmora. Used by both beginners and experts alike, it will let you come up with visually stunning and memorable trailers in no time.

Liza Brown

Liza Brown is a writer and a lover of all things video.

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