Win a Free Book Trailer from Tina’s Trailers
Comment about the book or book trailers below to be included in a drawing for a free book trailer. Deadline for comments is May 15, 2012 midnight.
Case Studies of 3 Book Trailers
One of my interests is book trailers, especially how to create great book trailers. As the first stop on her blog tour for her new book, Tiny Nichols Coury stops by to talk about how she created these three videos for her book.
Win a Free Book Trailer from Tina’s Trailers
Comment about the book or book trailers below to be included in a drawing for a free book trailer. Deadline for comments is Wednesday night at midnight (May 9).
Book Trailer: Where to Buy Animation
If you can’t see this video, click here.
- Where do you get the animated backgrounds? I buy all royalty free video and art from shutterstock.com and edit it into iMovie 11, a Mac program.
- Where do you find appropriate music? Around two years ago I bought a music library of seven hundred songs from royaltyfreemusic.com. Always use royalty free music. I have heard many horror stories of book trailers having their audio pulled by YouTube for not having the licensing. Also there are audio predators claiming that you are using their song to try to get money out of you. They harassed me. You Tube asked for proof of my ownership of my book trailer music. I had the paperwork to prove I had legally purchased the music. That was the end of them bothering me.
- There’s a neat animation of a red line going from the New England area to South Dakota. How/where did you get that animation? The map in many different forms is a standard feature in iMovie 11.
Book Trailers: Use a Series of Trailers
If you can’t see this video, click here.
- Animated fuse: how did you get that animated image? I went to shutterstock.com and put “fuse” in the search box. The trick is to get a little longer clip and then edit to the trailer.
- Where did you get the music for this video? Royaltyfreemusic.com This was from their cinema albums. I listened to hundreds of songs before I found the right one.
- The concept is very different for this one from the previous. It doesn’t feature as many bits of illustration from the book and seems more inspirational. Can you talk about how you develop a concept? I am only allowed to use 20% of the illustrations from the book for the book trailers. This gave me a challenge. I planned to have many trailers for my book, but how could I create different views of the same story and keep them all engaging? Book Trailer #1, Intro; Book Trailer #2, Question; Book Trailer # 3, Theme Song. Book Trailer # 4 will be the Presidents on Mount Rushmore talking about the book.
If you can’t see this video, click here.
- The soundtrack for this video is a song with lyrics. Is this an original song that you commissioned for this book? Can you talk about that process. I grew up and went to college in Los Angeles. As a trained illustrator I started out doing album covers for no name artists, and in that career I met my husband of twenty-five years, Al Coury. Al is a legendary music executive who worked with everyone from the Beatles to Guns & Roses. We have many professional musicians who are friends. I knew I wanted a theme song for the book. So as a favor to me, our good friend Jack Conrad, who played with the Doors, agreed to write it. This blew my editor’s mind and he is putting it online for a free download when you buy the book.
- In general, when you do use a song with lyrics and when do you not? Do you ever do voice-overs? The audio is the difference between a professional and amateur book trailer. Great music makes a trailer and is worth the cost. For the most part it is hassle free. If you are a musician or know one, record a professional theme song for your book trailer. You eliminate all issues of licensing. If you are producing a trailer yourself avoid voice-overs. It requires special equipment and trained actors to really make it work. I don’t have a great voice for narration, or the trailer budget to hire someone professional. With that said, my next book trailer is the Mount Rushmore Presidents joking about my book. I’m lucky–another one of our musician friends, Neil Diamond’s piano player Tom Hensley, agreed to produce the voice-overs for it. If it weren’t for our friends I’d be strictly using music.
Buy it Now!
Win a Free Book Trailer from Tina’s Trailers
Comment about the book or book trailers below to be included in a drawing for a free book trailer. Deadline for comments is May 15, 2012 midnight.
These trailers are amazing! I love how you broke them down too. The book sounds fabulous and fun. I’d love to be able to have a book trailer this wonderful!
I encourage my library school students to create book trailers but I don’t have one for my own book! I love the idea of a series of trailers for the same book and how lucky to have such talented friends who are willing to help.
This is a great article, guys! Lots of useful information. And Tina, congrats on your book!!
my wistful compliments
Martha
What a great book trailer! I love the way it keeps moving all the way through. No stumbles or slow spots, no weird fades. Excellent! Thanks for this posting. It’s very informative, although I’m not sure I could do something this good! Good luck, Tina!!!
Thanks for the great book trailers and info! I can’t wait to buy your book at your book launch party.
You are the bomb, Tina! Thanks for sharing how you do all this (not that I ever would!) Can’t wait to get my hands on the book so I can read it to my grandsons. Mount Rushmore blew me clean away when I first saw it.
Loved the trailer for Hanging Off Jefferson’s Nose and the music could not be more perfect. I also enjoyed the circular aspect of it. The graphics and how they’re presented at the end mimic the beginning and young readers like repetition! Hope to have trailers for two forthcoming picture books (2013), one with Abrams Books and one with Marshall Cavendish/Amazon Pub.
Thanks, Tina! Your trailers are so professionally done. Must do one. I’m way overdue. Congrats on the publication of your book. Can’t wait to read it!
Tina, After your presentation on Saturday to the CWC-SFV, I read your book. I was amazed that you could condense so much information into a picture book. I liked the Father-Son Adventure. The trailers are very nice. I especially liked the catchy cowboy song.
I admire people who can make book trailers, and it must be cool to do one for your own book. Like the multiple trailer idea. Good advice here, thanks.
Lots of useful info here, many thanks. I wasn’t aware that only 20% of the illustrations could be used. Is that because of “fair use” copyright law? Interesting, because the trailer is actually promoting the book!
You rock, Tina! Dynamite!
Thank you all for the wonderful response. I can’t wait to see who Darcy pulls out of the comment pile next week. If you don’t have a book, I also do book pitches which is a shorter version of a trailer for agents and houses.
Wow, Tina, you are the Island Empress and the Trailer Temptress! Three unique visions . . . and sounds–fantastic!
Wonderful trailer! Tina is fantastic!
These are some fabulous points and ideas, I’ll have to file these away in my memory for future reference.
I love the idea of a series of trailers like that.
I loved all your trailers. Each one made me want to buy the book for a different reason.
Tina:
Thanks for the great wealth of book trailer information. I think the trailer series idea is great advice. Best of luck with the new book.
The second is my favorite. I love the animation and the inspirational track of music. I have been collecting business cards from local musicians I’ve heard play, in hopes that one day I’ll have a book trailer and can hire one of them to help me. How cool that you were able to use professionals with such impressive creds! Thank you for the great tips!! :)
These trailers are great. Giving me some ideas….So fun that you could impress your editor with a musician from the Doors.
Trailers are so much fun…it’s like doing a painting that moves.
I forgot to address Michelle’s question about the 20%. My editor Steve told me only to uses that much. Steve was very careful about all art from the book appearing on the internet.
Tina, these are so fun. Thanks for sharing your tips, but I’m afraid your kind of talent is harder to come by, at least for the likes of me.
Still, it might be fun to give it a try…
Tina-
This is amazing. I’ve been watching your trailers over the years, but these three are fantastic, all so different, and all so engaging. I had never thought of having multiple trailers. What an amazing concept. The second and third are my favorites. Happy book launch!!!!
You’re such a good marketer. I’ve been familiar with your trailers and your own blog for a while now through SCBWI’s Midsouth listserv. I really admire your work, both book trailers and your writing. So many people don’t realize that books as well as music are copyrighted. Glad you mentioned about the royalty free music sites as well as the 20% use. Good luck with your new book!
Wow! I love the original song . . . and I even know a few musicians. Great idea! Thanks.
Darcy – this is EXACTLY what I needed to see today! Thank you! Tina – you just sold another copy of Hanging Off Jefferson’s Nose, and I can’t wait to read it to my kids! Great trailer – trailers! I would love to have an awesome trailer like that – so, Darcy, pick me, pick me! (She says, hopefully and shamelessly!) Thanks again to you both for inspiring me today!
Thanks for the great info on book trailers. It was so helpful to have the examples right there to enjoy, and I especially appreciate the tips on how to get royalty-free music and animation, and the good advice about avoiding unprofessional voice-overs. The trailers do a terrific job of showing that Hanging Off Jefferson’s Nose will be fun, interesting, and inspiring to read.
These are great! I love how each trailer goes beyond amazing for a different reason, whether it be illustration, music, or special effects. They definitely ‘sell’ your intriguing book. Good luck with it!
I’m still working on a website for my forthcoming book and hope to someday include a trailer as good as these. Thanks for this opportunity!
Thanks for the tips on book trailers. I’ll be making one for my upcoming picture book. How cool to have a theme song for your book! Congrats, Tina!
This is fascinating to hear the ins and outs of making a book trailer. It would be incredible to win an opportunity like this. I’m headed out to buy the book now!
Gail
kidlitgail@gmail.com
How do you decide what to put in your book trailers?
I love these trailers. They’re different from each other, yet complimentary and with a great use of movement and music. I’m hoping to create my own trailer this summer and the information about where to get images and music is very helpful. Thank you!