Trailers and Book Promotion

The New York Times recently posted an intriguing article, The Author Takes a Star Turn, which discusses how various authors, e.g., Mary Karr, Jeannette Walls, and Kelly Corrigan, have used video to promote their books, something that the article concludes is now almost a necessity. If you visit the article, you can click through to trailers by a number of the authors. My favorite is "Book Launch 2.0," the winner of this year's Moby award for Best Performance by an Author. That author is Dennis Cass, author of the non-fiction book, Head Case: How I Almost Lost My Mind Trying to Understand My Brain. In the video Cass takes subtle and delightful satirical aim at the entire business of promotion. Take a look.

It seems that everything that Cass has failed to do for his book is what an author should do for a book. Using my powers of inference, I've compiled a list:

1. Get reviews
2. Do a reading tour
3. Get book clubs to use your book
4. Do an email blast
5. Have a website
6. Have a blog
7. Keep 5 & 6 updated (Note: Cass last posted at his website on May 21 and he's deserted his blog.)
8. Join social networks such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter
9. Make a YouTube video
10. Accept, as Cass has, that "this is the world we live in."

The trailer prompted me to put Head Case on reserve at my library. Cass's soft sell page at his website firmed up my interest in his book. Now I wonder if we all need to add a soft sell page to our websites.

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Book Trailer Contest

Since I've recently made a poetry book trailer and posted several times about the process, I was immediately interested in this contest sponsored by the journal Quiddity. Maybe you too?

Book Trailer Contest for Writers and Small Presses:

Two prizes of $350 as well as broadcast, Web, and print promotion by Quiddity will be awarded—one prize each in the categories Manuscripts and Books. (Runners-up and/or honorable mentions may also be selected.) This contest closes October 20, 2010 (postmark deadline).

Check Guidelines

Now take a look at the sample video. I'm a bit intimidated by it! The effects achieved here are quite spectacular and way beyond my capabilities, but I hope this is just to inspire us. I'm planning to make a trailer for my new book and hope to enter the contest. But I'll be keeping my trailer closer to the two minutes recommended elsewhere. I suspect it's true that most viewers won't hang in for more than two minutes.

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I Put an End to This Goofing Off

I've fallen way behind on my New Year's Writing resolution to be more productive, to show up at the desk more often. True, I've been busy with other things, but the itch to get the pen moving is coming back. I feel that in a physical way, a restlessness, a little tingly thing going on inside.

So no more excuses. I'm done with all my school visits. My new book is in the publisher's hands, though I'll still need to proof the galleys. The snow is finally gone and the flowers are coming up. Time to spring into action, into poetry.

I'll be leading two workshops this month. Time to practice a bit what I'll be preaching. So I'm turning to a book of prompts. I know that some poets disdain prompts. But this poet loves them and says so in public! Bring them on! I'm turning to Kim Addonizio's book, Ordinary Genius: Guide to the Poet Within. I've already read it and even gotten some poems from it. I need to dip back in and try some of the other prompts that I marked. If you don't already have this terrific collection of prompts and craft tips, rectify that omission right now. Get thee to Amazon. Order thee a book.

(Click Cover for Amazon)

I was delighted when I came across Kim's book trailer. It offers another example of what a trailer might do, i.e., simply show the poet talking about her book. I also enjoyed hearing what Kim had to say about the book, about how she put it together and why. Plus, I liked seeing her in her living room and feeling like I was there too. (If it's not her living room, don't tell me.)



Here's an interview Rachel Dacus did with Kim at Fringe Magazine. Kim talks about some of the differences between writing prose and writing poetry, learning the craft of poetry, and some elements of craft. Rachel is currently taking a course with Kim in Kim's house in California. That fills me with envy! I want to be there, too. At least I have the book which I've already pulled off the shelf and will use to get me back in action.

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Book Trailer Recap

Thanks to everyone who commented on my book trailers either here or by email. I really appreciate that. The votes were fairly even but the iMovie took a slight lead, and I will now say that that's the one I'm partial to. I love the glitz of the Animoto one. The special effects are lively and appealing, but I felt that they distracted from the content. Interestingly, the people who favored that one said that it moved faster. Actually, it's a few seconds longer than the iMovie one. I think the effects give the illusion of greater speed. But I'm holding onto both, and maybe I'll alternate. I received a few suggestions for change, but this one was practice for the one I want to do for my new book. That's where I'll put your suggestions to use. I think my major goal is to go a bit shorter on the next one.

I prefer the iMovie one because I think it has greater clarity and the soundtrack sounds just a bit better. I think the text is more readable without all the flipping around. As far as the creation of the trailers goes, this one allowed me greater control over what was happening. For example, in iMovie I can exactly time each clip. I can also move the soundtrack and adjust its volume. I can add text right onto a clip if I want to. I can make an adjustment in iMovie without altering the rest of the movie. Can't do any of that with Animoto. In Animoto each change results in an entirely new look to the movie. It's just automatic. But I do love Animoto and expect that I will find a future use for it.

I'm going to list here some resources that you might find useful if you decide to make your own poem video or book trailer.

To see other videos and trailers and add your own:

Vimeo
Register on this site and you can then see examples and upload your own work. I just uploaded my trailer. Easy and the result is very good. You have to upload from your desktop. No option to upload from YouTube. I haven't yet figured out how people happen to find your video here.

Poetry Speaks
Another site for videos and a place for uploading your own work. At this site you upload from YouTube or desktop. You can add videos for free in the Your Mic program. If you want your name to come up on the site's search engine and if you want people to be able to download your poems, you'll have to pay for that. Right now I don't see any benefit to that. Passing on that option.

Book Trailers
Register and join this site. Then you can upload your videos. This is a ning site, so you get your own page and can customize it. Your video displays on the front page after you upload it. Don't know how long it remains there. A blog and discussion topics.


Place to have a trailer made for you:

Authors Broadcast
Makes book trailers. You can view many examples here. Prices listed. Looks more geared towards prose but I'm guessing they could do poetry too.

Animoto
You can get as many free 30 second videos as you want, but you won't be happy with that. Then you can sign on for a one year deal for just $30. That entitles you to as many videos in a year as you like of any length. You have to do the bulk of the work here, i.e., upload your photos, add text, add a soundtrack. The program then mixes for you. The results are really cool. Limitations are lack of control over timing of each clip and inability to edit and then prevent the program from remixing. But very very cool program.


Places to get photos:

Photo Xpress
I love this site. Register and you get one free photo download per day. Join their Facebook fan page and you get four more. Sign on via your cell phone and you get five more. That's ten free photos per day. Large and really nice. Of course, you can buy more.

istockphoto
Another great site. You need to register and nothing is for free here, but the photos are high quality. And you can get video clips which add a lot of power and visual appeal to your video. You make your purchases using a credit system. A credit seems to be about 95 cents. The bigger the image, the more credits required. Dollars add up quickly, but a few splurges here might be well worth it.

fotolia
I received a promotional offer from this place. Sign on and I'd be allowed to download 3 free photos for 7 days. Signed on, but trouble with the downloading part. Took a few days to sort
out with tech support. You can also purchase here as at istockphoto, using the credit system.

Big Foto
Offers an array of free photos. I'm not keen on the categories they use to organize the photos and there's no search option, but I see a lot of nice images and they appear to be good quality.

Google Images
Put the name of what you're looking for into the search window and a ton of stuff will come up. Two caveats: one) Be careful not to violate any copyrights. If the site looks like a photographer's site, don't download the image. Or try contacting and asking for permission; two) Be sure the image is large enough and clear enough to work well. If not, it will be grainy-looking. And who wants a grainy picture?


Where to get music:

Kevin MacLeod offers royalty-free music which downloads as mp3's. Music is categorized in a few ways so you can find what you want quite easily. Each recording's time is indicated (note that the time is a few seconds longer than the music actually lasts), and you can listen to the music without downloading. Like it, then download it.


So now you've got your poem video or book trailer. What to do with it? Post it to the sites listed above. Post it to YouTube (of course), Facebook, Red Room, She Writes, GoodReads, your Author's Page at Amazon—you must be a member of these sites to upload your videos. Then post at your blog and your website. Email the video to your email list. You can send the link or embed in the email message. Different mail programs may or may not allow this--my gmail does, mac does not.

Note: If you upload to YouTube and then download to another site such as Red Room or Poetry Speaks, you may find that your video has black bars at top and bottom of the screen (just as your old tv had when you were on an hd channel). This seems to happen because YouTube makes the video for wide screen. There are two ways I've found to work around this. One: adjust the "aspect ratio" on your movie before you upload it to YouTube from 16:9 to 4:3. I made two versions, one in each ratio. When I posted the 4:3 one to Red Room, I lost the black bars. Likewise at Poetry Speaks. Two: upload from your desktop onto the site, e.g., She Writes, but not all sites allow this option.

I hope these resources will be useful to you as you make your own videos and trailers. Have fun. Be patient. Do not rush your project. A bad video or trailer is worse than none at all. You'll spend a lot of time on the first one. The following ones will come faster and easier.

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My Book Trailer(s): The Unveiling

If you've been following my recent blog posts, you know that I've been working on making a book trailer for my poetry book, What Feeds Us. This is in the nature of an experiment. Having noticed that many prose writers make book trailers, I began to wonder why poets weren't doing the same thing. It seemed logical to me that we should be making trailers. After all, poetry is the oral art. It seemed to me that we were missing an opportunity to get our voices heard and to try another marketing strategy. So I began to do a bunch of research.

I've now watched several hours' worth of trailers. I haven't found a single one of a poetry book that really fits into what I think of as a book trailer. Plenty of individual poem videos and many of those I loved and admired. But I wanted something that would provide a sense of the entire collection, not just a sample poem. I don't see this as an either / or issue; I think we should be doing both. So my challenge was to create such a trailer. Since my new book won't be out until June, I worked with my more recent book, What Feeds Us.

I first worked with iMovie on my iMac. I love that program. I didn't want to spend any money on this, so I used Images at Google to find pictures. Before finding the pictures, though, I went through the book and made a list of dominant motifs and images. Then I set about finding some good food pictures to represent the poems that are about literal food. But my book is also about other ways in which we are fed or not fed, nourished or not nourished. So I also looked for pictures of love and sex and families, healthy and broken. I loaded these into a new project in iMovie and added transitions. Not enough to give a good sense of the book. I added some text. Too many text pages, so I moved some text on top of images to shorten the movie as I wanted to keep it to a maximum of two minutes.

I wanted a cover image so added that. I used Keynote to add some text to the same page. To turn that to a jpeg, I did a screenshot and resized, then dragged the image into the project. Took some experimentation and time, but progress was being made. I added some text to better convey the themes. I added some snippets from blurbs. I added an author photo and credits.

Time for the soundtrack. Off I went to Kevin MacLeod's Royalty-Free Music. I wanted something that was upbeat but also had undercurrents that suggested some of the darker aspects of the book. I wanted the pace not too fast, not too slow. I needed a track that fit what had come to two minutes. I found just what I wanted, downloaded the mp3, and dragged it into the project. Easy. The video was a bit longer than the track so the opening seemed slow to me with no sound. I filled in that empty space by making a QuickTime audio track with me saying the title and my name. Dragged it in ahead of the other track and "normalized" the volume so it would match the music. The timing now was just right.

Asked for some opinions from family members. I asked if my trailer accurately conveyed the collection. Did it make the collection appealing? If viewers didn't already have the book, would the trailer make them want to buy it? The family gave me good marks. Now it's time to go public. So here's the iMovie trailer.




Because this was fun (though time-consuming) and because I also wanted to see what I could do at Animoto, I joined that site. Initially, I just fooled around with the 30-second free video option. When I felt that I'd learned my way around the site, I signed on for the $30 one-year account. This allows me to make as many full-length videos as I want.

I then uploaded all the pictures I had used in the iMovie. Because you can't add text right onto an image as you can in iMovie, I added text clips, but that really increased the length of the video. Also, once the program mixed the video, some of the text didn't match up clearly with its corresponding image. So then I took screenshots from the iMovie and added those. That gave me text on the images. A lot of work and I first needed the other movie, but it was a way to get text on an image.

I uploaded the soundtrack, but could not upload my voiceover part as Animoto takes only mp3's. I then found a file converter called Switch Audio Converter which allows me to convert the mac format to an mp3. (Also available for Windows.) But Animoto allows for the upload of just one track so I used QuickTime to create one new audio including my voiceover and Kevin's music. Not happy with the difference in volume so ended up making a new track by recording from the iMovie. Then I used Switch to convert it to an mp3. Then uploaded that.

Animoto automatically adds effects and they are very cool. If you don't like the result, you can remix by hitting a button. Each time you Edit, the video will be different. This is good and bad. Bad in that you can't choose. Good in that the program does the work. Also, you can alter timing only to 3 different speeds. You can get a bit more time on a particular clip by spotlighting it, but that's it. On iMovie, you can exactly set the timing for both clips and transitions. I then turned over another $5 for a hi-res version. The quality on my desktop is wonderful, but I think a good deal of that quality is lost in the YouTube upload.

Take a look at this one. What do you think? How do the two versions compare?

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Book Trailer or Poem Video?

As I continue my research into the subject of book trailers for poetry books, I've also been looking at a number of videos which feature a single poem. Sandra Beasley and I are on somewhat similar paths, i.e., both delving into how to make videos, but she's pursuing the individual poem video while I'm pursuing the video that introduces the viewer / reader to the book. I don't, however, see these as opposing paths. I don't think you have to choose one or the other. Why not do both?

Sandra has written four excellent blog posts about her experiences in making her videos. Excellent! I learned so much from her, nitty gritty stuff plus some very useful links. In her posts she takes us step by step through the creation of two poem videos. Both poems are from her forthcoming collection, I Was the Jukebox, scheduled for release on April 5 but available for pre-order at the link. Take a look at Sandra's first video:




Certainly very appealing. Great pace. Great images. Sandra clued me into istockphotos, an online site where you can get good-quality photos and animated clips. You can see that Sandra uses both. Of course, there's cost involved, though the site does appear to offer some photos for free. For this video Sandra used a plug-in mic. The background music is a bit overwhelming and suddenly bursts into loud volume at the end. For her second video she used her Mac's built-in mic and adjusted the volume of the background music. I think she's achieved perfection:




Both videos have wonderful music, both supplied by Kevin MacLeod at his royalty-free site. This is another of those sites that Sandra directed me to. I love it. All kinds of music. For no cost at all, you can download an mp3 of any soundtrack you want. (In another post I'll tell you what I learned about how to convert other file types in mp3's.) In this newer video you can hear that the background music is muted so that it supports but does not intrude on the reading of the poem. I also like how Sandra coordinates the text on the screen with her voiceover. Looks easy but isn't. Well, it's not hard, but it takes some fine-tuning and some time. Both of these videos weigh in at just over a minute. As I've been viewing lots of videos, it's become clear that the most successful ones avoid going on too long. If you're making a poem video or a trailer, don't go over two minutes or you risk losing your viewers.

Now the big question: Do the videos make you want to run out and buy the book? I say Yes! I already have Sandra's first book, Theories of Falling, and am looking forward to soon owning I Was the Jukebox.

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Who Needs a Good Laugh?

We all need a good laugh. I found one the other day while continuing my research into book trailers. I again visited the Book Screening site and checked out several of the poetry offerings. This one by Robert Sward, poet, novelist, editor, and workshop provider, made me laugh out loud. This is a poem from his collection, The Collected Poems of Robert Sward 1957-2004. Take a look, and if you know how this was made, please let me know. Enjoy.

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More on Book Trailers

I'm continuing my research into the subject of movie trailers. I continue to find quite a few for prose books but very few for poetry books. I found one site, Book Screening, which hosts book trailers in many categories. I found 184 in the Mystery/Thriller category and 251 in the Non-Fiction category but only 17 in Poetry. In the Poetry group, several were videos of readings of individual poems but not really book trailers. We poets need to learn something from the writers in other genres. Let's all make book trailers! They seem like a great way to reach potential readers.

Book Screening has stopped accepting additional trailers—due to "time constraints." Hopefully, their constraints will soon become unconstrained.

Poet Collin Kelley has done a wonderful trailer for his novel, Conquering Venus. Take a look at it:



Collin is fortunate enough to have a friend who did the trailer for him. The professional touches are obvious, but Janna did her own (with some guidance) and it's also a beauty. Collin is also lucky to know the musician who allowed him to use her work for the sound track.

Here are some thoughts about what we can learn from Collin's trailer:

1. Keep it simple but varied enough to hold the viewer's interest. With all that can be done with videos, it's a huge temptation to go overboard with various effects. You want to tempt but not overwhelm. Collin's trailer strikes a good balance between simplicity and sophistication.

2. Limit the amount of text. Readers have to read quickly, so don't put too much text on a single clip. Not all clips need text. Again, Collin's video strikes a good balance; images, text, and audio all work together rather than at odds with each other.

3. Use a font large enough that readers will be able to read it clearly. Remember, too, that some clarity may be lost when you upload to YouTube. Keep font styles simple.

4. Keep it brief. Tempt; don't overwhelm. The average viewer, I've been told, won't hang in for more than two minutes. I read one minute somewhere. You will be surprised how many clips you can get in in under two minutes. Janna's trailer of The Motion of the Ocean (posted on Feb. 4) takes only 2.03 minutes but includes 43 clips by my count. Collin's takes 1.33 minutes and includes, I think, 10 clips. I say "I think" because some of the clips are animated and it's hard to figure out if I'm seeing one or more. In any case, the animation is wonderful. You can inexpensively purchase photos and animated images at istockphoto.

5. Images should support and coordinate with the text. Notice how beautifully both Collin's and Janna's trailers do just that.

6. Add a soundtrack. Coordinate it with the images. Choose something appropriate to your subject. No grim reaper music for a collection about how jolly life is. Again, notice in both Janna's and Collin's trailers how the music adds to the video, how well-suited it is. Be sure you adjust the volume so that it does not overwhelm. Make the volume consistent throughout. If you're on a Mac, there are many soundtracks that come with iMovie, of varying duration and all free. And don't forget Kevin MacLeod's Royalty Free Music site.

7. Include the book cover. Essential! I've also read it suggested elsewhere that you include some close-up details.

8. Include your own image. Viewers like to see the author.

9. Establish your credibility as an author (briefly, of course). This can be a few endorsements or blurbs and / or prize your work has received.


Now I sound like I know what I'm talking about. I don't. I'm just beginning to learn how to make poetry videos. But these are tips I've jotted down as I've been researching. This is some of what I've learned. You might find it useful too. More coming. More learning to do.

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The Motion of the Ocean

(click for Amazon)

I love memoirs. And I've been getting interested in book trailers. They strike me as a great way to get people interested in your book. I've also been wondering why poets don't seem to make use of book trailers. After all, poetry is the oral art, right? With a new poetry book coming out soon, I've been considering the possibility of making a trailer. I've found lots of poetry videos, but none that specifically features a book. There are, however, lots of prose book trailers, so I've been using those for ideas.

Here's one by Janna Cawrse Esarey for her memoir, The Motion of the Ocean. Take a look.

Now for me the real test of the effectiveness of a trailer is whether or not it makes me want to read the book. This trailer did. In fact, I ordered the book the same day I watched the trailer. I've just finished the book and really enjoyed it. It's about a young couple's decision to begin their marriage by chucking their jobs, buying a sailboat, and taking a long ocean trip. There's lots of romance, times with no romance, some nautical mishaps, new friendships, parties, visits to islands, boat upkeep, writing. This memoir took me into a totally new world, something I value in a memoir. I have never gone sailing, never visited islands, never fished, never spent an extended period of time with any one person let alone my husband. I doubt I will ever do any of those things, but I loved the vicarious experience of joining Janna and Graeme on their long honeymoon journey.

After watching the video, I emailed some questions to the author to find out how she made her trailer. Then I learned that she'd also created a second trailer, this one geared towards book clubs. Take a look.

Here's some of the information Esarey provided about making a book trailer.

1. A friend at Pacific Lutheran University provided the students for the book discussion. Although the discussion was filmed, the raw footage didn't work out. For one thing, a good deal of cutting was necessary. Esarey advises keeping the trailer under 3 minutes. (I've read elsewhere that the average viewer won't hang in much longer than 1 minute.) Another problem was matching footage with audio.

2. So instead of raw footage, Esarey decided to use audio and photos/illustrations.

3. Esarey drew the illustrations by downloading a free drawing software for kids (called Tux Paint). She bought a drawing pen/pad that hooks to her Mac (Bamboo brand about $75). Then she did screen shots (shift + command + 4 on Mac) and was able to save those images and insert them into her video.

4. Her video ended up being a combination of iMovie, iPhoto, and Keynote.

5. She strongly recommended The Book Trailer Blog for more information about book trailers.

6. Here is some of what Esarey suggests you can do with a trailer: post it on your own website, YouTube, Facebook, and other social networking sites that you belong to. (Red Room and She Writes come to mind.) You can also use it at Amazon. If you want your trailer posted on your book's page, your publisher must submit it. But you can post it on your Amazon author page yourself.

7. Esarey also sent her videos around to bloggers. She said, "I think it's a great way to give people the gist of your work in an appealing, quick format."

Now I'm wondering if any of you poets have made book trailers? Let me know what your experiences have been. You can post in the Comments section or use my email link on my profile page.

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