I SUPPOSE authors are all
constantly trying to find ways to tell the world about our books, and
seeing as quite a few authors are now having trailer's made for
their novels, I thought I'd give it a go, and see if it makes any
difference to sales.
This was for Celeste, my YA time slip thriller, set here in Coventry, which is published by American publisher, Clean Reads, formerly known as Astraea Press.
Not being particularly technically minded to put a trailer together myself, I
took up the offer of a fellow Clean Reads author in the USA, who runs Videos by
O, creating videos for any budget. My budget wasn't very big, but
that didn't make any difference to the effort that Opal put into the
video, with her sending me mock ups throughout the process, and
making the changes that I asked for.
Persuading my photographer friend, Rob Tysall (www.tysallsphotography.org.uk) to head into Coventry's City Centre with me a few weeks ago, we set out to take the necessary photos that I'd need
to create the look that I wanted for the trailer.
The story is about teenager, Megan Miller who moves to Coventry with her parents and starts to experience feelings of deja vu. These
feelings become stronger and stronger and she gradually realises she
has lived, and died before in Medieval times when her name had been
Celeste. The story particularly revolves around the ruins of
Coventry's old cathedral.
So photographer, Rob
and I headed for the old cathedral, armed with a length of blue
ribbon and my daughter's black hooded top. He took lots of
different shots of the cathedrals and other atmospheric buildings nearby, which I have to say I'm really really pleased with.
It was a fun day, although I noticed a group of sightseers giving me a wide birth, as I stood in the shadows of St Mary's Guildhall with my hoodie hiding my face for one
particular sinister shot.
Back at the studio, Rob
produced the images, and did quite a lot of photoshop 'magic' on the
'evil monk' shot you see at the end. Believe me when I say he did a LOT of
photoshop work! I don't actually look like this - honestly!!
I then played about with the different photos, working out which order they needed to appear for the best effect, and used the blurb
from the back of the book, in short paragraphs, to indicate which
words went with each picture.
Finally it was emailed off to Opal who did her
'magic' adding music and a 'moving' effect, and following a few tweaks, hey presto all done!
Who knows if it will
result in more sales, but anyway, it was good fun doing it. Here's
the link if you'd like to see the
finished result:
You can purchase
Celeste as an ebook or paperback:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/celeste-ann-evans/1119649538?ean=9781500982492
Please visit my website
at: http://www.annevansbooks.co.uk
