Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Book Trailers

Today has been hectic as I get ready to leave tomorrow for EPICon2008 in Portland, Oregon. This is one of my favorite conferences, so I'm looking forward to it. On Saturday, I'll be presenting a workshop with Adrianna Dane called Author as Producer: How To Create Your Own Video Book Trailers on a Budget.

Aside from the seven video trailers I've created, my main claim to fame in speaking on this topic is the fact that my video for Marooned has been viewed over 174,000 times at YouTube. If only that would translate into more book sales. Ah, well.

My latest creation is a trailer for my Regency romance, Lady Elinor's Escape. I've embedded it below for your enjoyment. I hope to keep up my Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday blogging schedule this week, but it will be harder than usual since I'll be away from home. I'm taking the laptop with me, though, so we'll see. I'll try to take lots of pictures in Portland. I understand the flowers are starting to bloom there.

Feel free to comment on my trailer or on book trailers in general. Do you watch them? Have you ever bought a book after viewing one? Or is it just free entertainment? (Nothing wrong with that.) I'd really like to know.

Linda

13 comments:

Barrie said...

I wish I were going to the conference. I would LOVE to see your talk!

Linda McLaughlin said...

Barrie,

I wish you could go, too. It's a great conference. Maybe I'll do the video talk someday at OCC.

Linda

Anonymous said...

Have a great time at the conference. This is the first time I've heard of or seen a UTube book trailer. Very nice. Where did you find the music to go along with the video or is that you playing the piano?

Anonymous said...

I've seen several book trailers. Other than the author's website and You Tube, where else would the be shown?

Linda McLaughlin said...

Sandy,

I got the music from Kevin McLeod at incompetech.com for a small donation. I used to play the piano, but no longer.

Beth, there are a number of video sites besides YouTube. DailyMotion.com, revver.com, photobucket.com, plus Google & Yahoo and a bunch of other places. YouTube is the one that gets the most press, though.

Linda / Lyndi

Ryan Hadley said...

I love video trailers, and your's was engaging, thank you for sharing that!! The pictures are beautiful... and the house with the garden in front of it reminded me of Freddie Mercury's home in Kensington :-) (I'm an avid Freddie fan). Very, very nice trailer. Makes me want to do one for myself.
~Debbie

Unknown said...

That was nice. I wondered about how you got the music, too. Anyway, as I type this, you're off at the conference. Have fun.

Linda McLaughlin said...

Hi Debbie and Rhonda,

Glad you liked the trailer. I got the music from Kevin McLeod at http://www.incompetech.com. He's very reasonable and I really like his music.

The conference is fun, and I'll try to get back to my blogging schedule soon.

Linda / Lyndi

COS Book Trailers said...

Hi!

A new ebook that just came out talks about Book Trailers, marketing and distribution in-depth. You can get it for free here-

http://www.cosproductions.com/Resources/Index.html

As far as distribution goes, there are over 200 online social media sites, over 100 book marking sites, specialty sites such as Preview the Book, Reader's Entertainment TV and Watch the Book (just to name a few) and of course the all important bookseller.

If you're able to format to AVI or some other uncompressed and acceptable format, you can use digital video for television, movie theater and out-of-home advertising (mall smart screens, digital billboards, transit tv).

Authors who train themselves to be serous producers of book video can also teach themselves special formatting and buy their own media spots for a lot cheaper than you might think. You just need to know the correct formatting.

I wish I could attend the talk Linda/Lyndi! I would be very interested in your experiences and point of view! Your videos are very well done!

Sheila Clover English

Linda McLaughlin said...

Sheila,

Thanks for the tip on the new e-book. I'll mention it in my talk. (Glad I checked here this morning.)

And thanks for the compliment on my video. I'm still learning, but having fun with it.

Linda / Lyndi

COS Book Trailers said...

Have a great conference! I hope you find some value from the ebook!

As a side note, COS offers distribution to non-COS videos. You'll note here-
http://www.cosproductions.com/Distribution/Index.html

that "Author-made" videos are given a substantial discount. COS also offers some free promo to ALL authors, not just COS clients. That's all via MySpace though. COS supports all authors. Partly because I am an author myself (and the CEO of COS) and partly for business reasons; authors we support today may turn in to our clients later on because they have a positive feeling about our company.

Thank you for mentioning the ebook! Here's a last minute tip for you- www.tubemogul. It's amazing!

Sheila

Linda McLaughlin said...

Sheila,

Thanks for the tip on tubemogul. I'd heard of it before, but haven't had a chance to really check it out.

I used to use Heyspread.com when it was free, but there were some downsides to it. I'll try tube mogul next time.

Linda / Lyndi

Linda McLaughlin said...

Thanks for the YouTube link. I'll check it out.

Linda / Lyndi