Hmm ...
Click on the link and see what you think of my experiment in Book Trailers.
Click on the link and see what you think of my experiment in Book Trailers.
Here's another one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llr3t8voH2A
They're actually pretty fun to make when it comes right down to it!
Me, I'm hoping that against all odds I'll find the time to do some more of them, learning as I go until I get them right.
It's a whole new thing for me and I kind of like it, but it's time-consuming.
Just coming up with a general idea of what I want to present is a challenge, then comes the digging through my files of photos (can't use anyone else's without getting their official permission, which I most generally don't have time to do), then editing the photos so they're just right, then getting them lined up the way I want them, entering them into the program, setting the transitions and lengths of display, then adding text (although adding some to the still photos is something I do too) and deciding how I want THAT to display, and then the search is on for just the right kind of music, of the right length, and then getting the whole thing from being a project file into a final 'movie' file so I can actually do something with it.
Then realizing something's wrong and having to go back to the original file to re-do it and having to re-locate all the photos that have mysteriously migrated in the meantime.
One thing I've found has helped a lot - and that is a suggestion I came across on one of the CreateSpace forums: about 'pitching' your book, the assignment was something called an 'elevator pitch'.
One short sentence that gives the main gist of your book, something you could quickly respond with if someone on an elevator asked you about it - someone you may or may not ever see again but whom you want to be interested enough to take the next step and check out your book when they get time.
So it's got to be something that will stick in that person's mind, pique their curiosity, and give them enough information to be able to find your book.
And it just so happens that this is something I am TERRIBLE at.
It doesn't help much that my Characters have landed me with a set of five books, either. It means I've got to pitch the set of them instead of just one.
The same goes for making the Trailers.
People have to know that this is a set; each can be read independently but the Story runs through all of them. It doesn't really matter much which book you begin with - the circle will complete itself - but Mamm of Perth is generally the one everybody wants to start out with.
So.
There are any number of things that could be a focus.
There are the five individual books; the Symbol of the interlocked five circles of Faith, Family, Friendship, Freedom, and the Future which represent the Legacy; the SONG itself consisting of Choice (the Yew Tree) - Creation, Life, Death, Eternity (the Spiral) - Peace (the Dove) - Faith (the Celtic Cross) - Healing (the traditional Staff w/Snakes) - Hope (Rainbows)- Love (Bells) - Unity (the Circle); sunrises and sunsets; clouds; fire; sword; the circular nature of this set of books; the warning symbolized by the double spiral; the Spiral itself (PHI, Fibonacci, the Balance between enough but not too much); the 'history' of the times and the places; the Characters themselves; the significance of the heirloom oaken box and the messages it carries; the mystic quality of the Sidhe and other elements of the Story; fact vs fiction; . . .
And how is a person supposed to decide?!?
The principle is the same for both the Trailer and the 'elevator pitch'.
'Pitch' as in 'sales pitch' by the way.
When someone asks me, 'What are your books about?' the whole bloody list goes through my head, plus some, and I'm flummoxed and look like a total idiot.
Because I'm supposed to 1) know what my own books are about for cryin' out loud and 2) be able to make someone want to buy them in thirty seconds tops, preferably fifteen.
AAAUUUGH!!!!!
The simple answer might be: Christianity and the Fall of the Roman Empire - but that doesn't exactly cover it.
It might be: A family struggling to protect and preserve their Legacy.
Maybe: A-holes trying to take over the world, first by force and then by manipulation, and what happens to those who resist.
Or answer with a question: What do the Dark Ages have to do with Today?
How about: Mystic Mythology Mixed with the Marvelous Mind of Mankind?
Maybe simply: Choices
How the heck am I supposed to know?
Geez.
AND how am I supposed to know whether to go with the Story line or the meanings behind it?
AND am I supposed to explain who the Sidhe are, and the Perchtanne (or Picts), the Angles, the Celts, the Fienne ... ?
Blah blah blah.
Waaaaaaah ... it's five in the morning (again). This woman is going to go take a power nap.
I hope.
The last time I did that it turned into an epiphany of sorts regarding the relativity of the Fall of the Roman Empire to Current Events or some such.
Really.
All I want is to go to sleep and wake up feeling refreshed and energized without wondering if the Universe really is unfolding as it should or if we've managed to totally mess up the whole thing beyond salvage (at least our own little part of it, which is all we've got, you know).
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