Book videos are popular on YouTube and author fansites, but rather than pay a company to make one, you can do it yourself with a bit of technical know-how and these tips.
A Creative Challenge
When author Brenda Coulter decided she would like a book video for her inspirational romance novel ‘A Season of Forgiveness’, she knew she wouldn’t be paying a company to create it for her. As she says in her blog entry about the project, “I see it as a personal challenge and viewed the project as a hobby.”
Sheila Clover English, CEO of Circle of Seven, a company that shoots professional book videos, agrees that the home enthusiast can do it themselves. She feels that there are several factors to take into consideration:
Questions to ask yourself:
Do you possess the technology, ie, the software and/or editing system, or do you have access to one?
Do you have creative skill?
Are you already comfortable and adept with technology?
Do The Research
Coulter advises the potential book video creator to spend a few hours watching book videos on YouTube – or anywhere else – taking note of the things that interest or irritate.
Next, consider what software to use. You may already have the necessary tools on your computer. English has seen Microsoft Powerpoint used to advantage, and others have used free slideshow software, but Coulter took advantage of her computer’s built-in Microsoft Moviemaker. Macs also come with a suite of tools to make and manage video creations, with software like iMovie.
Find Audio, Video, and Stills
Though ‘free use’ video clips (not only royalty-free but requiring no fee) may be hard to come by, a lot of book videos use stills instead; free use stock videos are readily available. The author also says that figure out if you want to do a narration for your trailer, and use catchy music, or not. You can do a web search for royalty-free music. Free music might be difficult to find, but it’s there. Another source for all stock needs including music, pictures, and high-quality stock videos is Storyblocks. If you are not familiar with it you can read a review here and take 7 days Videoblocs free trial worth of $140.
But do be careful of the overuse of some popular sound clips. If you’ve done the appropriate amount of research and watched enough book videos, you likely will have heard the familiar strains of Beethoven’s Fifth several times, according to Coulter.
Put it All Together
It may take a while to learn all of the aspects both technical and creative, and it will certainly take more time at first than you expect. There are some hints on creating book videos for the home enthusiast.
Three top tips:
Don’t make the video too long. No more than 2 minutes, but around 1 minute or 1.5 is better.
Don’t make your text do tricks throughout the video. It’s exciting to have that function but annoying to watch text slide in or wiggle in or other such neat tricks throughout the entire video.
Don’t put so much text on the screen that it’s now in competition with your visuals.