How to make a movie trailer for a book

A book trailer is a great promotional tool for authors looking to get their books noticed. animoto makes it easy to use video to promote your book on social media, your website, your amazon author page, and more.

In this guide, we will show you how to make a book trailer like the one below in a few minutes. we’ll use the photos and video clips you have on hand, or you can easily take them yourself. so grab your book and let’s get started!

how to make a book trailer

ready to start? we’ll show you how to make a book trailer like the example above, from awkward family photos. We’ll start with planning, including gathering resources, and then show you how to create your video using animoto.

devise the story for your book trailer

If you’re creating a book trailer for a book you’ve written, you already know how to tell a great story. so before you start making your video, take some time to take notes on the story for your book trailer.

You’ll want to explain what your book is about in a compelling way. don’t give away too much, share just enough to engage viewers. then let them know where they can buy, order, or download your entire book.

author and life coach mary schiller shared some tips with us:

• they have a beginning, a middle, and an end. mary says, “just like a movie trailer, a book trailer needs a story.” set the stage and introduce characters, introduce a twist, and then let people know where they can buy your book.
• keep it concise. keep your book trailer short to capture and retain to viewers’ attention. we recommend keeping your trailer under one minute. if you’re writing a screenplay, remove everything except the most important to tell your story.
• match the tone of your book. the tone of your book trailer should reflect that of your book take a what you see is what you get approach. people shouldn’t feel a disconnect between your book and the materials you’re using to promote it.

gathering resources to advance your book

Once you know what story you’d like to tell, it’s time to collect photos and video clips to tell your story. our awkward family photo example uses images from the book, as well as a video clip of the book itself.

You can easily take this approach by scanning pages of your book or by using your phone or camera to record video clips. To learn how to set up a shot like the one below, check out our blog post on how to shoot from above with what you’ve got.

If you don’t have photos or video clips to use, or your book doesn’t have any images, that’s fine. You can also create a book trailer using stock images and video clips. animoto offers an archive library of over 1 million photos and video clips from getty images.

search for “stock” by opening the media library tray to the right of the video maker screen. look for terms related to your book and the story you want to tell in your trailer. Check out tips for getting the most out of our file library.

creating your booktrailer

step 1: login to animoto and start a new project

You will first need to log in to your animoto account. If you don’t already have one, click here to get started for free.

Once you’re in, you’ll notice you can choose a template or start from scratch. For our book trailer, we’ll start from scratch. click start from scratch in the top right to get started. You can also use our new book trailer template to help speed up the process.

You will then be prompted to choose a theme. A theme indicates how the text and transitions will be animated in your book trailer. Hover over the different themes to see how they look and choose the one you like best. if you’re not sure, don’t worry. you can always change the theme or modify the font, colors, and transitions later in the design settings.

You will also choose the aspect ratio for your video at this point. If you’re creating a book trailer for your social media feed, we recommend going straight ahead. If you are going to post your video on youtube or embed it on your website, we recommend landscape. choose vertical if you’re sharing to stories. once you create the first version, animoto makes it easy to convert to any other ratio.

Step 2: Upload your assets or search for stocks

then upload all the photos and video clips you gathered to tell your story. or search for stock images related to your book. all of this can be done in the media library tray while you work on your video. you can upload files in the “project” tab or search for stock in the “stock” tab.

step 3: drag and drop the photos in order

drag and drop your photos and video clips from the media library tray directly into your project in the order you want them to appear in your video.

Try different layouts to make your video stand out on social media. we use a photo burst layout in this example.

step 4: add text to tell your story

While in edit mode, click the “t” text icon to add text to your video. you can add a title and subtitle to each block and adjust the size and colors.

Step 5 – Adjust the look to match your story

You can then make adjustments to the appearance of your video in the layout settings. you can change the theme or fully customize the font, text colors, background colors, text styles, video styles, and more. you can even add your brand watermark.

step 6: choose music

once you’ve finished telling your story, the last step is to select your music. choose a track that matches the mood of your book. animoto’s music library has a variety of mood filters, which can be helpful in finding the right song for your video.

finish and share your book trailer

Once you’ve selected your music, click export in the top right corner to see what it looks like. if you are satisfied with it, click download to create a video file, share to directly upload it to social media, or copy link to get started share via email, on your website, with your editor, or anywhere else!

and there you have it! Are you ready to make your booktrailer? Click the button below to get started. happy video making!