The Book Trailer became almost a must a few years ago, a brief infomercial for your published work. I looked at several of my writer friends’ productions–some made by them, some by their publicists–and thought, well, that’s something I need to do when my first novel comes out.

But, how do I do it?

As an independent author, I don’t have a publicist or a marketing department, and a writer friend said, “You’re a Mac user. Try iMovie.”

Okay. iMovie does provide a number of templates you can use for any type of short video. I looked them over, and none seemed to fit the theme of A War of Deception, i.e., Mai and Alexei are not twenty-somethings riding off into the sunset on a motorcycle. And there was the matter of not knowing how to use iMovie. Yeah, I’m pretty much a techie, but at this stage of my life a program has to be “plug and play” (Dated myself there, right?) because I don’t have the patience to trial and error it.

Then, a couple of weeks ago in a Facebook group for independent authors, I saw a post from a company called yourbooktrailers.com. Someone commented on the post, the tone a bit snarky, and said, “Nice, but you can do your own for free on iMovie.” Well, pre-supposing you know how to use it, smarta$$.

I looked at the page, examined the samples provided there, and decided to buy a short book teaser to see if I liked the product. I posted the book teaser here the other day, and I was thrilled with the 10-second teaser.

So, I went back and purchased a 55-second book trailer. The turnaround was quick–fewer than two days. There was a small error, and when I pointed it out, it got fixed right away. Again, I had to supply a graphic of the book cover (this time the front, back, and spine) and text for the description and testimonials, as well as links where to buy the book.

And here’s the result:

What do you think?