The Ease of Making a Book Trailer - NOT!!!

Today I have something that will rock your world – an awesome author and the premier of a brand new trailer. Ciara Knight is here to share her experience of creating a book trailer. (And after reading it, I’m really glad my publisher does all the work!) If you’ve created your own trailer, you’ll understand. If you haven’t, well I hope this doesn’t scare you into a quivering pile of goo…

I’m so excited and nervous about this book trailer. I mean, maybe if it’s good enough I’ll be accepted into Alex’s Ninja Army! Hey, I can dream, right?

I have to admit, designing and creating my first book trailer was an interesting experience. You see, I’m always full of crazy ideas, it’s the execution I struggle with.

First off, I thought I’d contact a local art school to see if one of the students would be interested in creating a book trailer for me. I ended up with a few responses and even met someone for lunch to discuss it, but even the students wanted a LOT of money to create what I wanted. I came home to Mr. Knight and told him about what I’d have to pay for a book trailer and he laughed for about five minutes. Okay, so first brilliant idea squashed.

I did some research and came up with my second brilliant idea, I’ll do it myself. Hey, my heroine in The Curse of Gremdon, Arianna, isn’t scared of anything. I decided to channel my inner Arianna and go for it. Why not? I mean, I can figure it out. I’ll buy a book or something. What could be so difficult? We already had Adobe Premiere Pro, so I was set.

After about eighteen hours of watching You Tube instructional videos I knew how to create a new project, import, and use some of the special effects. Great! I was set. I grabbed my husband’s HD video camera and headed for a hike near our home. Oh, did I mention my knee and foot were swollen. No worries, if Arianna can battle hideous creatures with nothing more than a dagger, I could make it through a hike. I gimped for a mile using the monopod as a walking aid (don’t tell Mr. Knight about that) and set up for some great footage. Of course, I had to choose a day that every hiker in the southeast was out. Finally, I take the PERFECT video, hobble all the way back to my car, and return home for a couple of ice packs.

My husband pulls the video in and we discover the monopod did absolutely no good. It looked like I’d been on a caffeine high when I took the video. Hope is not lost because Mr. Knight says that he might be able to stabilize the video in Adobe, so I get to work creating my awesome book trailer. Ten hours later, I’ve got my video in there, I’ve learned how to make it look like the woods are changing to fall, then make it go dark. I’ve pulled in images. Hey, it’s looking pretty good.

Mr. Knight arrives home and says, “The video needed to be stabilized first.” Um…seriously? Geesh, maybe this entire book trailer thing wasn’t such a great idea. No, I’m not going to give up. Arianna would never give up so easy. I wait for hubby to stabilize the video for me, because he knew how and I didn’t have eighteen more hours to watch You Tube instructional videos.

The next day I pull up his video and it looks great. I spend all day, while my little monsters are at school, working on the trailer. Mr. Knight arrives home that evening and takes a look. “Well, I think we need to start over.” At this point I realize I’m not Arianna and it’s probably a good thing, because if I had her dagger in my hand I might have harmed my husband.

The next day Mr. Knight started over and spent all of his day off working on it for me. At that point I realized I’m nothing like Arianna, but we did have one thing in common. A great hero to watch our back.

I hope you like the trailer my awesome husband helped create. Although, I still think I’ll be able to do the next book trailer without his help. Seriously.


Now that I think about it, Mr. Knight might be the one accepted into Alex’s Ninja Army.

Author bio: Ciara is happily married and enjoys family time. She has learned to embrace chaos, which is a requirement when raising three boys, and utilizes the insanity to create stories not of this world including: Fantasy, Paranormal, Sci-Fi, and Young Adult Biopunk. Her first love, besides her family, reading, and writing, is travel. She's backpacked through Europe, visited orphanages in China, and landed in a helicopter on a glacier in Alaska.
Follow Ciara here: Website and blog Facebook Twitter Goodreades

Questions for Ciara? Or her Ninja husband? Have you created a book trailer? Are you terrified to try now…?  

Debutante Ball: Feast of Debut Authors kicks off today – twenty days of prizes! I’m participating next week and today it begins with Elizabeth Mueller.

Yvonne Lewis at Welcome to My World of Poetry has a new book coming out today! More on “Written From the Heart” on Wednesday. Congratulations, Yvonne!!

The Movie 411 Awards I’m up for two awards, Best Science Fiction Blog and Best Post for the Worst Movies Blogfest. (And it’s a close race for the Best Blogpost.) Don’t forget to vote for my fellow blogger buddies: Cinemarvellous! nominated for Best Design, Best Gossip, and the Gold Award. iZombie! nominated for Best Horror. Melissa at Melissa’s Imaginarium nominated for Sexiest Female. MsMariah’s Space Blog-yssey nominated for Best Newcomer.

You are now free to comment and move about the blog!