YA Author Rendezvous

Book Trailers – Are They Worth It? by Author Lauren Mayhew

So, now that the Liliana Trilogy is complete and out there for all to read, I often wonder if I should be doing more in the way of marketing.  I don’t have a lot of money to spend – correction – I have no money to spend on marketing. I need to save all the money I can on buying a house one day, so my books often take a back seat. I live in the UK, and buying a house right now is damn near impossible.

Something that a lot of authors seem to do is create a book trailer. It’s a great idea if you think about it. You can embed a video on any website, put it on YouTube and all other social media platforms, and anyone can view it. It’s the perfect way to get people interested in your books.

Why haven’t you done this already, I hear you say. Well, I’ve thought about it a lot over the last few years, but never quite got round to it. I’m a bit of a control freak when it comes to my books, and with stuff like this, I like to be in charge. I have so many ideas of what I’d like my book trailer to look like, and passing that over to someone else without first having a go, is not something I’ll do in a hurry.

Obviously, it would be so much easier to go on Fiverr and get someone else to make it for me, but then it would be a generic trailer, not personalised to my books. There are so many book trailer makers on Fiverr, I wouldn’t want my trailer to look exactly the same as anyone else’s. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with a Fiverr trailer, it just doesn’t work for me.

If I’m going to entice people into reading my books, the trailer has to reflect some of the themes in the book itself. My books are my creation, this should be too.

The sort of trailer I’m looking for will be more like a film trailer, I think. Without paying a lot of money, I’m never going to get this unless I make it. I really do like to make life hard for myself. But, as you can probably guess, this is going to be my plan for the next few months. I am going to make my own book trailer. I just need to drag a few family members into it too!

Just thinking about it has got me a little excited. I’ve got a good camera. I’ve got the props that are relevant to the book. Crystal ball – check. Water droplet pendant – check. Various mirrors – check. Now I just need to make it happen. Also, pray for good weather! A spontaneous trip to Cornwall may be imminent. Bring it on!

I’ll let you know how the planning goes, and as soon as I’ve finished it, I’ll post it here for you all to see. This is going to be awesome!

If you’ve created a book trailer, let me know how it’s gone for you. How have you used it? Has it had a good response?

Want more from Lauren? You can check out her books on Goodreads HERE.

Find Lauren on the YA Author Rendezvous site HERE.

This was posted by Lauren Mayhew.

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