It’s still Painful, and It’s even Uglier
Welcome back. Now, you have your book distilled, so you can think about what images you want to represent your words. This can be as difficult as making your cover (or approving it, if you were able to have one professionally made). Now it is time to go out and look at what pictures are available.
For starters, be aware that different screen sizes will affect how your images will display. This graphic does a good job showing that:
Image courtesy of: maxresdefault.jpg http://www.youtube.com Video Frame Size
Most modern monitors are the high definition size, but don’t forget about tablets and smart phones.
For each of the slides, you should have a theme. An example using my second book for a trailer would yield the first phrase: With a slave now in tow, He fled for his life
What does that bring to mind? That sure isn’t a field of daisies, let me tell you! I would probably start looking for images depicting slaves and masters, prisoners, or other chained individuals. However, since I’ve already established in the first book that this particular slave is special, I may look for something with a person dressed close to what I see in my head – a loin cloth or some type of uniform I can recolor to khaki. Another option is what I consider the “spacer” slide. This has a branded image for my series on a color appropriate background.
Let’s break down how to make both of these. This is where you will need to either know an image editing software (like Gimp or Photoshop) or be able to draw.
So, a simple image is best for a spacer slide. Since my books are “branded” by the spider web, and very dark, I elected to go with a black background, the light fade gradient, and my web. Like this:
The only slides I do not include the webbing and light effect on are the slides with my book cover, the one with my author’s picture, and the credits at the end. The first two, I keep the gradient, since the covers have a web on them and I don’t want to lose the cover or my picture in the busy background. So, my cover slide looks like this:
So, with three slides, I’m ready to tackle the fourth. This one is for the next step in the blurb “journey” – Escaping the strife, He runs for his life
Now, I’ve chosen to use a spacer for the first slide, so it really is time to throw in some imagery here. So, I go find images that speak to me of what I’m trying to evoke. Since the scene in the book is about fleeing into a tunnel, I chose to use this image:
I’m not polishing the images, I’m simply looking at what possibilities I have. So I go back to the spacer image, and see if I need to add anything to bring out the right impressions. I’m pretty happy with this one as it is. The feel is right, so I elected to go with it. However, cars are not a part of my world, so I have to work the car out of the image. This is where image-editing software comes in handy. After scrubbing the car out, and playing with the edges, so they are not sharply defined lines, the final slide looks something like this:
I go back to the spacer for the next slide, and alternate spacers and images until I have all of my planned slides completed. Remember, you only need to make one of your spacer slides – you can add it in multiple times when we get to that point.
And, at this point, do NOT add text unless you know you will be going through an online movie maker, like animoto.com. We’ll add the captions next time.
I’m going to sign off, and let you pull your images together. Happy creating!
Kat
Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog 
Reblogged this on theowlladyblog.
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Thanks again, Kat and Chris! I’ve been busy with visiting family the last few days, but I came online today to make certain I didn’t miss this post! Now I have to go back to visiting with the people I can’t believe I share DNA with! ;-D
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😀 😀 😀 Connie – THAT comment cracked me up 😀
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I only wish I’d said it just to be funny, but it’s sadly all too true. 😀
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You mentioned smart phones and tablets. It is possible to serve alternate sizes to different devices with some software. For example, if you had a Joomla site, you can show one on desktops but not tablets or phones and vice versa. Don’t know about Blogger or WordPress. Anybody know about that?
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I’m not familiar with Joomla John, but I can tell you that most WordPress format and themes are designed to show content on full screens down to phones, regardless of the original video trailer screen size 😀
Where you DO have a size issue is if you embed your trailer into a widget.
However, the size can be adjusted if you are familiar with html code 😀
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John,
You may like to read the post by Donovan regarding widgets, especially how to add videos.
See it at:
https://thestoryreadingapeblog.com/2015/04/01/how-to-add-widgets-to-your-blog/
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I knew WordPress resized, automatically, didn’t know that the widgets weren’t part of the reflow. Definitely something for me to remember in the future.
John, I’m another not familiar with Joomla. However, depending on who your marketing toward, limiting what can or cannot see your content may also further limit how effective your trailers are.
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This was fascinating. A very enjoyable post, Kat.
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Thanks. I figured I wasn’t the only one who’s struggled with the issue of trailers, or at least wanting to experiment with them, and the bigger issue of how to afford them.
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I loved making the book trailer for The sword of Air. It is possible to make something of a professional standard on a budget yourself. You can check it out here
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WNHf2nCW7nc.
Rae.
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Beautiful work R.J. I haven’t been able to afford the movie clips, so I’ll admit mine’s not quite as stunning.
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It does look very much like a movie. I have one question, though: from where did it receive five stars?
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Goodreads. The trailer is an example of one of the end chapter movies. Ultimately it is still a book. You can download the first three chapters for free if you want to see more. But you do need a Mac or iPad to read the book I’m afraid.
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Thanks for replying. I’ll have to check it out. I don’t have a Mac or an iPad, but my sister does. (Or, at least she does if her insatiable Golden Retriever hasn’t eaten it yet! Thus far he’s eaten a cell phone, a pair of her glasses, and innumerable pairs of shoes.)
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😀 😀 😀
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Reblogged this on Smorgasbord – Variety is the spice of life and commented:
This is part two on how to create your own book trailer.. or you can also get the Story Reading Ape to design one for you.
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LOL Thanks for the re-blog AND the promo Sally 😀
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Awesome. I had never thought about trilogies much, but I HAVE always felt similarities among the three should have a uniform color, pattern, wording. ❤ ❤ ❤
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I’m working with a 5 book series, and keeping the “theme” across all the covers has been a journey in itself. Having similarities between the books will help the reader pick them out of the mass of other books. I’ve seen authors use a central image, or a background image and alter the colors. Some romance and paranormal books keep the same imagery and just change the title text.
Quite a bit depends on what the series is, and how much in “world” time passes as for if you can get away with keeping the same cover and just altering the text.
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I know it must be difficult to stay fresh and still brand a series so it stands out among the rest. Five you say. Awesome! 🙂
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So far I’ve managed it. Agreed, it’s not easy. If I can ever get a second cover I like, the last one will be a snap.
Although, I’m not sure how lucky I am – I tried to go with people, but my story did not work with that, so had to go with abstracts. Made it more difficult to start with, but easier to keep them branded.
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I wish you much success. 🙂
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Thank you for the well wishes. I’m talking with Chris about another multi-part series, and if I can come up with the time this month, i’ll happily assemble it. Also want to get permission from another author friend, to help highlight some of the ideas I’d like to include.
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Oh, my. Busy, busy. ❤
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If I don’t have about 5 irons in the fire, then I’m at a loss for what to do. So, this is helping to keep me going.
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Go. Go. Go, then. 🙂
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Reblogged this on Legends of Windemere.
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Thanks Charles 😀
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