Book Trailer Promotion Tips for Self-Published Authors

As someone who works in book publicity, I’ve seen how effective book trailers can be. They’re a creative way to get the word out about your book, and show potential readers what they can expect from your book. I talked with two senior staff members in my office, and asked their opinions on the helpfulness of book trailers.

Dan Smith, Founder and CEO of Smith Publicity, knows a lot about the best ways to promote a self-published book. His company recently celebrated its 2,000^th book publicity campaign, so they’ve been in the business for a while. He offered this advice for authors considering book trailers as part of their promotion strategy:

“If done well, book trailers are helpful. The idea is similar to the movie trailers we see: You want to tease the audience enough to make them think, "I MUST read this book!" A book trailer is NOT a 3-minute interview with an author. Trailers are dramatic presentations of a storyline designed to seduce the viewer. Remember, less is usually more! Keep trailers below three minutes, two minutes is even better. It's easy to lose viewers if a video is too long. Keep it fast moving. To promote it, put it on your website and have a link to the trailer in your e-mail signature, make it prominent on your social media networks, and mention it in media interviews. Use the trailer each and every place you can!”

Corinne Liccketto, Director of Business Development at Smith, had similar insights:

“If you're going to proceed with a book trailer, make sure it is short--two minutes tops! It should be prominently displayed on the website and also uploaded to video friendly social networks like YouTube. The book trailer link would be best used by authors with social media savvy!”

There’s no question that creating a book trailer as part of your book marketing strategy is a smart and creative book promotion move. Most authors haven’t tapped into this strategy yet-- so you should utilize this new technique to spread the word about your book. Tell the story of your book by using special effects including pictures, text, music, voice-overs by the author, and more. The only way to know if it will work for you is to try!