Publication - more on Trailers

13 February 2012, Publication - more on Trailers

Introduction: I realized that I need to introduce this blog a little. I wrote the novel Aksinya: Enchantment and the Daemon. The working title was Daemon, and this was my 21st novel. Over the last year, I gave you the entire novel in installments that included commentary on the writing. In the commentary, in addition to other general information on writing, I explained, how the novel was constructed, the metaphors and symbols in it, the writing techniques and tricks I used, and the way I built the scenes. You can look back through this blog and read the entire novel.

I'm using this novel as an example of how I produce, market, and eventually (we hope) get a novel published. I'll keep you informed along the way.

Today's Blog: To see the steps in the publication process, go to my writing website http://www.ldalford.com/ and select "production schedule," you will be sent to http://www.sisteroflight.com/.

Here is the list of ideas for advertising--there are more and I'll add to the list as we go along.  I'm certainly not an expert in all these, but I've dabbled in all of them.  I'll try to relate my experience and the degree of that experience to you.

1.  Have a website for your novel.
2.  Write a blog.
3.  Advertise.
4.  Literary awards.
5.  Book cards.
6.  Contests.
7.  Interviews.
8.  Blog tours.
9.  Press releases.
10.  Speaking and teaching.
11.  e-mailing.
12.  Gifts.
13.  Book signings.
14.  Book trailers
15.  ...

You need to make trailers for each of your books.  Making a trailer is really easy to do.  Making a really good trailer takes some work.  If you can make a trailer so good that it goes viral, you might get some attention for your books--I'm not so sure.  Any advertising is good--it can't be bad.  Even bad advertising helps people remember your name.

You need to script your trailer.  If you go to the secret pages for my published books: Aegypt and Centurion, you can see the basic scripts I used for their trailers.  I make the script into a PowerPoint presentation so I can put them on a computer screen while I'm recording the trailer.  The point is to make your script into a teleprompter so you don't have to memorize it and you can read it while recording the trailer.  If you put the script into a PowerPoint presentation, you can use a mouse or a presentation device to click through the presentation.  If you do it right, you will be able to read the PowerPoint presentation script while recording the trailer and no one will know that you were reading it.
More on book trailers tomorrow.

I'll repeat my published novel websites so you can see more examples: http://www.ldalford.com/, and the individual novel websites: http://www.aegyptnovel.com/, http://www.centurionnovel.com/, http://www.thesecondmission.com/, http://www.theendofhonor.com/, http://www.thefoxshonor.com/, and http://www.aseasonofhonor.com/.