How to Create a Viral Book Trailer That Grabs Attention

A book trailer introduces an audience to your book and why they should read it. A well-made and fulfilling book trailer shouldn’t give too much away to the audience but should hint at exciting characters, settings, and plot devices. You can think of it like a movie trailer for a book! Instead of including scenes from a movie, you’ll want to focus on enticing imagery and memorable narration. Some book trailers feature an influential author or reader promoting a book, while others have animated scenes or actors to help audiences visualize exciting moments from the book. Whatever method you prefer to include in your book’s trailer, there are a few ways to ensure the content is exciting and persuasive.

Learn Your Target Audience

You wouldn’t include graphic violence in a children’s book trailer, nor would you want overly cute material for a graphic horror novel. You’ll need to research and learn your book’s target audience to create a convincing trailer, though you should have already discovered this while writing the book. Create a trailer dedicated to the audiences you’re looking to hook. Your fantasy novel will usually include whimsical elements or mysterious visuals, depending on the courses and settings your book will take. You’ll want to provide visuals to help your target audience understand why the book will fit their liking.

Vary Social Media for Women’s Issues

You shouldn’t put all your eggs in one social media basket. While social media is a handy tool for marketing, especially for media, you will want to use different platforms for different age groups and target audiences. TikTok is a video-centric social media platform home to a specific book-focused audience called BookTok. You wouldn’t create a similar video for a platform like X (Twitter), while text captions are just as important. People usually don’t have social media profiles for every platform; if they do, they likely use the platforms for different things. Vary your trailer and marketing strategy for each social media type. Broadcast your trailer everywhere.

Judging a Book By Its Cover

In most, if not all, of your video advertisements, you want to market the physical book with its cover. The book’s cover can be an opportunity to make it stand out. A book’s cover can be illustrated using artwork, photography, or text design, but all must be cohesive and engaging. You can hire a talented book cover designer if you don’t know how to make your book cover look engaging and professional, even if you have particular design elements already picked out. A well-designed and enticing cover will be more memorable to audiences.

Explore Book-Specific Groups

The previously mentioned ‘BookTok’ group on TikTok focuses on reviewing, promoting, and discussing literary subjects, especially fictional or true-crime novels. Some websites, like GoodReads, are entirely book or novel-focused. You’ll want to take advantage of these book-focused audiences to promote yours. Take a look at what they like in terms of trailers and promotions. Learn about famous figures in the BookTok community with whom you might collaborate. You can create a more tailored and engaging trailer when you’re armed with market research.

Create a High-Quality Video

You shouldn’t film a book trailer with shaky camerawork and low-quality visuals (unless shaky camerawork is an artistic choice). You’ll want the book trailer to look professionally crafted. Use high-quality cameras, microphones, and professional editing programs to make your video look excellent. 

Hire Professionals

If you’re not a video editor, you likely won’t have the skills to edit a video well. The same goes for illustration, narration, and video design. There is nothing wrong with hiring professionals to narrate, draw, or edit your book trailer. Hiring a professional is an excellent choice to ensure your storyboards or goals are met well. You’ll need a budget to hire professionals and compensate them for their worth, but your book may be much more successful with professional video creators behind the wheel.

Different Types of Video Ads

You don’t have to create one book trailer and call it quits. Your marketing strategy should utilize different types of marketing for your book, including multiple videos. You can post your book’s plot trailer on social media and include a different video collaborating with a BookTok influencer to review your book. You may need shorter-length ads in addition to your full-length trailer for marketing purposes. Diversify your book’s marketing videos.

Don’t Give It All Away

Were you ever disappointed when a movie trailer gave away too much of the plot, leaving you unsatisfied when you finally watched the whole film? You don’t want to do this with your book, either. Don’t give this away if your main character turns evil as a significant plot twist! You want your readers to be surprised and engaged. If they can predict your plot or know it from a trailer, you may not get the positive response you expect. You can subtly hint at the book’s excitement, but only to readers to pick up the book. Video teasers work great for this.

Collaborate

If you know of a great author who writes similar books, you can harness their influence and audience to help promote yours. Reach out to them and see if they will collaborate on a review, trailer, or promotion. They can even create their own video to discuss your book, but don’t expect them to do all the work for you. Collaboration also works excellently with book reviewers and reader influencers. Consider reaching out if an influencer or popular figure in the book community makes videos about novels like yours. Your book may stand out on its own, but it never hurts to have community recommendations.

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