Writers Tricks of the Trade ISSUE 3, VOLUME 7 | Page 26

A NATOMY O F A B OOK T RAILER (C ONT ’ D )
MAKING THE BOOK
non-fiction,.
F ALL 2017
Now, at this time, we were in a waiting pattern for the publisher to come up
with a cover design. I wanted to see what the figure on the cover would look like
(it’s never quite what the author has in mind, especially when they are using
stock photography), as well as the look of the title on the cover, two things we
needed for the video. My actress has short colorful hair, so I knew we had to buy
a wig for her so she could look more like my character, Kylie Strange. Off we went
to the fashion district in LA, and we found her a good wig. I went online and got
her a lightweight hoodie, and we finished up the costume at Target for a shirt and
skinny jeans. For my son Graham as the demon Erasmus Dark, he was going to be
in silhouette so all we needed was the duster jacket, which we already had.
Months went by. Winter was turning to spring. Spring was turning to late spring,
but then we finally had the cover and everyone could make it that one weekend
of shooting. We were on our way.
Unfortunately, it was hotter than blazes. We were going to have to shoot day
for night, because there was no way we could shoot at night without a lot of
lighting. As it was, I bought a smoke machine and we rented a generator for the
one light we brought. Poor Kylie had to run and run in that heat, zipped up into a
hoodie. But she was a good sport about it. We started around 5 pm and were
done with our location around 8. We shot some additional interiors at home, and
more interior shots earlier in the day at the studio, where she also recorded the
voice over. It was a very long day. Then it was up to Chris to edit it all together
with some stock music of his choosing.
I only saw snippets of the footage as we shot it, but he pretty much had carte
blanche to cut it as he saw fit. I believe in letting professionals do their job. That’s
why you hire them, after all. I saw the rough and really, it was pretty perfect.
And one other thing to consider. If you make it the series book trailer, then
you don’t have to make new ones for each book. It’s just handy that my series is
W RITERS ’ T RICKS OF THE TRADE
the same name as the first book in the series.
P AGE 18