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Writer's pictureJ. Sharpe

Market your book with book trailers

Updated: Aug 29, 2021

Book trailers can help you market your book. In this blog I will show you how you can market your book with book trailers, and why you should.


Book trailers can help you market your book. In this blog I will show you why and how you can market you book with book trailers.
This author has awesome book trailers.

If you have written a good story, found a kick-ass book cover, wrote a clever book description, edit an proofread your book, and found the perfect keywords and categories, you are ready for the next step. Marketing. When you launch your book, you want to create as much excitement around it as possible. What better way to do that than by promotingit with a custom book trailer? Throw it on social media, on your website, on YouTube, etc. Make sure that everyone knows that you have a new book coming out.


Why is it smart to market your book with book trailers?

People are very visual, and now more than ever it’s important that, if you are planning to market with the use of social media, you use video. The time that you could draw people to your post or advertisement using only plain text is long gone. Even a picture doesn’t work very well anymore.


A good trailer doesn’t have to be expensive. Yes, some companies charge hundreds of dollars for a book trailer, and you will need to think hard and have a very good marketing plan ready if you want to be sure that’s worth it. But there are also a few companies who make good, professional book trailers for under $100. If the price is lower, it doesn’t need to mean that the quality is bad. The same goes the other way around. I have seen trailers that cost more than $300 that are hideous and $50 ones that are stunning.


If you are looking for a company that can help you with this, check out cutting-edge-studio.com



Can I create book trailers myself?

Yes, you can. You can go to sites like Canva.com and create a video. But (and this is a big BUT) you shouldn’t. And I am not saying that because my company happens to create book trailers. Before I knew what I was doing I made a few trailers myself, and so did a few of my Dutch colleagues. They were horrible. Well, at the time I thought they were OK…ish. But looking back, I completely understand why the video didn’t work. The truth is that a bad video does your book more harm than good. It reflects the written word. If the trailer is bad, how can the book be any good? At least, that’s what most people subconsciously will think. So make sure that if you create something – anything – yourself, that you know what you are doing. I mean, if Stephen Spielberg would ever write a fiction book – maybe he already has – he probably would be qualified enough to create a book trailer for it.



What's the ideal length for a book trailer?

That depends on what you want to use it for. If it is just for your website, I suppose it can be a bit longer. And if you are making it more like a movie, with a storyline, actors, etc, it can be a little longer as well. The golden rule here is that you not only must grab the reader’s attention, but you also need to hold it. And the times are against you. The age of social media is making our attention span shorter every year. So, in general, the answer to this question is: make it as short as you can. In general, I would suggest not making it longer than one minute. I have experimented with it and noticed that a 20-30 seconds video works best. Especially if you want to use it on Facebook, Instagram, and on advertisements.



Now you know how to market you book with book trailers it’s time to have one created for your book. Contact us to learn about the possibilities.


If you are considering publishing an e-book and would like some help with figuring out how to go about it, you can contact us here and schedule a call. Cutting Edge Studio is a one-stop-shop for authors and can help you out with every aspect of publishing and marketing.


Looking for a self-publishing guide?

If you are an author and looking for more tips on how to publish and market your book, click here.


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