When Renee Bolla shared her charming book trailer for Imagine That, created by illustrator Ellie I. Beykzadeh, I immediately wanted to run out and buy the book. 

Hmm. A book trailer would be a great way to spark interest in my upcoming picture book, Stanley and the Wild Words, but I had exhausted my budget. If I wanted a book trailer, I would need to create my own.

I began my book trailer creation process by rewatching and analyzing the Imagine That book trailer and realized two key points:

• Illustration slides did not include the text from the picture book.
• The text told a compelling story about the book.

Studying the Imagine That trailer helped me envision my trailer.

Then, I followed the steps in this excellent article: http://www.authorimprints.com:
https://www.authorimprints.com/canva-book-trailers/

Here’s a link to my Canva book trailer that you can use as a template (before you add the text and music in iMovie):

Book Trailer Template Link:
https://www.canva.com/design/DAFMZabkJ54/W2_YcvdloPQqrbyTHZtqpg/view?utm_content=DAFMZabkJ54&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=publishsharelink&mode=preview

After creating the trailer in Canva, I went to iMovie and added the text slides, transitions, and music:

Image: Screenshot of my iMovie screen. The blue squares are title slides with text. The green rectangle below is the music.

When I shared my book trailer, Leslie Eva Tayloe expressed an interest in creating a book trailer for her book, I’m Fishing with Pop-Pop Today.  I shared what I had learned with Leslie who was a very quick study.

So, if you are thinking about creating a book trailer, follow these steps:

1. Analyze a successful book trailer. What makes it effective? What do you notice?
2. Write a script and create a storyboard for your book trailer.
3. Save images, and music in a desktop folder.
4. Create a book trailer using your video creation tool (Canva, iMovie, Powerpoint, and/or Keynote)
5. Showtime! Share your book trailer with the world!

The book trailer creation process was such a wonderful example of the collaborative nature of Kidlit at Heart. We inspire and learn so much from each other! 

Have you created a book trailer? Please share the link in the comments or email me at mona@monavoelkel.com.

Link to original post if trailers are not loading:

How to Create a Book Trailer

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