Authorpreneur Magazine - Issue 2

Marianne Cantwell
I created a book trailer for my book Be A Free Range Human which launched
at the beginning of January. My publisher (a traditional business house) had
never had an author do a book trailer before and I did it all myself, with some
outsourced help.
The - rather unusual - trailer drove signups for my book site www.
beafreerangehuman.com and as a result we got this book to a) sell out on
Amazon.co.uk on its first day and b) be Amazon’s hottest new release across all
books in mid December (based on pre-sales alone!). It is also a #1 bestseller in
entrepreneurship and careers. Much of the buzz that led to that initial success
was from the trailer (but now the book is gathering its own momentum).
The trailer was filmed in two cities and put together in a third. I was in California for most of
it (all the outdoor cliff shots!) then in NYC for the street shots and back in London, UK for the
rest. I story-boarded it all myself and got a videographer to shoot and edit under my direction.
The speaking you hear on it was from Skype-recorded interviews with some of my clients
(their words were unscripted and we edited them together).
What it is not - book trailer mistake to avoid
www.beafreerangehuman.
com
It is not an ad for the book. I don’t mention the book anywhere in the trailer! It’s there to
get people thinking, inspired and curious - I think that a lot of authors make the mistake of
trying to do an info-mercial for their book, but you don’t pass a bland info-mercial around to
your friends! This trailer is one I know has been passed around with people saying “you have to see this”,
and it’s the message and passion that people buy into, and that in turn leads to getting the free chapter
from the website and buying the book.
In total, I spent only $600 US on this (I was
going to be in those locations anyway so
flights don’t count!). I could have done it
myself (as I usually make all my videos) but
I wanted something unusual and of a higher
quality for the book. I think this video drove
substantial interest and sales and it is still
something people comment on when getting
in touch about the book.
www.beafreerangehuman.com
George Ivanoff
georgeivanoff.com.au
www.authorpreneurmagazine.com
I had a computer animated trailer produced for my book Gamers’ Quest in 2009.
It’s been viewed over a thousand times on YouTube, but I discovered that I
actually had to promote the trailer in order to get those hits. The most useful
part of having the trailer was being able to show it to school groups whenever I
did school talks and writing workshops. It proved to be a great way of engaging
an audience and getting their attention from the word go.
When the sequel, Gamers’ Challenge, came out in 2010, I had another trailer
made by the same guy who did the first (Henry Gibbens). This time around
I really didn’t put very much effort into promoting the trailer online. This is
reflected in the smaller number of hits. But I did use it for school visits and
again it proved to be very successful in this regard.
March 2013
AuthorpreneurMagazine
13