I Wanna Be In Pictures with Guest Blogger: Aubrie Dionne

Win a copy of Paradise 21 and meet author Aubrie Dionne today at the Book Boost!

She's here to chat about her life in the movies...well...kind of...here's what she had to say...

How I Made the Trailer for Paradise 21
(Check out the link at the bottom of this post
to view the finished product!)

Making a 1 minute and 45 second trailer for your 80K word novel is overwhelming to say the least. After compressing all those words into a few moments, I came up with a way to simplify the book trailer process.


1. Think of iconic images that will best represent what your book is about. These images must not have copyrights.

I knew I wanted a ship. Paradise 21 is about a colony ship traveling to a paradise planet three hundred years away. So I needed a ship, and I needed it to be moving.

Then, I needed a paradise planet to represent Paradise 21. I wanted the viewer to see where the ship was headed and how important the voyage was.

But Aries doesn’t stay on the ship. The voyage won’t make it to Paradise 21 in her lifetime, so she comes up with other plans. This is shown with the flash to the stars, to symbolize destiny.
I wanted a desert picture to show the planet she crashes on.

Lastly, I wanted to utilize parts of the cover, and then have the big cover reveal at the end, along with Entangled Publishing’s really cool logo.

Voila! I had the visual part of my trailer.


2. Find a program you can use to show these images in a slide show.

My husband is very good at Flash, so we used that program. The neat part about flash is that you can move the images and make it seem like a ship is gliding through space.


3. Find music to go with your images that best represents the tone of your book. This music must not have copyrights.

Classical music works really well, because it’s so old, there aren’t any copyrights. What me and my husband did was buy the copyrights to a few sound files and string them together.

I wanted techno music, because there’s a scene in the book where they are listening to techno. It also has a futuristic feel. I also wanted satellite sounds, like voices being broadcast through space. Put these together, and I had a sound track for my video.


4. Find key phrases that will hook the viewer.

Summarizing an 80k book into a few sentences is the hardest part for me. I had to think of large scale concepts and leave out the specifics without it sounding like nonsense!

I went with an initial hook:

A centuries long voyage to a paradise planet only their descendants will see… But Aries has other plans.

And then went into a summary of what happens next, scrolling the words down as the images changed. This is not what people usually do with book trailers, but I wanted this trailer to be different than the norm.

I hope this helps all those writers out there making trailers! Feel free to leave any comments or questions below!


A Note from the Book Boost: I've professionally made trailers for several years but have recently taken a break from that part of my business. I think you've done a great job with your trailer and it was nice for your tech savvy hubby to help out. Thanks for joining us today. Please tell us more about your upcoming Entangled release.


Blurb:

Aries has lived her entire life aboard mankind’s last hope, the New Dawn, a spaceship traveling toward a planet where humanity can begin anew—a planet that won’t be reached in Aries’ lifetime. As one of the last genetically desirable women in the universe, she must marry her designated genetic match and produce the next generation for this centuries‐long voyage.

But Aries has other plans.

When her desperate escape from the New Dawn strands her on a desert planet, Aries discovers the rumors about pirates—humans who escaped Earth before its demise—are true. Handsome, genetically imperfect Striker possesses the freedom Aries envies, and the two connect on a level she never thought possible. But pursued by her match from above and hunted by the planet’s native inhabitants, Aries quickly learns her freedom will come at a hefty price.

The life of the man she loves.

Want More Aubrie?


Visit her website here: http://www.authoraubrie.com


Watch her exciting trailer now! Click here to view.

Pick up your copy of her book. Click here to learn more.

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