Chaeya

You’ve seen them. Those little miniature videos advertising a book. Some of them are really cool, and in this day and age, you will definitely need one if ever write a book. But here’s the tick, I’m not sure how much they account for sales because I’ve yet to see any statistics regarding them. However, when a reader goes to check out your website, it does look professional to see not only photocopies of your bookcover, but a video advertisement of your book. It says to the reader that you are a professional and take your writing serious.

You don’t want to skimp when it comes to graphics and booktrailers, especially when you’re a self-published writer. You need all the advertising you can get. A few stigmas which haunts self-published writers is that they self-published because they couldn’t get accepted by a pro publisher, the quality of their writing is poor, and their stories are too personal to them to be of interest to anyone else. Being that we self-published authors have these strikes against us, it’s important to maybe spend a few extra dollars getting decent graphics and a book trailer to add to your website. Don’t have a website? No worries, there are numerous sites such as myspace, google blogger, ning and multiply where you can get a free website to promote yourself. They have numerous templates which will offer you a professional feel and readers can take you serious. You can now get your own url for cheap from places like Godaddy.com and buy like two and three years at a time. There are numerous cheap hosting sites, for instance, I pay only $5 a month for this.

So give you’ve done this, here’s so resources to getting a booktrailer:

Most book trailers are made with PowerPoint. Most computers come with PowerPoint, if not, I’m sure you can find a copy of Office somewhere. You can pick up Office 2003 at ebay. And you can do pretty well with that version.
There’s also cheap movie editing programs such as Roxio Movie Creator and Magix Movie Edit Pro. I have version 12, but I think they’re up to 15 now.

You can, of course, hit up that friend or cousin of yours with the fancy schmancy video editing programs. But honestly, you can do quite well with the above.

Royalty-Free Pictures:

http://www.istockphoto.com

http://www.dreamstime.com

http://www.fotosearch.com

Royalty-Free Music:

http://www.royaltyfreemusic.com/

http://musicbakery.com/

These are just a couple of sites. If you google any of the above you can find lots, however, these offer some quality music. Tracks will cost anywhere from $15 to $50. May sound like a lot, but it’s so worth it to have quality music on your trailer.

Here’s a good article on how to create your own book trailer and if you just find yourself lacking on time or just too intimidated, it provides a list of companies you can pay to do your trailer for you: http://www.squidoo.com/booktrailers.

Once you get your book trailer, upload it everywhere you can. Even if people have no intention of reading your book, if they watch it and rate it, it will move it up in the ranks and someone else may see it and decide they wish to purchase your book.

So hop to it, and happy book trailer-ing.

Have you as a writer ever had someone say that to you? Or have you read a review of a book where someone wrote it? I’ve had it said to me enough, and after I publish my books, I will probably keep hearing it.

I’m pretty open-minded when it comes to critique partners. After all, writing is a craft and one which you never stop learning. I take everything anyone has to say about my writing under consideration. The one thing I am a stickler about is grammar. Grammar is something where we writers can easily suffer pitfalls. I loved English in school and I’ve always done well in it. Still, there is always something else to learn, always something else someone can criticize. I will always try and hone that skill. So that aside, let me get to my main point.

One thing I do have a problem with, and I’ve said this in other writers, is when people say something is not realistic because no one in their right mind would do such a thing. Case in point, let’s take the character, Claudia, from my upcoming novel “Srae Iss-Ka-Mala.” At the beginning of the book, Claudia’s car breaks down in the California desert. Another car driven by Penelope Prescott comes along and offers to help. They can’t reach AAA so Penelope asks Claudia if she would like to come back to her house which is a short distance away. Claudia ponders the invitation and feels safe enough to accept her invitation. I have received critiques from two people and one judge of a contest telling me no woman would ever do such a thing. Really?

I don’t go into a lot of backstory or detail about Claudia, but here you have a woman who has driven alone to a small Arizona town. That alone should tell the reader she is a little daring and a bit on the adventurous side. And if anyone has driven through the California desert, it can be pretty intimidating. There is a stretch of freeway which boasts no gas stations or any signs of life for like 50 miles and in between here is where Claudia’s car breaks down. Also, if anyone lives in America they should know that more people have been killed on the side of the highways and freeways by drunk drivers than on the actual road. Just watching an episode of “The World’s Craziest Drivers” will show this to be true. There are periodic patrols by highway patrol officers, but that could be hours before they happen through. So Claudia is a little relieved when she meets and speaks with Penelope. Is it dangerous? Yes.

As the story progresses and she does get in the car, it does go into Claudia’s frame of mind and why she got in the car in the first place. However, this has been disregarded by some of my readers because they are taking more from the fact that nothing on the green Earth would have made them get in the car with a stranger. I respect that and their frame of mind is safe thinking in this crazy world. And to say it isn’t realistic is understandable. However, it is not true. Because I’ve done it. I have gotten in the car with more strangers than I probably should admit. I’ve hitchhiked when I was younger, I’ve been in homes of both men and women who I didn’t know. And would I do it again? Probably.

The French have a saying: “Plus le change, plus sais le maime chose.” The more something changes, the more it is the same thing. And I’m still pretty much the same. I’m bit more vocal than I was back then, but I’m still a little arrogant, a know-it-all and suffer from a little invincibility complex. All this and I suffer from anxiety/panic disorder. Maybe it’s only a delayed reaction from all the times I should have just said “no.”

Claudia’s dilemma isn’t new to me because it happened to me a few times when I was traveling in Europe. Where I found myself broke and I went to the home of an American guy I met on the street. I had run out of money and it was either sleep in the train station or go back to his place. It was the middle of November and Switzerland is pretty cold then. He was a very spiritual person and we had an indepth conversation about life and things before I made my decision. On the flipside, I’ve had strangers in my home. My husband and I have a believe that we like to give back the kindness that has been shown to us. Mind you, we don’t let just anyone in our home. We talk to them first and get a feel for their state of mind. But at the same time, we also have a house full of swords and daggers, so many people may be more afraid of us than we are of them.

But in defense of those who say, “that’s not possible,” I have also read things in books where I went “okay, that’s really never gonna happen in real life.” Then again, it is only fiction. We see movies all the time where things are presented to us that would never likely happen in real life, so why make a big deal if a woman accepts a ride on the freeway by another woman she doesn’t know? It’s important to note how the situation is presented. What thoughts led her to make her decision. If a reader keeps on in the book, they will get to know how Claudia comes to make her decision. I will say this much, after a person travels through Europe on their own or any country alone, you become way more daring and discerning of people. I’m not talking about going to Europe with your friends and a Eurorail pass. I’m talking alone, with little money, no resources, no Internet and no way to reach family and friends back home. It changes you and even though you come back home to America with all its craziness, there’s a part of a person which never lets go of that adventurous spirit.

Because we write fiction, we become mini gods and goddesses in our own right. We create our characters and put them through a slew of adventures, situations and decisions. Some of these characters and what they do are downright fantastic and other things they do are beyond belief. And as many times as I’ve seen a movie with grand car chases, with people hanging out of the windows and shooting at each other (and the police just never seem to be around for miles and miles as this goes on), I believe a character getting in the car with a stranger to be small beans.

So if you are going to have your character do some fantastic things which the average human wouldn’t do, just support it well in the writing. Let the dilemma of their decision trickle out in the paragraphs to come. It’s important to have their psychological make-up supported in their thoughts and their history. And if a person still says it’s not realistic after all is said and done. Well, sometimes, there’s just no making some people happy.