A Trailer for Celeste by Ann Evans

I suppose we're all constantly trying to find ways to tell the world about our books, and seeing that quite a few authors are now having trailer's made for their novels, I thought I'd give it a go, and see if it makes any difference to sales.

Not being that technically minded I took up the offer of a fellow author in the USA, who runs Videos by O, creating videos for any budget. My budget wasn't very big, but that didn't make any difference to the effort that Opal put into the video, with her sending me mock ups throughout the process, and making the changes that I asked for.

I'm fortunate to share a studio with a photographer, so a couple of weeks ago, we set out to take the necessary photographs that I'd need to create the look that I wanted for the trailer. This was for Celeste, my YA time slip book, which is published by American publisher, Clean Reads, (originally called Astraea Press.)

The story is about teenager, Megan Miller who moves to Coventry (my home city) with her parents and starts to experience feelings of deja vu. These feelings become stronger and stronger until she gradually realises that she has lived before in Medieval times when her name had been Celeste. The story particularly revolves around the ruins of Coventry's old cathedral.

So photographer Rob and I headed for the old cathedral, armed with a length of blue ribbon and my daughter's black hooded top. He took a variety of different shots, which I have to say I'm really really pleased with. 

It was a fun day, although I could feel people avoiding me, as I stood in the shadows with my hoodie hiding my face for the shot you see below. 

Back at the studio, Rob produced the photographs, and did quite a lot of photoshop 'magic' on the 'evil monk' shot, producing the final sinister image

that looms out of the shadows at the end. Please trust me when I say he did a LOT of photoshop on that! I don't actually look that scarey - Honestly!!!

Then it was just a matter of numbering the images to show the order they needed to appear. I used the blurb from the back of the book, in short paragraphs, to indicate which words went with each picture, then emailed it all to Opal who did her 'magic' adding music and a 'moving' effect, and all done!

Who knows if it will result in more sales, but anyway, it was good fun doing it. 

If anyone would like more information or contact details for Videos by O, or my professional photographer, just email me.

And here's the link if you'd like to see the finished result:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFDBEt9o3Fw

Please visit my website: http://www.annevansbooks.co.uk