Aug 10
18
Step #1: The Text of Your Book Trailer
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These next three posts were targeted to those who attended my webinar, “3 Steps to a Book Trailer That Sells.” The steps I went over in the webinar were slightly different from the steps listed in these posts. These posted steps were meant as preparation steps for the webinar.
Best fishes,
-Ezra
In order to have a captivating book trailer,
you need to have captivating text!
Here’s how to write the hook:
The Hook
Below is a simple step-by-step process for how to
write a 2-sentence summary of your book’s story.
This will be the text for your book trailer. Its
purpose is to get people excited to read your book.
Remember, you don’t need to have a book yet to
do this.
When you’re done, post your result below!
For Fiction
We’re looking for two sentences that reveal the
main character, the main character’s dilemma, and
the worst that could happen.
Christine London has a good example for her
romance book Sunninghill Snow:
Bryce and Kay are high-powered career people
who just happen to be in hate. When a freak
snowstorm isolates them in a romantic rural
cottage, will the time together be a recipe
for war…or passion?
Notice that we get the names, their daily life
and conflict (hating each other), and in this
case the worst thing that could happen is
to end up feeling passion for each other.
Your turn.
First write down the following:
1. The Name of your protagonist/main character.
2. Who They Are or something that indicates what’s
their Daily Schedule. In Christine London’s example,
stating that they are “high-powered career people”
gives us a clear picture of their daily lives.
3. (Optional) Their Daily Conflict/Dilemma.
Only include this if it relates to the Inciting Incident
or the Worst Possible Result.
And the Daily Conflict can be an inner conflict
or an outer conflict. What’s their character flaw?
A flaw that they overcome by the end of the
story? Or what’s the issue they face in their
daily life? Something that gets resolved by
the end of the book?
In Christine London’s example, the conflict
(hating each other) does relate to the Worst
Possible Result (feeling passion for each other).
Generally, you’ll get a much more powerful result
if you make the Daily Conflict relate to the
inciting incident or Worst Possible Result.
4. The Inciting Incident. This is what causes the
main character to have to be removed from their
Daily Schedule or face their Daily Conflict. You
may think of many Inciting Incidents, so just
choose one.
In the Christine London example, the Inciting
Incident was the snowstorm.
5. The Worst Possible Result. What’s the
worst that could happen to the protagonist
due to the Inciting Incident?
6. (Optional) The Title Tie-In. How does it
all tie in to the title of the book? If the connection
between the title and the storyline description
is obvious, don’t bother with the Title Tie-In.
If you have two protagonists, as is frequently
the case in the romance genre (hero and heroine),
then do parts 1 through 3 for each protagonist.
For example:
Joan, an elephant trainer, often spent her day
on crutches since the elephants stepped on her
a lot. John, a clumsy elephant, had the habit of
stepping on people. When John fell in love with
Joan, he realized he could never get close to
Joan, lest his crush on her crush her.
Once you have all six of these, put them into
two sentences.
For example, for my book The Torah Codes,
my five answers are:
1. Nathan
2. A computer programmer
3. He’s being watched by a secret society
4. A police officer investigating his case turns up dead
5. Everyone Nathan holds dear could be next
6. It was foretold in the ancient scriptures
Put it all together and you get:
Nathan, a computer programmer, is being
watched by a secret society. When a police officer
investigating his case turns up dead, Nathan realizes
that everyone he holds dear could be next. As has
been foretold in the ancient scriptures.
Not too shabby, eh?
For Non-Fiction
For biographies and the like, you can use a similar
format to the one above.
Let’s choose something hard: a cookbook!
In this case, the main character will be the buyer
of your cookbook.
1. The Name of the reader. (“You”)
2. (Optional) Who They Are. This addresses
the market. If your buyers are farmers, address
them. If your buyers are synchronized swimmers,
address them. If this book is for everyone, then
you don’t need to include Who They Are.
Generally, you’ll be better off being very specific
about who the book is for. If it’s for everyone,
no one will care.
3. Their Daily Conflict or Big Problem. What
big problem does your book solve?
4. The Results You Offer. What will reading
your book result in?
5. (Optional) The Title Tie-In.
So if I wrote a cookbook called Soggy Suppers
and if it’s designed to please synchronized
swimmers, my responses could be:
1. You
2. Synchronized swimmer
3. Hates dinners made of crispy, crunchy food
4. These recipes guarantee your food will be mushy
5. You will always have soggy suppers
Put it all together:
Are you a synchronized swimmer who hates dinners
made of crispy, crunchy food? This book provides
recipes that guarantee your food will be mushy.
You will always have soggy suppers!
What’s yours? Put it in the comments below!
(Interested in learning more about how to make
book trailers without paying a cent?? Sign up for
the free webinar, “3 Steps to a Book Trailer That
Sells!”)
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