Beth Kephart talks about book trailers and You Are My Only

Nowadays, you sort of have to have a book trailer. It's interesting and fun to think about your novel as a preview at the local movie theater, with people watching while they chomp on popcorn. But it's also really difficult to get the visual right. I did a trailer for Pictures of You, but I hired someone I thought was brilliant to do it for me, and all I knew at the start is that I wanted fog.  I wanted it to be moody.  I wanted it to feel dark. I'm glad I have a trailer. I really like it, though I keep wanting to change it around, much the way I do with my novels after they are finished.  And I take full responsibility for the misspelling I didn't catch! 

I invited Beth Kephart here to talk about the process and to show off her trailer.  Thanks, thanks, thanks, as always Beth, for being here on my blog (and here in my life.)

I don’t know, truthfully, what a trailer for a book should be. Or if trailers, in general, make a difference. But I wanted to make something (my own hands, my own heart) that would hold the book in a small electronic space—engender a mood, suggest a sound, give voice.

You Are My Only touches on sensitive things—on the real-life heartbreak of kidnap. Cute wouldn’t do for this trailer. Big and noisy would be wrong. Slick, I thought, was a poor choice, too. I just frankly wanted quiet, wanted the book to speak for itself. I also wanted to thank some of the many exquisite people who have read this book ahead of its release and given me the hope I needed to carry it forward.

I take photographs when I’m not writing; I decided to use some of them. I know how to operate iMovie, so I made a “B” roll with that. My husband was in charge of filming me (tripoding the camera, testing the lights, then leaving the room when I spoke so that I could feel alone) and in charge of transitioning our various bits and pieces into Final Cut Express. I sat beside him for four hours on a rainy morning until we got it right.

Well. Right is an overstatement. I am aware of the trailer’s flaws. But the quiet is there. The mood of the day. Me in my office, reading. That’s all it is, but I am glad we made it. It