It's strange to celebrate good publishing news during this difficult time, but I've had some incredibly good fortune recently: a book deal, cover reveal, paperback news, and the wonderful kid lit community. Read more about all of this at my regular blog, Sylvia Liu Land: Creative Life During a Pandemic & Publishing News.
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Over on my regular blog, Sylvia Liu Land, I wrote about my good news in 2019 (landing an amazing agent, a published poem, and a middle grade book deal): 2019 Wrap Up: Book News and a Giveaway of 2020 Releases. To celebrate, I'm giving away a choice of TWO of the above highly-anticipated 2020 releases (PB, MG, and YA). Check out that link to enter to win, or you can also use this Rafflecopter widget below.
My critique and Kidlit411 partner Elaine Kiely Kearns's picture book, NOAH NOASAURUS, illustrated by Colin Jack (Albert Whitman) debuts on April 1. As part of the marketing effort, I made her book trailer using software that comes pre-installed on any Mac. This is the trailer that we made:
For those of you who are enterprising and don't mind putting in a bit of time, you too can make your own picture book trailer using iMovie and Keynote (the Apple version of Powerpoint). You'll also need some familiarity with Photoshop or your illustrator's help. Briefly, this is the process:
How to Make a Book Trailer using Apple Software & Photoshop 1. Write a script. Elaine wrote the script for the trailer after studying a bunch of other trailers and figuring out what works. She sent me the text and suggested accompanying images. Her script was so awesome that I didn't change a thing. 2. Compile a rough trailer in iMovie.
Keynote is Apple's version of Powerpoint that comes installed in Macs. For the images you want to animate, do the following:
That's it. I learned how to make a trailer when my book, A MORNING WITH GRANDPA, illustrated by Christina Forshay (Lee & Low Books 2016) came out. At the time, Christina learned how to animate in Keynote and we worked together to create our trailer. We used a slightly more complicated way to animate (importing just the animated character sequence into iMovie while using the still image in iMovie as the background). This was our trailer:
Let me know if you have any questions. If you're handy with Photoshop, iMovie, and Keynote, it's gratifying to make your own book trailer.
Don't forget to buy Elaine's book at Indiebound, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Book Depository (free worldwide shipping)! |
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May 2020
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