Blowing Your Own Horn

By Catherine Bybee (Guest Author)

Thanks for having me here today, Lisabet. This is the final week of my blog tour for Binding Vows and I’m going to talk a little bit about promotion for authors and the making of a book trailer.

When I decided to finish my first book and begin another, I truly thought I’d only have to work on editing my manuscripts to perfection and finding an agent or publisher to agree that my book was worth publishing. After these accomplishments, I’d be home free, right?

No way!

How is the world to know about Catherine Bybee and her latest release? How is any author, even those who’ve made it to the bigger houses and have their books sitting on shelves right now, stand out among the rest? They promote. They blog. They work hard to have their names on the tips of reader’s tongues. They tweet. They facebook, and they Myspace. If they’re lucky, they have a little help from their publisher… sigh. Not me. I do it all myself.

I’ve found plenty of social loops and sites to talk with writers and readers about books and promotion and truth be told, I spend entirely too many hours yakking up a storm on the subject. I’ve also learned how to work my computer in ways I didn’t know possible. I started making book trailers as soon as I received my first cover.

Book trailers are a wonderful promotional tool. They are a one-minute commercial for your book with the flash of pictures and the drama of music. With a little creativity, your book trailer will capture the gist of the blurb on the back of your book and draw in your readers.

I love book trailers… I love watching a snippet of a book rather than reading it via a blurb. Can you think of a book you’ve read that was made into a movie? Didn’t you love seeing the trailers to these movies? You were able to picture the characters you read and fell in love with which made the trailers come alive for you, right? Book trailers work much the same way. So if you’re a writer and you haven’t attempted to make a trailer, take a leap and try. You just might find a whole new way to promote your book.

For more trailers and video blogs to help writers check out my youtube page:

http://www.youtube.com/user/CatherineBybee

For information on my latest release, Binding Vows… or earlier releases, Kilt Worthy or Soul Mate, stop by my website.

www.catherinebybee.com

Thanks again for having me, Lisabet.