You’ve completed the work. The book is written, edited, and published. It is available for sale on Amazon, iBooks, and Nook. You’ve told your family, friends, and writer’s group your book is there. How do you let the world know when you have a limited or no budget?
Create a Promotional Video
One great way is to create a promotional video. You do not have to have a computer science degree or be a geek to do create the video.
I use the free version of Animoto. It makes it easy for you to create professional-quality videos with your pictures and video clips within minutes. It is a simple 4-step process.
Step 1
Go to https://animoto.com/ and sign up for a free trial account. No credit card is required. They ask only for your email address or you can register using one of your social media accounts.
Once you are signed up, click the blue CREATE button in the upper-right-hand corner. This begins the process of building your video.
Step 2
Animoto has two different video builders, so when you click CREATE, you’ll be asked which you’d like to use. To create a video for free select the one on the left – Slideshow Video Builder.
Slideshow Video Builder lets you create a slideshow video using one of Animoto’s more than 100 video styles. It has all you need for building your video built-in at no cost. You can add use your own or their licensed music, plus add captions, text slides, photos, and video clips to your slideshow video. It’s all up to you
The Marketing Video Builder is a paid upgrade option I will not cover because the scope of the article is how to do a promotional video for free.
When you click CREATE the following screen displays.
Select the theme you want. Next push the CREATE VIDEO button. It allows you to make a 30-second video for free.
The below screen appears.
Step 3
Upload photos, video clips, music, and add titles (words) to your slides by clicking on the + highlighted in the below screen capture.
The next screen appears. Click the highlighted icon to select the files for music and pictures that you want.
You’ll see this screen for selecting the files.
Click upload pictures and videos and this is the next screen you’ll see
Select the files you want. Click open. You don’t have to worry about the order they are in. You can easily drag or drop them placing them in the order you desire. Don’t select more than two or three as with the free version you only have 30-seconds. You are not making a full-length movie.
The photos selected now show on the next screen.
Now you will add text with title cards.
Click on the + sign in the highlighted box.
Type your text and click SAVE
The title card is added to the presentation. You repeat the process to add additional photos or titles. Remeber you only have 30-seconds in the free version so you will only have 4 to 5 slides maximum to fit into the time slot. You then can click on a photo to highlight it to add text to the slide the photo is on.
TypeType your text caption and click SAVE
You can then edit your photos right within your video. You can repeat for each picture.
You can select the picture, click on it and the above screen appears. Below the picture the second icon from the right allows you to edit the photo.
Once you’ve made changes click SAVE. Now you can arrange the cips in the order you want them. You just highlight slide and drag it to the location or order you want it in your video.
If using a video clip inside your video you can trim it to the length you want. Click on the video and then edit by reducing the length. You do this by dragging the
bar at the bottom. You can drag from either or both ends of the bar to get the portion you desire. Selecting your music is next. Click on the highlighted change song and select the free music that is available.
You have the choice of the top songs
Or you can click the button to see the full library.
You select the song you want and click the select song button.
Next, you preview, produce and share your video
Click PREVIEW VIDEO
The video preview appears. You can accept it and click PRODUCE if you like it or you can click CONTINUE EDITING if changes are needed. If you click PRODUCE it creates the video and the following screen appears. It allows you to then share the video on social media or download it.
Below is a promtional video I made in under 10-minutes.
Enjoy making your own. If you need more detail instruction Google making an Animoto video on YouTube and you will find a number of instructional videos.
