Author HD Hatcher on Book Trailers

I am a big fan of book trailers. The sole purpose of a book trailer is to draw attention to your work. I have seen book trailers that range in length from just under two minutes, to a book trailer that was an agonizing five or six minutes.

When it comes to book trailers, less is better.

As crass as this may sound, you want to cram as much information about your work into as compact time space as possible that will keep someone’s attention.

I can not express this enough: The music is the most important part of your trailer. If you think that the words flashing frame by frame are what are going to keep a potential reader’s attention, you are sadly mistaken. The music is what will keep the attention of any potential reader.

Think about it, it’s the song that gets stuck in someone’s head; not a synopsis or singular word. Choose the score to your trailer carefully. Think about the readers you are trying to attract. What kind of music will they like: Classical, Pop, Jazz, Country, Rap? 

For A Cold Dark Place, I was able to find a song that seemed to fit perfectly. I heard the song, Place I Found by the Glass Plastics and fell in love with it the first time I heard it. The music is haunting and Trevor Lissauer’s voice is enduring enough to apply to the theme of the book. 

When I heard the song, Place I Found, I knew that this is the song that I wanted. The first thing that I did was to search high and low for Trevor Lissauer’s contact information to ask for permission to use his song. He was kind enough to reply to me and allow me to use it royalty free. You should always ask for permission. Without it, you are stealing the copyright of the artist, which is just wrong on so many levels.

Don’t be afraid to contact the artist through whatever channel they have established. You just might be surprised.

Feel free to check out the book trailer to A Cold Dark Place here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voohCIQP9Ys

I want to thank you for having me. I hope that we can do this again soon!

HD

About HD:

Author HD Hatcher is no newcomer on the literary scene. He is author of In the Heart of the Closet, a piece nominated for both the 2006 Stonewall Book Award and the 2005 Lambda Literary Award. He is an avid supporter of gay and lesbian causes, suicide prevention programs, as well as Animal Rights. Hatcher currently resides in the Grand Strand area of South Carolina, near his hometown of Conway, with his Life Partner of ten years, Jerry.

A Cold Dark Place
One Too Many (a short)

About A Cold Dark Place:

On a chance meeting, (at a mutual friend's house) Luke finds the love of 

his life. Andy is what Luke has been longing for all of his adult years:  the perfect man. But, this perfect man is not only straight-he is married to a woman who is more devilish than Satan himself.

In a bittersweet journey that will change his life forever, Luke must reach deep inside and find the strength he never knew existed. A Cold Dark Place is the story of a man who must pick up the pieces of his broken heart after a lifetime of heartbreak and betrayal.