Guest Blogger: Adam Sidwell on Book Trailers

Nikki here again to introduce you to yet another amazing author, Adam Sidwell. Adam just released his very first book, "Evertaster". How did I meet Adam you might ask? In the best place ever...the temple! This man has a very special place in my heart because he was my brother's young mens president while my brother lived in LA on his own. This man and his wife made sure my brother was taken to church and attended their Family Home Evenings. So when it was time for my brother to go through the temple right before serving his mission, Adam was asked to be his escort. What a wonderful man he is and of course I liked him even more when I found out he too was a writer! Not only is he a writer but he works in the movie industry helping with special effects. So when he volunteered to tell us all about making book trailers, I was ecstatic! So be sure to give Adam a very warm welcome and be sure to check out his book, "Evertaster".

Book trailers

One of the great things for authors about book trailers is they can be a quick answer to the potentially difficult question: what's your book about?

When I wrote Evertaster, the response to the story was often something similar to "I've never heard of a story like that before." Evertaster is about a picky eater named Guster Johnsonville who hears about a legendary taste from a dying chef. He and his brothers and sister embark on a dangerous quest to recover the ingredients that just might have the power to change the world. But how do you tell that story and hook a potential reader in just a few seconds? How do you portray the sinister undercurrents, the international intrigue, the danger, the high stakes of the game?

Fortunately as authors we have tools at our disposal. The first is the book cover. That picture can be worth a thousand words. Then there are book trailers. They can be worth a million.  As an animator for feature films, I've had the chance to work on movies like TRON, Transformers and King Kong. Visual language is the medium through which those stories are told and imprinted on the minds of us all. It has become part of my person. So naturally I wanted to portray my story in a cinematic way. Visual language, combined with music and sound effects can convey the mood of your story in just a few moments, which may be the only moments you have to hook a reader.

Here's the Evertaster trailer:

In the film industry I've had the opportunity to rub shoulders with others in the business. That's how I encountered the production company Fuse Engine. Fuse Engine helped to cast, direct and produce the trailer. It was surreal when I walked into the casting call and the lobby was full of half a dozen Gusters -- my character -- all wearing red polo shirts!

We shot on location, had a makeup artist, lighters, a director of photography and production assistants. The first cuts of the trailer were impressive, but lacked the proper tension as Guster was running around the forest. Even with trailers you have to define some sort of antagonist to illustrate the danger and conflict. With a little luck, I happened to have some closeup  gorilla footage I shot myself on a trip to the Rwandan jungles years ago. You can see some of the raw footage here:

 It fit in nicely to add actual tension and the antagonistic force to the story arc in the trailer. Combined with a phenomenal musical score put together by another talented friend, we had a product that I could be proud of. The folks at Fuse Engine really did amazing work, and all the credit goes to them. Amazon was even impressed and posted the trailer to Evertaster's product page.

As writers, we may not always have access to a Hollywood production company. This doesn’t mean you can’t make a piece that is impressive and conveys the mood of your work. By combining simple images, music, and a few voice overs, you can edit together something that will draw potential readers into your story and convince them of its merit. Who knows? Along the way, you might just find you’ve got a slice of Steven Spielberg inside.