Video Book Preview - Touch of Evil



For the last few days, I've been working on my own book video preview for my upcoming romantic thriller, Touch of Evil (Lovespell, March 2010.) It's been an intriguing exercise, full of technical challenges, visual and audio choices, and the boiling down of close to one hundred thousand words of text into one minute that captures the novel's tone, central conflict, and heroine in what I hope is an appealing and memorable package.

In other words, it's storytelling in a completely different format. I opted to stay away from self-agrandizing author credits and quotes from some of the (lovely, thank goodness) reviews the book has so far garnered, and stick to what I hope potential readers want to see while keeping my message as concise as possible.

Update: I've revised the video to get rid of the scrolling text and added a neat effect in the final frames. Hopefully, this one will be a bit smoother. Thanks so much for all your feedback!

Comments

Kimberly Frost said…
Great job, Colleen! I love the video (and the book's cover)

Hugs,
Kimber
Christie Craig said…
Great job, Colleen. And a great cover.

CC
Thanks so much, Kimber and Christie! I had a lot of fun with this.
Jessica Trapp said…
I like it! Good job!
Thanks, Jessica! I appreciate the look.
BK Reeves said…
Colleen, I always knew you were a ballsy dame. I admire you for having the courage to "make a Video". Can't wait to see it. When I tried to play it, I got an error message and a suggestion to try again. Which I will!

Barbara BK Reeves
Pamala Knight said…
That was awesome Colleen!! I'm anxious to read it. You did a great job, sparse yet riveting.
Ballsy dame. I think I like that, in a noir sort of way. Thanks, BK. Hope you get back to check out the vid.

Thanks to you, too, Pamala. Here's hoping it makes others eager for the book, too.

I'm going to attempt to change the scrolling text to fade in (which has given me a giant headache from working with it all day) if I can make the text legible that way. Will reupload when/if I get the job done. Thanks for the suggestion, Joni.
EmilyBryan said…
Very evocative!

Speaking of ways to condense a story, I've often thought doing a power point story board might be helpful for plotting and for pulling together a tight synopsis.

How did you put this video together? Considering doing a nuts and bolts "How I did it" post?
Thanks, everyone, for the comments and suggestions. Once I have the finished product, I will do a little "how I did it" posting, Emily. Thanks for that idea!
Update completed. No more scrolling text. Plus, I added a zoom shot to the final frames to give them a little more punch. Thanks for the feedback, everyone!
Shana said…
Very nice!
Suzan Harden said…
Seriously creepy, Colleen! The MIL will love this one!