I’m delighted to be able to share the book trailer for BLUE VOYAGE at last! Young Adult Books Center premiered it last week, and they are running a giveaway for three more weeks. (If you go to their site, you can enter to win a signed copy!)

Before you view the trailer here, though, I’d like to introduce you to the talented person who put it together! Her name is Yoshi Makishima, and she’s a Boston-based filmmaker, animator and writer. She’s also our Visuals Editor over at YARN (Young Adult Review Network). You can see some of her work across genres at her online portfolio, and, of course, on YARN — pretty much every image you see there was selected or in some cases created by Yoshi.

So you may be wondering (whether you’re a reader or a writer) — why hire someone to do a book trailer? There are lots of tutorials out there for creating a trailer, and even some snazzy trailer templates available on the Mac. If you’re savvy about finding (legal) stock photos and visuals, or talented enough to create your own, you can create a trailer for next to nothing or even free.

As with my last two book trailers, I chose to hire a producer, however, because I had a vision for the trailer and a lack of skill — and spare time — to make the product match my vision. Every time I attempted to do my own trailer, I ended up with something that looked like a bad PowerPoint presentation. I secretly wish I were a filmmaker, but I’m not. This is a job I’m happy to outsource.

But it’s still my book, and I like to have some creative input. For me, working with a book trailer producer is a fun, collaborative process.

For this trailer, as with my others (produced by different people), I started out by locating music that would give the right vibe for the trailer and the book. In this case, I searched stock video files on a number of sites (pond5, iStock photo — which has audio too) until I found a good Turkish instrumental piece with an adventurous / mysterious feel. I wrote a script. I found stock photos and videos that would match the script. Then I gave it all to Yoshi and she made it so much better.

Yoshi found additional sound effects and music to layer in. She replaced my (expensive) stock images with cheaper or free ones, which brought the overall price of the trailer way down — and back into my budget. She came up with the pacing (based on the script and the music / sounds) the transitions, and all the graphics.

I’m thrilled with the result — I think it accurately represents and sets the tone for the book without giving the plot away — and hope you enjoy it too! Here it is! (Also – if you’re an author looking for a book trailer producer and might be interested in working with Yoshi, send me a message and I’ll put you in touch!)