Making a Book Trailer with Windows Movie Maker – Step #2 Adding Music

books-moviesLast month’s article was a tutorial on how to make a video trailer with Windows Movie Maker (WMM). Today we will cover adding music to and finalizing your video.

Lots of sites offer royalty-free music (and images) that you can use for your video trailer. You can find out more about these on the Indies Unlimited Video Trailer resource page. I used Incompetech to download royalty free music for my six book trailers. Kevin MacLeod has done an excellent job structuring that site to help find the type of music you are looking for. You can easily play music there before downloading. Once you click on the download, it places the music on your computer. Kevin doesn’t charge for the music, but donations are certainly appreciated!

Go to your project by opening Windows MovieMaker. You should see the screen below for a project in process. Continue reading “Making a Book Trailer with Windows Movie Maker – Step #2 Adding Music”

Making a Video Trailer with Windows Movie Maker

books-moviesIf you have not already made a video book trailer because you thought it would take an expert, don’t worry. YOU can do this. If you follow the steps below, in less than thirty minutes, you can have a good start on a very basic video trailer for one of your books.

Not sure what a book trailer video is? Or not sure you need one? If you are still trying to get noticed as an author, a video trailer can help. People like movement, color, and sound. A video trailer accomplishes all these things in a very short amount of time while displaying your book’s information. Every opportunity counts – read Lynne Cantwell’s post on Effective Frequency to see why.

The following will guide you in creating a book trailer in less than thirty minutes. In my next post, we will add music to what we created, and upload it to the world. Continue reading “Making a Video Trailer with Windows Movie Maker”

I encourage YOU to write, but even more importantly, to publish.

thumbs-up-198886_640From my perspective most things in life require; desire, commitment, education, training, and practice. Publishing and becoming a best-selling published author, although related, are at two ends of the spectrum. I tell anyone looking to become a published author: don’t expect to make money at it. You do it because you want to show off your creation, much like showing your baby’s picture. Writing is a lot of work and takes time and effort. However, the hardest part of the process is no longer publishing. Publishing is much simpler, more streamlined and less costly than it used to be. Today, thanks to the tools available, anyone can do it, and it can cost as little as nothing. Continue reading “I encourage YOU to write, but even more importantly, to publish.”

New Author Names Dominate the Indies Unlimited 2014 Weekly Flash Fiction Competition

Lightning signTwo-thirds of the winning weekly Flash Fiction stories were penned by authors who were not part of the 2013 list of winners.

After twenty-eight weekly competitions, fourteen new authors will be included in the next Indies Unlimited Flash Fiction Anthology. There were a total of twenty-one authors, but only seven are repeat authors from 2013. Regardless, all twenty-one will be included in the next edition, along with any new winners during the balance of this year.

This competition is open to anyone who would like to enter the competition. Each Saturday, Indies Unlimited posts a picture by award-winning author and photographer K. S. Brooks, along with a short written prompt by five-star author Stephen Hise.

This weekly competition continues to grow year after year, and is an excellent way for independent authors to demonstrate their writing skill to a growing reader network. Continue reading “New Author Names Dominate the Indies Unlimited 2014 Weekly Flash Fiction Competition”