• About Daniel Ottalini
  • The Steam Empire Chronicles
    • Book 2 – Copper Centurion
    • Book 3 – Iron Tribune
    • Book 5 – Laurel Emperor
    • Book 1 – Brass Legionnaire
    • Book 4 – Steel Praetorian
    • Novellas
  • Educational Consulting
  • Poetry
  • Dungeons and Dragons
    • D&D Modules & Freebies
    • So You Want to Homebrew?
    • Tallavanor’s Tales
    • Saviors of Saltmarsh
  • Contact Me

Modern Papyrus

~ Daniel Ottalini's author blog and website

Modern Papyrus

Tag Archives: making audiobooks

Book Teasers & Trailers Done Cheap!

17 Saturday Mar 2012

Posted by Daniel Ottalini in Advertising, Self-Publishing, Teasers/Trailers

≈ Comments Off on Book Teasers & Trailers Done Cheap!

Tags

audio teasers, audiobook, book teasers, book trailers, free chapters, howto, Kickstarter, making audiobooks, making videos, new authors, Novels, romans, scifi, steampunnk, technology, Young Adult, youtube


My Brother emailed me with the most wonderful birthday gift (not today, but soon!), a finished audio rendition of my chapter one. “Now hold up” I can imagine many of you saying. “Your book isn’t even out yet, how do you have an audio book component?!” Well my good friends, I’ll let you in on a little secret… Most editors will do a free test edit of your first chapter. If you like what you see, you can send them the rest. In my case, I was fortunate enough to have a great editor in Marg Gilks over at Scriptora Editing Services. Not only was she actually interested in the story, but I carefully reviewed her previous work and found a few books similar to mine. So I hired her.

Back to the main point! I asked my brother, who has lots of voice and drama experience, if he would be willing to read my book. I love his voice, and he is able to make the different voices. I’ll admit, the first time he read it, I got goosebumps! He emailed me the copy earlier today, and I set to work.

Just a brief background – he used his PowerBook G4 with GarageBand to make the audio. He spent a few days locked in his room, recording and fiddling and rerecording. No expensive microphone (he started using a headset microphone I have from Rosetta Stone, but gave up on it after a while and just used his regular computer microphone) was needed. The music comes from Garageband’s ample free library, and I think it fits the mood really well. You can even fiddle around with it to make your own music.

So after I got the files, I simply plopped them into iMovie, imported my cover art, and using a few ‘Ken Burns’ slides and transitions, I was able to make a pretty handy book chapter teaser. I wouldn’t say it is on par with the professionally produced ones, but it doesn’t have to be. I didn’t spend $800 on it either. This way, I get the best of both worlds: A free book teaser with increased traffic and attention, while also doing it quick and easy. Now granted, I used family to help out, but that’s what they are for! He was amply paid in food, and the chance of a free room in my condo/house at some point.

Anyways, the most frustrating part was splitting up the file. It was 22 minutes long, and YouTube only lets you load 15 minutes at a time. Keep that in mind! If possible, record your audio and stop at good points, so that you can split it up easier. I had a hard time finding my split, as the most convenient on was at… 15:05. Seriously. 5 extra seconds was all standing between me and perfection and I could not make it fit. So I cut elsewhere. A little bit rougher, but it still works.

The thing I like best was that I could upload it direct to Youtube. A click here, there, and poof, it’s online! Don’t forget to make sure you tag your video with appropriate tags to grab the right people’s attention! Another cool thing is that eventually, it will be the start of my audiobook as well if I don’t get it more professionally done.

By the way, FUN news! My Kickstarter project was actually funded! Hurrah! I’d honestly given up hope, but sometimes it just takes one person to make a difference. If you’re still interested in helping out, you can contribute for another two days here. Please consider contributing, each extra dollar helps me get more cool promotional things and keep the cost of editing the book down.

Here’s the second part of the trailer for your viewing benefit! Or read the entire thing here -> Brass Legionnaire Chapter 1

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. It is much faster than snail mail.

Join 968 other followers

Check me out on Facebook

Check me out on Facebook

Follow me on Twitter

  • School internet is really on the struggle bus this morning 1 week ago
  • The Kohtumine Gathers: New D&D Ships & Stats Oh My! danielottalini.com/2021/04/10/the… 1 week ago
  • Yes I would like a drink today. #clearskiesmeadery #mead https://t.co/Cjkh9T4N8l 1 week ago
  • Found the perfect mini for our dwarves fighter and I can’t help but giggle at the finger. https://t.co/0NrsiFhO9Q 1 week ago
  • RT @TheAmandaGorman: EDUCATORS: check out this amazing teaching guide for The Hill We Climb, written by the awesome @DisruptTexts ! 1 week ago
Follow @dottalini

Goodreads

Awesome Places

  • Amazon Profile

Blogroll

  • Steam Empire Chronicles Series Website

See what you’ve missed…

Recent Posts

  • The Kohtumine Gathers: New D&D Ships & Stats Oh My! April 10, 2021
  • Kohtumine Focus: The Factions March 31, 2021
  • Tallavanor’s Tales: The Return March 29, 2021
  • Final Kohtumine Focus: Tradespont March 26, 2021
  • Kohtumine Focus: The Silk Cluster March 24, 2021

Blog Stats

  • 53,631 Visitors so far!

Top Posts

  • 50 Ways to Kill a Character
  • New D&D Maps - Town of Burle & Carnival Games
  • Book 2 - Copper Centurion
  • D&D Modules & Freebies
  • Saviors of Saltmarsh
  • 50 Ways to Kill a Character Part II
  • More Updates to our Ghosts of Saltmarsh Campaign - Redwatch Expanded!
  • Gunslinger D&D Character - First Time Creation & Background Writing
  • New Module: D&D 5th Edition Siege Rules & the Invasion of the Phandelver Valley!

Papyrians Only

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

A Brief History of New Caesaria Accountability airships alternate history Amazon Antioch Burns Author author help authors blogging blog tour Book Review book reviews Books Brass Legionnaire characters Copper Centurion Cover Art D&D Dungeon Master Tools Dungeons and Dragons ebooks Fantasy Fiction Giveaway historical fiction history how to illustrations Iron Tribune Kickstarter Kohtumine Laurel Emperor Maps NaNoWriMo NaNoWriMo2015 NaNoWriMo2016 NaNoWriMo2017 new authors Novel Novella novellas Novels poems poetry project 27 publishing Reading reviews roman roman empire Romanpunk rome Sale self-published self-publishing Self publishing short stories Smashwords Steam Empire Chronicles SteamLit steampunk Steel Praetorian Tallavanor's Tales teaching technology The Last Gladiator The Steam Empire Chronicles thoughts writers Writers Resources writing writing tips Year of Accountability Young Adult

Blog at WordPress.com.

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.
<span>%d</span> bloggers like this: