Promoting My Book with a Video

Luckily, there was nothing in particular I wanted, except to get all those sticky wig hairs out of my face. It was fun hanging out and participating in all the excitement: getting airbrushed into ghoulish guise, donning wings, charging around with weapons, eating cheese soup, listening to people rehash SCA wars, watching actors emote, and obeying John each time he said, "Perfect. Now do it again."

But after I got home, I did wonder why the flying evil wizard was carrying the heaviest, largest pole.
 
It's obvious you haven't been visiting the Tolkien forum here. Wings don't necessarily equate to flight (see the endless debate as to whether or not Balrogs have wings), and your wingspan didn't look sufficient to lift Jack or Ethan, let alone a full-grown adult. Think of the wings as an abominable -- but useless -- mutation.

The bill-hook, on the other hand, could have bought you your way out, if you'd thought to make a break for it.

(And the Furiádhin are not wizards. They are warrior priests who practice sorcery. Quite a different kettle of fish.)
 
Well, yes, only one of them seems to have fish scales at the moment, but there are new Furiádhin mutating from time to time. Some of them could be fishy, you never know.

I have just learned via an EOS newsletter that they now have a page on MySpace. MySpace has a sort of built-in video player, doesn't it? That might mean that they could (and would) post my video when it's finished ...

(I don't quite know what I would do if my timing on this turned out to be good for a change. It seems so unlikely, based on my past record.)
 
Well I could just spit! John shot everything in the wrong ratio yesterday, and when we loaded it into the computer and tried to composite it, it all distorted horribly. The close shots can be fixed -- the Furiádhin marching about and looking fiercesome, and Ouriána and her crystal ball -- and the ghosts should be OK because they're supposed to be all wavery and transparent anyway -- but the long shots for the all-important conjuring scene have to be scrapped. So that means a large part of what we did has to be done all over again. (Not necessarily with the same people I hasten to add lest Carolyn begin to panic. Could be six different victims this time. Or a mixture of new and old.)

And I wanted to have enough good stuff to put together a short version of the actual trailer by this Sunday. Now that looks to be impossible. That grinding sound you hear is me gnashing my teeth into powder.
 
You mean we knelt over and over again to Ouriána, trying to get our heavy swords and big awkward stabbing poles to descend in unision, for nothing? Augh. Well, not for nothing, I guess: the actress looked wonderfully regal and thus, deserved our homage in her own right.

Poor Teresa! (And poor John.)
 
Watching the video makes me realize there's a lot of the book I don't recall!

How did you pick the music, Teresa? Is that going to be the same soundtrack that's on the final trailer?
 
One of our actors found the music and got verbal permission to use it. And yes, if we can get that permission in writing, we do intend to use it on the final trailer.

We could just pirate something off the internet like everyone else does on YouTube, but I have a little too much respect for copyright to do that. (Anyway, it would be a little hypocritical while promoting my own copyrighted work.)

The video will give glimpses of things that are implied or spoken of in the book, things that set up the situation, like the war going on in the background. Sort of the visual equivalent of a back cover synopsis.
 
The "real" trailer is now online:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PzHG1OqPEo

A longer and hopefully more exciting version, with added scenes and effects -- and actual dialogue -- is forthcoming, although I don't know when. But I promised myself we would have a version for public consumption by December 1, and we did manage to meet that deadline.

(P. S. We enabled the option that allows people to embed the video on their blogs or websites, in case anyone is interested in doing that.)
 
Looks cool:) , it improves towards the end and I really like ouríana's representation. Well let's spread it then:p .

Ofcourse I'm prejudiced, I really liked the book and well it's fun to see a trailer like this. I am actually very curious as to how people who have never heard of the book before react upon seeing the video, let us know.:p
 
A little accident with a fireball (or why John and I are glad everyone signed waivers):
 

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I still think I would rather read your story first and then watch the video Teresa...

Although I still haven't seen a copy of your books over here.
 
Understandable. Basically, the video is aimed at those who don't even know about the book, to foster a little word of mouth. Whether it will even do that much remains to be seen.

I know Gollum and some other people saw the book in stores several months ago, but I imagine it's run it's course in Australia by now, and has disappeared.
 
I know Gollum and some other people saw the book in stores several months ago, but I imagine it's run it's course in Australia by now, and has disappeared.
Click to expand...
Pictures a very vivid image of a last copy in a bookstore being sold: "hahahaha I now disappear, but you haven't seen the last of me, oh no you haven't seen the last of me!" Then the copy is put into a plastic bag and you see some movement inside.:p
 
Well, you've given me a laugh, scalem, but unfortunately, when my books vanish from the shelves they tend to stay vanished.

Although I must say I was pleased they ever turned up in Australia at all, because that was unexpected.
 
Mmm maybe, but I would expect that when the second novel in the series is finished that it would be accompagnied with at least a small revival of the first. To be honest I don't really get any of these things, but it would just be plain stupidity for a bookshop only to sell the second part of a series, no?
 
it would just be plain stupidity for a bookshop only to sell the second part of a series, no?
Click to expand...


You would be surprised how often that happens. It's a matter of shelf space, and they don't always like to devote too much of it to midlist writers. Because of that, if a book goes OP before the sequel arrives (and let's face it, I've given THS plenty of time to do that), only a handful of publishers will do a reissue.

My old publisher, Ace, was one of those who didn't. (For all I know, they may have changed that policy since, when I'm no longer paying close attention to their every move.) So I never had two books in the stores at the same time, even when they were published less than a year apart.

On the other hand, we didn't have a lot of big stores like Borders or Barnes and Noble ten years ago, and shelf space was tighter.

Also, of course, the video is an attempt to extend the shelf life of THS.
 
The Hidden Stars is still available in large numbers on bookcloseouts.com, so you might see some movement there after the video comes out! And hopefully, when the second book in the series comes out (early next year, isn't it?).

I am going to start The Grail & the Ring tonight, by the way :)
 
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