It felt like I was letting go of my child when I packed the final copy of my book into a box and shipped it away for final publication. I had spent nine years living and writing the memoir about the melding of social entrepreneurship in one of Africa's largest slums — Kibera in Nairobi, Kenya — while serving in the Marines. That time included a year of full-time writing after graduate school, and months of shifting, tweaking, and tightening with a team of talented editors from Bloomsbury publishing, my "house."
So I was a bit surprised to learn that in the long birth of a book, there were still a lot of things to do before it would appear in print five months after I had sent in the final edited copy. My "to-do� �� list ranged from launching a social media platform, to getting endorsements, figuring out how to earn income during the tour, and creating a book trailer.
Book trailers are relatively recent additions to the literary world. Most of the authors I know detest the very idea of them. We pour our souls into creating a book, a piece of work that can take people deep into places, problems, and things that matter. The experience of reading a book unfolds over hours, and sometimes days. It takes time and commitment to draw knowledge and meaning from narrative, and the pay-off of such an investment can be enormous. Some books change lives.
Can a few minutes on a screen really do justice to such a rich experience?
I don't think so. Yet I realize that book trailers are important to me as a reader. I watch them when they appear on Amazon or B&N.com, and for books I don't know much about, the trailer often influences my decision to buy.
When I began exploring how to create...
