Switching Strides from Fiction to Non-Fiction by Christine Lindsay

Every fiction writer writes a certain amount of non-fiction on a regular basis. The two exercises can be like the proverbial apples and oranges. Today, author Christine Lindsay gives her experience in going from fiction to writing a memoir. -- Sandy

Christine: A dozen or so years—well into the stride of writing fiction—my publisher offered me the contract to write my memoirs. I thought that ship had long sailed, but suddenly the opportunity had reappeared on my horizon.

Most of us fiction writers consider ourselves quite capable of switching from novel writing to writing non-fiction articles in promotion of “said” novels, but memoirs presented a whole different playing field.

In novels, we are adept at showing and not telling. In writing non-fiction articles, we acknowledge that we mostly tell to convey important information, and that in those articles we show only a little.

As I started the fresh draft of my memoirs I thought my ability as a fiction writer would easily make my non-fiction come alive. Little did I know that an all new shifting of gears would be required. There was so much to TELL; a lifetime of journals that expressed exactly how I felt at those moments when I discovered I was pregnant (and unmarried), when I first made the heart-tearing choice to relinquish my baby to adoption, and 20 years later to the renewed heartache of meeting my birth-daughter in our adoption reunion.

But as I started writing, I don’t know how many times my critique partner emailed me back with attempts to pry open that deep well of my psyche.

“Go deeper,” she would say. “You’re holding back.”

“How did you really feel in that moment?”

“Can you put this in fresher language so it doesn’t sound like a transcript from your journal?”

My task of showing and not telling had slipped into the accelerated challenge of a bicyclist facing a steep mountainside. I simply couldn’t say what I really wanted to say.

Somehow it’s easier to talk through our fictional characters, easier to let them lose their tempers, easier to let them fail, easier to let them say whatever they please, to convey the truth we want to share. But in real life? How does one do that without hurting real people in the here and now?

I simply could not write a memoir worth reading unless I had on board all those people who were part of the true-life story. Not so easy when one of the most crucial individuals was my birth-daughter’s adoptive mom. This dear woman and I shared so much: The daughter we both named Sarah, my first-born/her first child, the girl we both jealousy hungered for as our own, especially since to this day it is difficult for her to even converse with me.

In addition to that was the fact that the reunion between my birth-daughter and I had not gone well, and that developing a relationship with her was an uphill battle, that I despaired would never happen. For much of our journey I was at odds with the very people I yearned to know and have a relationship with.

In a fictional novel those are great obstacles to have. In a memoir those obstacles bring real and raw pain.

It took almost 17 years for the Lord to soften the path, so that I could approach my birth-daughter and her adoptive mom to share our combined story. I also shared openly and transparently with them everything that I wrote, allowing them to suggest changes. This gave them some ownership of my story as well as their own.

One might think this would take away from my portion of the story. Instead, I found the ownership I granted them enabled me to write more honestly, than if I simply presented them with the fait accompli. Allowing my birth-daughter and her adoptive mom the freedom to say how they honestly felt about me, opened the door for me to go as deep as my critique partner wanted me to go.

Here is an excerpt of some of that raw honesty in Finding Sarah Finding Me:

My counselor’s smile diminishes a little. “Christine, I know you were hoping that Sarah’s mom and dad would be here today.”

“Yes,” I say on a suspended breath. Something deep within me shudders.

“I’ve been on the phone to Hans and Anne quite a bit, trying to encourage them to come today. Don’t take this the wrong way, but they’re not coming. They’re…well they’re quite upset…finding the reunion very hard emotionally. Sarah’s dad especially doesn’t understand why you want to meet Sarah…or them.”

My heart stops. The day I’ve prayed for all these years, and they’re upset…finding it…hard? They don’t understand? The world tilts on its axis. I’m falling off, into the ether, untethered to float forever. I can’t breathe.

David’s hand touches my knee. “Chris? Honey?” He’s reaching across from his chair to mine.

I turn slowly to lock gazes with my husband. Secure in his love, I gulp down some air. Bob and David peer at me where I’m still sitting upright on my chair. Have been all along. I manage to croak through a constricted throat.

“I never wanted to hurt anyone.” But my mind screams, They don’t want to meet me! Why? All these years I thought they’d want to meet me as much as I wanted to meet them. And most of all—I gave them my child! 

Brutally honest but with the compliance of my birth-daughter and her mom, I think we’ve written a memoir drenched in real hope that just might help others struggling with:

· Adoption issues

· Infertility

· Being unmarried, pregnant and afraid

· Facing the scary option of adoption reunion.

What kind of adjustments have you experienced when switching gears from fiction to non-fiction, or vice versa? When have you needed to be brutally honest in your writing--whether fiction or non-fiction? 

 

~~~~~~

 
Finding Sarah Finding Me

Sometimes it is only through giving up our hearts that we learn to trust the Lord.

Adoption. It’s something that touches one in three people today, a word that will conjure different emotions in those people touched by it. A word that might represent the greatest hope…the greatest question…the greatest sacrifice. But most of all, it’s a word that represents God’s immense love for his people.

Join birth mother Christine Lindsay as she shares the heartaches, hopes, and epiphanies of her journey to reunion with the daughter she gave up...and to understanding her true identity in Christ along the way.

Through her story and glimpses into the lives of other families in the adoption triad, readers will see the beauty of our broken families, broken hearts, and broken dreams when we entrust them to our loving God.

Read Chapter One of Finding Sarah Finding Me: Click HERE


Christine Lindsay is the author of multi-award-winning Christian fiction with complex emotional and psychological truth, who always promises a happy ending. Tales of her Irish ancestors who served in the British Cavalry in Colonial India inspired her multi-award-winning series Twilight of the British Raj, Book 1 Shadowed in Silk, Book 2 Captured by Moonlight, and explosive finale Veiled at Midnight.

Christine’s Irish wit and use of setting as a character is evident in her contemporary and historical romances Londonderry Dreaming and Sofi’s Bridge.

A busy writer and speaker, Christine, and her husband live on the west coast of Canada, and she has just released her non-fiction book Finding Sarah—Finding Me: A Birthmother’s Story.

Please drop by Christine’s website www.ChristineLindsay.org or follow her on Amazon on Twitter. Subscribe to her quarterly newsletter, and be her friend on Pinterest , Facebook, and Goodreads

Purchase links for Finding Sarah Finding Me:

Amazon (Paperback and Kindle)

Barnes and Noble

 

Marketing as a Small Press Writer by Christine Lindsay

Are you with a small publisher or thinking about signing a contract with one? Author Christine Lindsay gives a couple of the pros and cons you might want to consider. -- Sandy

Christine: Being published by two small presses over the past 6 years, I live in the in-between world with the perks of a traditional royalty paying publisher while carrying the sole cost of marketing the same as self-published authors.

Marketing has been tough to be sure, but now that I’m currently releasing my 6th novel Sofi’s Bridge, and my first non-fiction book Finding Sarah, Finding Me coming out this August, I find that the small presses have given me time to grow as a writer. It’s been a backwards blessing.

The Marketing Perks of a Small Press

It’s hard to break into the market by targeting large well-known publishing houses, and just as hard to get an agent. After I’d won the ACFW Genesis for my first manuscript, and I had a big agent all set to sign me, and then having to tell her that my previous small-time agent had already been turned down by the larger houses, she was forced to withdraw her offer. But…a few months later a small press WhiteFire Publishing was eager to publish my debut novel with its unusual setting (India). WhiteFire was specifically looking for novels that were willing to take a risk on an exotic setting in order to tell a deeper story.

• Having a smaller catalogue, small presses often keep their book in print longer than larger houses, giving me more opportunities to advertise when I can afford too.
• They carry the entire cost of editing your book, create a professional cover, and all the legalities of actually publishing you. I have been delighted with the covers by WhiteFire and from Pelican Book Group. The sweetest part is that they not only wanted but appreciated my input in my covers. For my first two books I even got to have my two daughters as the models on the covers.
• Due to catching the eye of small presses through submission calls, I have not needed an agent and therefore do not have to share in my royalties with them. 

The Downside of a Small Press

• You do not make as much money as you would with a larger house with their larger distribution to bookstores.
• By the time you pay for your own advertising you’re lucky to break even. But 6 years after my debut novel was published I am starting to see a rise in my royalties.

So how can all these pros and cons work for you as an author?

• My journey with small presses has allowed me to build the number of my titles, and to develop a readership. Now that I have 7 titles out with small presses, and am currently starting to write my 8th, I believe I am in a better position to catch the eye of that big fish agent, and a larger publishing house.
• Writing for small presses has forced me to keep on striving for quality writing. Just because they’re small doesn’t mean they don’t insist on excellence. The slightly more easy-going nature of small presses has given me the time I needed to develop my writing and find my voice. I think I’m in a better spot now to write that breakout novel. And here is where I whisper, “From my laptop to your ears, please dear Lord.”

The lack of marketing from my two small press has hindered my career in some ways, but when I look back I am thankful for the time that has allowed me slow growth. I’m still here, holding my own in a sea of fabulous books, and my career has forward momentum. No small thing to sneeze over.

Have you had experience with small presses? Do you have any more pros and cons to add?

~~~~~

Sofi's Bridge

Seattle Debutant Sofi Andersson will do everything in her power to protect her sister who is suffering from

shock over their father’s death. Charles, the family busy-body, threatens to lock Trina in a sanatorium—a whitewashed term for an insane asylum—so Sofi will rescue her little sister, even if it means running away to the Cascade Mountains with only the new gardener Neil Macpherson to protect them. But in a cabin high in the Cascades, Sofi begins to recognize that the handsome immigrant from Ireland harbors secrets of his own. Can she trust this man whose gentle manner brings such peace to her traumatized sister and such tumult to her own emotions? And can Neil, the gardener continue to hide from Sofi that he is really Dr. Neil Galloway, a man wanted for murder by the British police? Only an act of faith and love will bridge the distance that separates lies from truth and safety.

Read the first chapter of all Christine’s book on her website www.ChristineLindsay.org, including the first chapter of Sofi’s Bridge HERE.

PURCHASE LINKS FOR SOFI'S BRIDGE

AMAZON.com (Paper and Ebook)

Pelican Book Group (Paper and Ebook)

Christine Lindsay is the author of multi-award-winning Christian fiction. Tales of her Irish ancestors who served in the British Cavalry in Colonial India inspired her multi-award-winning series Twilight of the British Raj, Book 1 Shadowed in Silk, Book 2 Captured by Moonlight, and explosive finale Veiled at Midnight.

Christine’s Irish wit and her use of setting as a character is evident in her contemporary romance Londonderry Dreaming and her newest release Sofi’s Bridge.

Aside from being a busy writer and speaker, Christine and her husband live on the west coast of Canada. Coming August 2016 is the release of Christine’s non-fiction book Finding Sarah—Finding Me: A Birthmother’s Story.

Please drop by Christine’s website www.ChristineLindsay.org or follow her on Amazon on Twitter. Subscribe to her quarterly newsletter, and be her friend on Pinterest , Facebook, and  Goodreads

Going Against the Grain of Writing Advice by Christine Lindsay

Christine Lindsay

When I first started writing fiction I never thought the day would come when I would complete not only one book but an entire three-book series. Back in 2011 WhiteFire Publishing thrilled me with the publication of Shadowed in Silk, Book 1 of my series Twilight of the British Raj.

Before publication of that first book, it was pretty hard to get a publisher interested in a setting outside of the US other than WW1 or WW2 Europe. Even after Shadowed in Silk won the ACFW 2009 Genesis for Historical, it was still hard.

I didn’t know my setting would be such a hard sell when I started writing. All I knew was that I was creating the story I wanted to read. My British ancestry cried out to share the fascinating era of British Colonial India, a place as exciting as the Wild West was to the US.

My advice to aspiring writers today though—is study the market trends, see what the publishers are putting out, and choose a storyline in what readers are wanting to read, before you start writing.

That would have made my road to publication a lot easier and quicker...maybe.

I say maybe, because in reality, even if you do everything right you still might not get published.

And even with me doing everything wrong, going against the grain of writing advice, I’m now the proud mama of a three-book series that continues to win awards. All because a small publishing house saw the merit of a different setting than American readers had shown interest in.

Thanks to WhiteFire Publishing I saw the passion of my heart in print. Not only did I see that first book, but as those characters grew, I had to see them through to the end. That one book simply had to become a saga—the saga of a family.

Shadowed in Silk was followed by Captured by Moonlight, and now soon to be released Veiled at Midnight.

So my advice to aspiring writers contains the caveat. Write your heart. It’s the stuff in your heart that will reach another heart. Those are the kind of books that leave the lasting memories.

Dora here. Do you study market trends or research publisher guidelines for elements like setting? Have you written a story with a unique setting that's been a challenge to sell to publishers? Chime in and share your experiences.

Purchase Link

****

ABOUT CHRISTINE LINDSAY: Stories of Christine Lindsay’s Irish ancestors who served in the British Cavalry in Colonial India inspired her multi-award-winning historical series Twilight of the British Raj, Book 1 Shadowed in Silk, which won the 2009 ACFW Genesis, the 2010 Grace Award, and was a finalist in the 2011 Readers’ Favorite. Book 2 Captured by Moonlight won Canada’s prestigious The Word Guild award for historical in 2014, and was a finalist for the Readers’ Favorite and the Grace Award. The final installment of that series Book 3 called Veiled at Midnight will be released Autumn 2014. Londonderry Dreaming, set in Ireland, is Christine’s first contemporary romance.

CONNECT WITH CHRISTINE Please drop by Christine Lindsay’s website or follow her on Twitter and be her friend on Pinterest Facebook and Goodreads

The Blessing of Sacrifice ~Part 2 of The Price of Success by Christine Lindsay

Christine Lindsay

The winter has passed since I wrote Part 1 of my article on being a workaholic and that I was going to change. That blog post sounded like I was giving up my long-awaited writing career for love.  Sounds romantic. But I will affirm that six months later I am sticking to my commitment to put my relationships above that of my writing. Not an easy thing when you consider that since I wrote Part 1 my career seems to have taken some large leaps forward.

When I wrote that I planned on spending more alone time with my husband I didn’t realize that a few months later I would be accepting the position as Vice President of Christian Authors’ Network. An honor, a privilege, and lots, lots more work helping other authors network to promote their work. This new position is increasing my visibility as a writer.

Yet it came after a time of deep prayer because I am still committed to that alone time with my husband...that coffee-shopping time with my mother...some fun time with my grandkids...that time in prayer.

At the moment I am under the gun to meet the deadline for my next book, Veiled at Midnight to end my historical series Twilight of the British Raj. End of April is approaching for that deadline. But the plan is, after I meet that date to slow down, pack up the trailer, and head to the hills. Write only a few hours, and devote the rest of the day to my husband in walks, playing together with the dog, cooking the fish he catches, playing board games in the evening.

It puzzles me that after I made this commitment to put others first, that the very thing I was willing to sacrifice is the thing that God blessed.

Is it a formula?

No. For the moment you try to make it one, your defeat yourself.

Only when I decided to truly put the thing I loved on the altar, was willing to set the match to the kindling did the Lord step in and douse the flames before they flickered.

So, my career is still on. But His whisper on my soul as I pray each day is, Keep true to your promise child. I am watching, and I will bless as I see fit.

Dora here. Christine packs the camper and heads to the hills with hubby to renew her commitment to him and their marriage. What's your favorite way to unwind with your spouse? How do you balance writing and family?

Purchase Christine's Books

ABOUT CHRISTINE LINDSAY:

Christine Lindsay was born in Ireland, and is proud of the fact that she was once patted on the head by Prince Philip when she was a baby. Her great grandfather, and her grandfather—yes father and son—were both riveters on the building of the Titanic. Tongue in cheek, Christine states that as a family they accept no responsibility for the sinking of that great ship.

It was stories of her ancestors who served in the British Cavalry in Colonial India that inspired her Multi-award-winning, historical series Twilight of the British Raj. Book 1 Shadowed in Silk, Book 2 Captured by Moonlight, and Christine is currently writing the final installment of that series called Veiled at Midnight to be released August 2014.

Londonderry Dreaming, Christine’s romance novella set in N. Ireland released Feb. 21, 2014.

Aside from being a busy writer and speaker, Christine is also VP of Christian Authors’ Network. She makes her home in British Columbia, on the west coast of Canada with her husband and their grown up family. Her cat Scottie is chief editor on all Christine’s books.

CONNECT WITH CHRISTINE:

Please drop by Christine’s website http://www.christinelindsay.com/ or follow her on Twitter and be her friend on Pinterest , Facebook  and  Goodreads.

The Price of Success As A Writer by Christine Lindsay

Christine Lindsay

Is it possible that some of us writers are workaholics because we like it?

At the start of my fifties I began my long-desired writing and speaking career. While things were challenging, God gave me the strength to rise to that challenge, and I thoroughly enjoyed reaching those long-sought-after goals.

OH MY, I FELT FULFILLED. I was woman. Hear me roar…or better still…maybe I was getting close to becoming that Proverbs 31 woman.   

But fifteen years after the fact, after my first two books had been published, and with contracts for more, I also discovered that it was hard to shoehorn leisure into my schedule. When was the last time I relaxed or took a day off? Sometimes months would go by.

AND THE BIGGER COST:

This past spring it dawned on me that my dear husband was suffering from loneliness due to my extremely busy schedule. The wrongness of this hit me between the eyes.

Around the same time I ran into two different sets of women. Six of one and half a dozen of the other, you might say.

The first group warmly reminisced about the wonderful holidays they had camping with their husbands over the years. The other group shared that quite recently their husbands had passed away, unexpectedly, suddenly, and all these dear husbands were around the age of sixty.

My husband was sixty.

A GOD-INSPIRED SOLUTION

The question echoed in my mind. What am I waiting for? That week we purchased a brand new, little travel trailer. My husband didn’t take much convincing.

On our first trip in July we drove through the majestic Canadian Rockies, and at the summit of Roger’s Pass I noticed a large artillery gun. My husband explained that avalanche control experts shot artillery shells into the snowcaps to trigger avalanches, to control the snows from building too high and thick and thereby causing a fatal avalanche.

WHAT I LEARNED DRIVING THROUGH THE ROCKIES

I compared this controlling of avalanches to my own life. My marriage had to come first, even at the expense of my writing and speaking ministry. So, like the avalanche control experts, I chose to cut back on my writing so I could spend more togetherness time with my husband.

My little Christmas novelette Heavenly Haven is the culmination of that thinking.

Dora here. As writers, it's difficult to shut down for the day. How do you unwind? Do you find your relationships suffer?

`

Heavenly Haven  ~ Purchase Link

Heavenly Haven by Christine Lindsay

Avalanches happen to other people, not us. Marital problems happen to other people, not us, especially nine days before Christmas. At least that’s what Jack and Shaina Burke thought. Married for ten years, avalanche control expert Jack, and Shaina, only wanted to celebrate their December anniversary in a romantic way, until the shifting snows on the mountain bring havoc tumbling down upon them.

Heavenly Haven is available as an Ebook on Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, and Kobo.

About the author:

Christine Lindsay was born in N. Ireland and is proud of the fact that she was patted on the head by Prince Philip when she was a baby. Her great grandfather, and her grandfather—yes father and son—were both riveters on the building of the Titanic. Tongue in cheek, Christine states that as a family they accept no responsibility for the sinking of that great ship.

It was stories of her ancestors who served in the British Cavalry in Colonial India that inspired her historical series Twilight of the British Raj of which Book 1 Shadowed in Silk has won several awards. Book 2 Captured by Moonlight is so far a Finalist for the 2013 Readers Favorite Award. Christine is currently writing the final installment of that series called Veiled at Midnight to be released August 2014.

Also coming out February 2014 is Londonderry Dreaming, a romance novella set in Londonderry Northern Ireland.  

Christine makes her home in British Columbia, on the west coast of Canada with her husband and their grown up family. Her cat Scottie is chief editor on all her books.

Christine Lindsay would love to connect with you on her website www.ChristineLindsay.com, or drop by her blog for inspiration www.ChristineLindsay.org or follow her on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest

Creating A Book Trailer

Author Christine Lindsay has had first hand experience in creating trailers for novels. (See last week's post for part one of creating book trailers and using them for marketing purposes.) 

Today, Christine continues to share how she went about creating book trailers for her novels, Shadowed in Silk and Captured by Moonlight.

Christine - Use your imagination. But don’t be too quick to say your trailer is finished. Have your friends look at it. Ask them if the text is going by too fast? Are any of the little flourishes making it hard to read?

This happened when I added a little sunburst to when Laine in Captured by Moonlight says, “But never again.”

It creates a second of confusion because the burst of light obscures the first word. But the sentence is short, and that little burst of light is resonant of the defiant emotion in the character. So I kept it that way. But in the end made the size of the text bigger.

By using different lengths for scenes you can slow down where you want the watcher to stay longer, such as in Shadowed in Silk where the reader is introduced to those Indian arches and the word India comes out at them in glorious color.

In Captured by Moonlight, I used the same arches, but adjusted the color to the bluish tone. My viewer remains there a little longer to understand the tension of the story as it comes out at them.

In the back-to-back scenes with Laine in Captured by Moonlight, where the script says Adam crushed her heart, I shortened the seconds for that text and video to 3 seconds, so that the quickness produces an almost toss of the head with that burst of light, when the character says, “But never again.”

In my opinion, a reader doesn’t need to read every single word, but that’s me. When I see an ad for a movie, I’m only getting a ‘feel’ for the movie.

That’s the part of me that as a painter I’m not afraid to experiment. Same thing with my trailers, they aren’t someone else’s artistic impression of my book, they are my artistic impression of my book.

In both my trailers I’ve made mistakes that I’ve learned from.

In Shadowed in Silk, I played around too much with different types of color tones. I started out in somber and then changed to a rush of color when my main character gets to India. That’s all fine, but the black and white photo of the soldiers in the WW1 trenches is just too different in tone and texture. It jars.

I did better at keeping the tone of the pictures in Captured by Moonlight. If you’ll notice there is a bluish tone to all photos—a coolness and a softness to the texture.

But in the first shot of Laine in her nurse’s uniform there is a hair out of place from poor cropping of the photo, and the color tone isn’t quite right.

Still all in all, it’s not too bad, and it cost me less than $100 to produce.

It creates an emotional response, and that is worth it to me.

(See Christine's book trailers: Book Trailer for Shadowed in Silk, Book Trailer for Captured by Moonlight)

~~~

Christine Lindsay writes historical novels with strong love stories. She’s proud of her Irish roots. Her great grandfather and grandfather worked as riveters in the Belfast shipyard, and one of the ships they helped build was the Titanic. Another ancestor served in the British Cavalry in India, seeding Christine’s long-time fascination with the British Raj and became the stimulus for her series Twilight of the British Raj, and her debut novel, SHADOWED IN SILK. Her current release CAPTURED BY MOONLIGHT is Book 2 of that series.

The Pacific coast of Canada, about 200 miles north of Seattle, is Christine’s home. She and her husband enjoy the empty nest, but look forward to all the noise when the kids and grandkids come home. And like a lot of writers, her cat is her chief editor.

Christine Lindsay Author Facebook page

Christine Lindsay on Twitter

Christine Lindsay's Blog

Using a Book Trailer to Market Your Book

One of the resources for marketing books is to create a book trailer. Sometimes, these are done by the publisher. Other times, the author creates one. In the case of the latter, I asked Christine Lindsay to share her experience with putting together a book trailer. She has done it twice.

"You put together the book trailer for your newest release Captured by Moonlight. How did you go about it? What did you find to be the hardest part, and what cautions or recommendations do you have for others who might like to do their own book trailer? - Sandy

(Note: Since there's both marketing and creativity involved in book trailers, I split Christine's answer. The second part will run next week.)

Christine: When Shadowed in Silk was released, I had very little money for advertising. Still don’t. Being such a visual person, I thought a trailer would create some attention.

I’m sure a professional artist or video maker could point out the mistakes, but a few of my artist friends have looked at the trailer for Captured by Moonlight, and smiled, nodding and saying, “Not bad, not bad at all.”

Before I ever decided to write, my interests were drawing and painting. So, I have a good grasp of the color wheel, tones, balancing a composition, and therefore confident enough to enjoy experimentation.

You’ll see this in the way I have the script coming in at different angles in Captured by Moonlight. But don’t go too crazy with this, or you’ll make your viewer dizzy.

I played around with a few programs, and discovered Windows Movie Maker that I didn’t have to pay for.

I just kept at it by trial and error, and as I did, I discovered little things in the program that just made the visual sound bite come alive. Fade ins, fade outs, animation of the photos, etc.

The first thing I suggest is pick your music. Even if you’re going to do a talk-over trailer, you still want background music. As a nation of movie watchers, I believe that’s what we need—a tiny little movie that moves us emotionally.

I go to iStock for audio files. When I find music that stirs me and makes me think of my story, I buy the licensing. I paid about $25 for the music for Captured by Moonlight. It’s pacing is resonant with the fun and passion in the story. 

Book Trailer for Captured by Moonlight

It’s a bit hard to find the piece of music that is exactly the length you need. Fortunately for me, my son is a music major, and edited my music to the right length. But you might find someone in the music department of your church that can help.

After creating the trailer for Shadowed in Silk, I discovered that I’d made it too long. Most video sites and watchers prefer only about a minute and a half long, tops.

Then I started gathering my photos from stock sites, such as iStock, Dreamstime, Shutterstock. Because I had a hand in the creation of the front covers of my books, I had photos of the models in period costume.

I might deviate a bit here for the reason I had a hand in my own front covers.

When my publisher was designing the cover for Shadowed in Silk, they sent me photos of models which strangely reminded me of my birthdaughter, Sarah, the grown child I had relinquished to adoption when she was 3 days old. On a whim, I suggested Sarah (whom I am now reunited with). I also had the silk for the sari that I had bought on a missions trip to India.

For book 2, Captured by Moonlight, my publisher was happy to let me use my own daughter, Lana for that role. So I had lots of photos of the 2 girls.

It takes a while to get used to whatever program you end up using. But learn how to adjust the photos visually, to be drawn into the center or off from one side.

This became especially fun for me in Shadowed in Silk when I tilted the photo of the airplane so that it appears it is actually moving. At another point, a child is holding a man’s hand, and I had the script and the photo scroll upward, creating the movement of a child’s eye looking up at his father figure.

Book Trailer for Shadowed in Silk

Have you ever created a book trailer? Do you use book trailers to market your books? What tips can you share from your experience?

~~~

Christine Lindsay writes historical novels with strong love stories. She’s proud of her Irish roots. Her great grandfather and grandfather worked as riveters in the Belfast shipyard, and one of the ships they helped build was the Titanic. Another ancestor served in the British Cavalry in India, seeding Christine’s long-time fascination with the British Raj and became the stimulus for her series Twilight of the British Raj, and her debut novel, SHADOWED IN SILK. Her current release CAPTURED BY MOONLIGHT is Book 2 of that series.

The Pacific coast of Canada, about 200 miles north of Seattle, is Christine’s home. She and her husband enjoy the empty nest, but look forward to all the noise when the kids and grandkids come home. And like a lot of writers, her cat is her chief editor.

Christine Lindsay Author Facebook page

Christine Lindsay on Twitter

Christine Lindsay's Blog