AUTHORS! Want a book shoot?

So last time's winner... the lovely Karen Mahoney's book shoot will well, it now has special plans so sadly you have to wait.

BUT in honor of my book trailer-ness anniversary CONTEST I am opening up this post for authors who want to win a book shoot.

Like this:

or this

Rules are you have to send a teaser in comments (or privately via email: vandsmedia[at]gmail.com). Must be at least agented.

Teasers must be descriptive, teasing, and visual or pertinent to the book. Nothing too abstract. I should be able to read and visualize a scene or character.

+ 1 ENTRY if you get a friend to follow my blog.

+1 ENTRY if you tweet/blog/shout it out somewhere.

Infinite Days book trailer

Let me tell you a little story, readers!

When dear Rebecca first emailed me about doing her trailer I was so excited! And then I saw it was about vampires. No wait wait.... hang in there with me...

So vampires, right? I mean, Twilight, House of Night, Vampire Academy? Ring a bell? Read them, love them, and so when Rebecca sends me her book and I start reading I knew from page one this was different. Ok, seriously! It's so good!

There's love, romance, loss, pain, some fighting, (and a girl fighting), and a kick ass heroine (who doesn't love that?) and beautifully written, well paced and totally unexpected plot. I devoured that book, which is a bit hard if you read it on a small hand held digital device. Oh!! and an ending that will leave your jaw on the floor and angry as hell. And that's a promise!

Best of all, as Rebecca and I started working together on this trailer we agreed on EVERYTHING from music, to the models for Rhode and Lenah and through it all we've become great friends and I can't wait to watch this book fall in the hands of readers and librarians who will LOVE it as much as I do!

Now all's left is for her to educate me on some goooood music! Jim Morrison anyone?


SOOOO Readers, I know you are dying to read it... And I have an ARC to share with you!

To enter go and follow Rebecca's awesome blog. She's got a shiny SIGNED ARC to give to a lucky one of you!!

Guardian of the Gate book trailer

It's finally here! This trailer's been so great to work with for so many reasons but two of the main ones is that I got to work with one of my favorite publishers, Little Brown, who publishes some of my favorite titles! They such great taste and I was honored to do the sequel to Guardian of the Gate since Prophecy of the Sisters book trailer hold such a dear place in my heart! They have been so great and so patient to work with and I hope we get to do this again!

Thank you, Little Brown! Thank you!

Also, this trailer was a great collaboration with my wonderful team and friend Jeff and Gabriel who have not only been absolutely brilliant but have taken my work, my photography, and my trailer to a whole different world and you guys rock my socks! Looking forward to the next one!

And finally thank you to my models. You know who you are and why I love you to PIECES!

So without further ado:

Book Trailers vs Marketing

I came across a rather interesting article this morning highlighting book trailers. Book trailer in Australia but it does apply universally.

Check out the article here.

The article writer, Melissa Kent, brought up a very good point when it comes to book trailers "Like all digital marketing, it only really works if it's interesting and engaging with a viral element." I couldn't agree more. In fact in speaking multiple times with my team, authors and publishers, they all agree on one thing: viral is key.

Karen Williams, a marketing director at Allen & Unwin says that although it's hard to measure the number of hits to books sold her main goal is "making one that is actually going to help sell it, rather than not," especially since anyone can make a book trailer.

So my next question is, what makes a trailer go viral? Its uniqueness? Its creativity? Its excitement?

What do you think? Especially in the YA genre that is so vast and varied what do you think makes a trailer viral? (We love links!)

ANNIVERSARY celebration!!!! CONTEST!!!!

I have been sooooo busy these past few weeks shooting some of my fave books that it totally slipped through my mind( and fingers) that it was my book trailer anniversary. June 16th last year I debuted PROPHECY of the SISTERS book trailer.

After watching countless book trailers online I asked what if. Kinda like this ideas authors get when they start off writing their books.

What if...

I made a book trailer?

If people watched it?

If people liked it?

If I do another one?

If that author over there wants me to do one?

OH CRAP! and sure enough that one trailer that stemmed from pure inspiration spurred on some great relationships with authors, bloggers, publishers and readers, most of all.

I've had such great moments this year and as I post some myself and as others share in this craziness of a year I'd like to show mu appreciation and gratitude!

Soooo.. A CONTEST!!!! yes???

Ok so here's how this will go...

I call this PICK YOUR PRIZE contest!

This is how it works:

• Comment on this post +1
• or any other one - +1

• Tweet this contest- +1
• Blog- +2
• Subscribe- +1
• Comment on any of my trailers +5 :D

PRIZES that you can pick from include:

• A header design
• A button design
• A print of your choosing (5x7)
• A book shoot picture (authors more deets on that coming soon)
• A promo material design ( bookmark, business card, etc)
• Maybe other stuff added to the list I can't seem to think of at 2am.

So READY? GO!!!

And make sure to come back and check out some of my nutty stories this year.

Contest open to International unless it involves shipping..

Open until July 16th!

INFINITE DAYS- Book trailer teaser photos

So tonight I wrapped up shooting for one of my fave books. And one of the most fun trailers. Can anyone say vampires are hot? OK this book is so not Twilight but a hundred times better then well 90% of the vampire books out there and I am so infreakingcredibly lucky to be doing the trailer. Not only is the book fantastic but the author is a a doll and SUCH a great friend! I met her at BEA and I already miss her!

COME BACK REBECCA!!!

But this trailer's been so much fun from the costumes, locations and models. And I am compelled to be mean and evil and tease you with a few stills as you impatiently wait the release. Maybe next week?

*sigh*

VLC Photo, Comicon and SCBWI

Howdy faithful readers!

While I still have a day on my vacay I did want to share quickly that I'll be in LA end of July or roughly two weeks. I'll be at ComiCon and SCBWI. While I have experienced the wonders of SCBWI, I have yet to experience ComiCon which will not only be awesome but it will be madness.

BUT I did want to mention that in case anyone out there wants to do a photo session (kids, family, or even some portraits for your author photos.)

If you are interested email me at vandsmedia[at]gmail.com

Stay tuned for some southern piture goodness.

What do YOU think?

As I said earlier today, I'll be implementing some grand and exciting changes to VLC Photo but before I start hacking away I wanted to ask you guys what you think. You read this blog, you comment, you retweet my posts so it's your opinion that matters.

What do you want to see more of?

What do you like or don't like?

You guys rock and I really appreciate you taking the second to chime in! *muah*

And because I appreciate you I am giving away (3) 5x7 prints of your choice. ANYTHING on my flickr.