Okay, so I have complete and total book trailer envy! All of my authors friends have these awesome book trailers for their books! (authorial peer pressure, hehe) I haven’t figured out how to make one yet and I was planning on doing it, but I’m pretty busy with finishing up the revisions on Still Sucks to Be Me. So…I was thinking…it’s contest time!
Especially since the paperback of Sucks to Be Me is coming out August 11th! Woot! (I just got a box of them in the mail from the publisher and it’s so exciting!)
What you gotta do:
- Create a book trailer for Sucks to Be Me (you can search YouTube for examples of other book trailers). It can be something from the book (like quotes or a scene or whatever) or something inspired by the book or whatever you come up with!
- Upload it to YouTube and tag it with “Sucks to Be Me” and “book trailer” and either post the link here in the comments or send it to me via email or the contact form on the site.
- Deadline: September 30th, 2009 (Extended deadline by request!)
What you can win:
(three prizes, provided I get enough entries!)
- Third prize: a signed copy of the paperback Sucks to Be Me and various vampire paraphernalia (fangs, bite mark tattoos, etc.). PLUS a Practical Guide to Vampires (hardback) and The Stowaway (paperback).
- Second prize: a signed copy of the hardback first edition Sucks to Be Me, a Sucks to Be Me batty t-shirt and various vampire paraphernalia. PLUS a Practical Guide to Vampires (hardback), The Stowaway (paperback), and the Practical Guide to Faeries (hardback).
- First prize: a $25 Amazon gift certificate, a signed copy of the hardback first edition Sucks to Be Me, a Sucks to Be Me batty t-shirt and various vampire paraphernalia. PLUS a Practical Guide to Vampires (hardback), The Stowaway (paperback), the Practical Guide to Faeries (hardback) and a signed copy of the Practical Guide to Monsters (hardback)!
- Update: And everyone who enters will get something (can’t resist, I know these things are hard work!)!
Any questions or comments, post ‘em here. 
Good luck and I can’t wait to see what you come up with!
(prize list updated 7/24)
I’m going to post the submissions here too, so they’re easier to find. And because they’re so cool! Woot!
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lw7vjnIEZz8 (Ari)
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjevxeEuhqw (Briana)
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXIKHdFpT1E (Taylor)
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoJhTi2N_ws (Cassandra) *Includes Some Spoilers*
- http://animoto.com/play/hVha9VAsNsQkSTUGJ5fHew?autostart=true# (Victoria)
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OH6s-6RI-Nw (Junwan & Wynter)
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3X1zgROnb_E (Bianca)
- can’t upload for some reason, but was emailed to me (Sarah)
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Muku59SCU5M (Eliza) Late entry, didn’t make it in time for the contest, but still wanted to put it up!
Update August 3, 2009
I modified the contest end date to September 15th!!
Check out the comments section and let me know — should this be split into two contests? One for “regular” homemade book trailers and another for ones made with more “advanced” stuff? Would love to hear your thoughts! I think I can get my publisher to donate some more prizes (and I’ve got more books and t-shirts too), so it is doable. Of course, it does all somewhat depend on how many entries there are by the end!
Update: August 6th
Okay, I’m going to check with my publisher on getting more prizes (pretty sure it is okay) so that if I get enough submissions of “regular” vs. “advanced” trailers I can do two sets of prizes!
Update: September 14th
Extended the deadline to September 30th, by request! Remember, every entrant will get some type of prize. So tell your friends too!
Update: October 5th
Okay, I’ve edited this entry to show all the official entrants. Some were emailed to me rather than posted in the comment thread and one, for some reason, won’t post on YouTube. Ah, technology. I’m now waiting to hear back from the judges and will post the winners ASAP.
In the meantime, everyone who is listed above please email me your full name & address because EVERYONE is getting a prize!!
i wish i could but I’m not allowed to use youtube, darn
Oh, well if you still want to participate and make a video, you could email it to me and I could post it for you. Would that work?
it would but i dont own a camera any way
You don’t necessarily need one
A lot of book trailers just use still images and text and some music. That’s the kind I’d probably create if I was going to do one myself (don’t think I’m skilled enough for a video-video!)
You could probably use onetruemedia.com to make videos. I used to use that before I got Windows Movie Maker (my favorite for making videos). It works pretty well and it’s easy to use.
Sweet Im going to work on that right now!
Awesome!!
Its up and running
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lw7vjnIEZz8 Hope you like it 
My first ever book trailer! I love it!
Thankies
me and Junwan are going to make one. we have some great ideas!
Woohoo!
Mine will be here, when it finishes processing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjevxeEuhqw
First one I’ve ever made, so probably not the best, but.
Awesome! I am so excited about this!!
I just realized I used the same school picture as Briana… oh well. I hope you like this I’ve been working on it since the contest came out and it took me forever to get ideas!
It’s awesome! I love the journal part! You guys rock!
Thanks, I’m glad you liked it. The music was really hard because I had to cut and bunch of stuff out of the song to have it fit with the topic and the time line.
try Animoto.com… link to it through here: https://animoto.com/sign_up?promo=A4E514lab09 … I had my students create awesome book trailers here last Spring… http://dowdellstudent.podbean.com/ … easy to use even without a camera or youtube!
Very cool!
Any chance you could extend this contest to mid-September so I can have my students enter?
Josh
Absolutely!
Not to sound rude. But frankly I find that unfair. Hes probably a Tech teacher. That means his students have access to more equipment then the individuals like me sititng here at our computer making the videos. That means his students videos will turn out much better than ours. I only say this because last year I was in tech and everyone made amazing videos. We had cameras and a nice video maker system, and a green screen, and a lot of stuff that is frankly an unfair advantage in this. Once again I am not trying to sound rude. Im just trying to have a point come across.
Alex
Hey Alex, that’s a good point! Hmmm, what if I pony up some more prizes? And whoever submits a video can say what they used to create them? Kind of have two concurrent Book Trailer contests? One for “regular” trailers and another for “more advanced” ones? Does that sound fair?
Just to clarify, I am a school librarian and my students will be using mostly free websites like animoto.com, xtranormal.com, free software like windows photostory 3.0 and moviemaker… I wish I had that kind of great equipment at hand:) Thanks for giving us so much credit:)
Ya. That would be a lot more fair. Then there would be a fair advantage for the people who can only do regular trailers. Thanks for listening to my opinion about it. It really means a lot to me.
i think its also a good idea to have two parts… especially because homemade trailers take a lot more work and have less equipment than the school would.
heyy is it okay for me and my friend to work it together and just post it on my youtube acount or do we have to make separately? and sry to say this but i havent read ur book yet im still waiting at my local library but the thing is a lot of people are waiting in line and i dont think its in my local bookstore but i really would like to make this vid for u but the thing is i dont know wat its about and that i dont noe any quotes of urs and the ch 1 doent really help cuz usually they dont have quotes
Hi Bianca! Yes, you can definitely work together.
Wellllllll, you can use any of the stuff on the website you find. Like here: http://kimberlypauley.com/my-books/sucks-to-be-me/ And I guess maybe people could post some of their fav quotes? Maybe I’ll start a new post for that…
i think that would help thank you. i always loved making vid of clips and stuff. i even made one for my recent family reunion and my gandma loved it so yea i wanna get started and make one for ur book too
when does the contest end ??
Oh, ooops, just realized I had two different dates up. It ends Sept. 15th
oh ok thanks !
thanks for extending the deadline! the 15th now right?
I hope I can still enter! =] I’ll get righht to work on that soon! u know busy busy busy!
Aw man. Here I was all day pumped that it was ending tommorrow :C
Me to Ari, I was so excited. I spent all day yesterday ranting to my friends about this contest, and now i have to wait another 15 days
Aw, sorry Ari and Taylor! I had a few people ask.
At least you can take comfort in that everyone is going to get some type of prize no matter what! 
AWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You shouldn’t have done that!!!!! People have been waiting
ooo another 15 days? longer wait, but better for me so i don’t have to rush to put mine up! hopefully it’ll be up sooooooon! =]
Yay!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! Not another 15 days. I was soooo excied about it ending yesterday:(
can u pleaasseee extend the contest for one more week please? ore even until saturday please
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Nooooooo not anthor week please!!!!!!!!
NO PLEASE GOD NO IVE WAITED SO LONG!!!! PLEASE DONT DO THIS TO US!!! I DONT WANT TO SAY THIS BUT BIANCA LEARN A LITTLE THING CALLED TIME MANAGEMENT!!! PLEASE DONT DO THIS TO US!!!! PLEEEEEAAASE!!! IVE BEEN COUNTING DOWN AND PLEASE DONT MAKE ME HAVE TO GET ALL EXCITED ONLY TO BE DEFLATED ONCE AGAIN OH PLEASE GOD NO DONT DO THIS TO US!!!!! HAVENT WE ALREADY SUFFERED ENOUGH TORTURE OF WAITING!!!!! PLEASE DONT DO THIS I BEG OF YOU!!!!! A WEEK WOULD JUST BE ANOTHER STAB AS WE CRY OUT FOR YOU TO STOP!!!!
i really think that if you couldnt finish the video with two extensions that you wont be able to finish it at all. Not to be mean or anything. I mean there are people who have entered (like me and victoria and ari and cassandra) who have been waiting for like 3 months. I think everyone has had enough time.
taylor you put it perfectly thank you . i mean there has been like 2 or 3 months and like 3 extenchions and everyone who has entered has waited longgg enough not too be mean but i shouldnt take thatt long to put it togather . please not anthor week!
I HEAR YOU THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THANK YOU!!!! That is exactly how I feel.
i forgot that it got postponed already and i noe that its not nice to keep people waiting sorry k noe need to get mad at me
I second what Victoria and Cassandra said. Weve waited a while *and im sorry about my earlier post O.O* And we arent getting mad we are just frustrated and all we want is to find out whose won. You still have today so stop with the chatting on here and asking for a extension FINISH IT.
Yeh we arent mad. We just want to know who won. I agree with Ari why are you talking to us when you could be finishing it now!!
OMG I’M 2 LATE DARN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well this sucks :F
done!!! just in time even though its almost 2 in here but im done:D
btw the vid is by me and my friend:D
See! Now Im extremely glad. This means no extention which means I was correct in waking up this morning going OMG THE CONTEST ENDS TODAY!
Hey everybody! I’m out of town, but will post as soon as I get back home (I’m on pirated Internet right now…). We’re in Pigeon Forge, TN headed towards West Virginia and then home!
YAY contest ends today! So excited to hear the winners
Yeh me too!!!!!
Have you postponded the contest?
when are the winners going to be posted??
I do not know but I hope it is soon.
She said when shes back in town.
o,…,O
me and Junwan sent it to her, im sure, but here it is if anyone wants to see it! hope you like it. By the way:
Mina is Junwan, George is Aubrey, Raven is me(Wynter), Aubrey is Jake, Nathan is Mikey, Lorelai is Kiwi(kharie), Serena is Katie, Dad is Steve Howie( i think thats how you spell his name) and Mom is Martine. Uncle Mortie and Grandma Wolf are two random people form Google.
Wynter….U have issues….seriously….George is Cody.
Shut up Junwan Wan. I wasnt paying attention and was rushing
Hmm guys there aint no video. And if you sent it to her she would have posted it…..
Sorry, Ari, but i think she sent it on the day it was due or before and Kimberley wasnt home. So i wanted to post it here so you guys can see it.
=)
You missed it by like two days *rolls eyes*
me and my cousin uploaded our video on the 30th of sept..
so does that mean im not included in the contest?