How to make a Book Trailer: Part I - The Music

Many remarked that they liked my movie trailer and wished they could do the same thing. Well, it's not hard. Even for the computer-challenged. I'm going to be using Windows Movie Maker because most have Windows based operating systems and this program is FREE.

If you don't have this program on your computer you can download it for FREE here: Windows XP and Windows VISTA. I trust CNET for downloading programs but you should have anti-virus software installed on your computer before downloading anything.

Once installed (and I'm not helping you install it) open the program. You should see a window like the one below - minus the song files. (click to enlarge)

(Click to enlarge)

Now, I'll start walking you through how to make a movie.

1. The first thing I would do when I start making a movie is save the file. That way, throughout the process all you need to do is press Ctrl-S to save it again. You don't want to lose all your hard work! Go to 'File' (#1 in the picture) on the menu bar and click 'Save Project As' and save it. I would save it as the same title as your book but whatever, it's your project.
2. Next, we're going to get music. I'll make this clear first: you can't just choose your favorite song off the radio. It's protected. You either need to make your own music or choose a song that is in the public domain. You have permission to use it. There are many websites out there where you can download this music. Just type this into google: public domain music
3. Once you have a song, you need to upload it to WMM (Windows movie maker). You do this by clicking Import --> Audio or Music on the left hand side bar (2). Find the song and press Insert. It will appear in your Imported Media (3).
4. Now, you have to add the song to your timeline. It's easy. Just drag the file into the timeline as it is pictured in (4). Make sure it's in the Audio/Music portion of the timeline (5).
5. Normally songs range from 3-5 minutes long and you don't want to make a book trailer that long. (Usually it's about 1-1.5 minutes in length.) SO, you're going to have to cut the song. Go either to the beginning or end of the song and click on the song in the timeline. You'll see a red arrow appear and just drag the song to the desired length. Easy!
6. Okay, now what if you want only a section of the song but it's in the middle. Well, you can movie the front and back arrows to the middle portion of the song you want or you can use the "SPLIT" button shown below (8) and split the song where you want. I would go with the first option because it's simpler. 

7. If you want two different portions of the same song, you can cut the first portion where you want it and then drag the song a second time into the timeline and find that portion. Easy again!
8. What if you want three different songs? Well, you can do that too. Just pull the three songs down to the timeline and then crop them to what portions you want. (see picture below)

Any questions?