In an attempt to improve my book trailer, I posted a link to it on a forum of authors who publish with Black Opal Books for feedback. I got feedback. Boy did I get feedback. All of it was constructive and presented in a positive way, making it much easier to digest. The most common complaint was that it moved too quickly. A related comment was that I had been too wordy. The combination of too many words passing by too quickly made reading difficult for many. I had to remind myself that these writers, as well as my likely readers and myself, are of the pre-Sesame Street generation and are more comfortable with video that doesn’t jump so quickly.

I distinctly recall returning to The States from my all-expenses-paid trip to the Far East courtesy of the taxpayers in 1968 and getting headaches from trying to watch Laugh In, a program that first appeared while I was overseas, because it jumped so quickly from one short sketch to another. But I digress.

Another frequent criticism was that I should have accompanied the video with music throughout. I searched around for relevant songs and sounds to find things I thought appropriate. I began with a clip of a woman wailing in hope a man would return her lament. None does. A necessary bit of silence accompanies my heroine, Tookie, studying sex books and practicing on a banana. A series of men, on whom she perfects her technique, is accompanied by a baritone singing, “You know what I like.”

Her clock ticks loudly as slides explain that she desperately desires a daughter as her fertility expires. A polka accompanies her search through even more men for a husband and slides that promote the book.

My severest critic likes it now. I hope you do, too. Click here to view and hear it.