A few months ago, App Sumo ran a deal for a year's subscription to the Pro plan for an online video creation tool called Lumen5. I signed up, but hadn't had the time to play around with it until now.

Since I'm running a week-long sale for my ebook bundle The SSU Books 1-3, I thought I'd try Lumen5 and create a short book trailer.

I watched a YouTube video that explained the basics, then dove right in.

First, I chose the option to copy and paste in my own text. I wanted to create a script that was different from the book description.

Once I had typed in my text, Lumen5 took the first line and pulled what it thought was an appropriate image from its library. In this case, it was a hand holding a match because, or so I'm guessing, the first line had the word Strike in it from The Surgical Strike Unit. The image with the text superimposed on it then appeared as the first video frame in the video builder.

I simply had to click on each line of text to get a new frame.

Since none of the images that Lumen5 chose matched my vision, I searched their library of Creative Commons images until I found ones I liked. If I hadn't found any, I was prepared to search Deposit Photos, where I have an account.

Then I searched their music archive, using the mood filter to bring up only dramatic music. I found the music I used within a couple of clicks.

Lumen5 has limited options for customization, but I did play around with the size and position of the text, and the color of the highlighted text. I also changed which words were highlighted. Finally, I increased the speed of the transition between frames.

I uploaded my book cover, added frames and chose images for my sales text at the end, then uploaded my website header and typed in the applicable URL for the closing frame. 

I didn't time myself, but I'm pretty sure this took less than half an hour to complete. 

I LOVE the way it came out. 

What do you think?