Guest Post: Only Scandal Will Do by Jenna Jaxon

Today's guest is Jenna Jaxon, author of Only Scandal Will Do. Jenna Jaxon is a multi-published author of historical and contemporary romance who has been reading and writing historical romance since she was a teenager. A romantic herself, Jenna has always loved a dark side to the genre, a twist, suspense, a surprise. She tries to incorporate all of these elements into her own writing.
Jenna lives in Virginia with her family and a small menagerie of pets. When not reading or writing, she indulges her passion for the theatre, working with local theatres as a director. She often feels she is directing her characters on their own private stage.
She has equated her writing to an addiction to chocolate, because once she starts she just can’t stop.

                                                    Website / Facebook

Take it away, Jenna!

                                               Do You Believe In Magic?
There is magic in the book world. At least, I consider it magic.
My recently released romance novel, Only Scandal Will Do, has gone through the extremely tough process of writing, editing, cover designing, publishing and promoting - necessary steps to a fantastic product that will reach the targeted audience. Hard work? Extremely. Fun? Not always, though very rewarding. And as part of that reward, I’ve been blessed with a bit of the magic that I’ve dreamed about since I began seeking publication.
Only Scandal Will Do has its own book trailer.
Some people may not think that’s a big deal, but being in theatre as well as a romance writer, I understand how valuable it is for audiences to be able to see the vision you have of your book. The book trailer is that very opportunity. Yes, in our writing we are admonished to “show, not tell,” which we do with varying levels of success. But nothing can take the place of the visual experience of a story unfolding before you with colorful images and stirring musical accompaniment. We live in a world that bombards us with television, movies, video games, and music videos. And while the written word is still one of our favorite forms of entertainment, we still thrill to see books we love come to life on the big screen.
And while that is not going to happen on a big scale for most of us authors, we can experience that magic on a small scale--with a book trailer.
I had the great good fortune to win the lottery--not for mega millions, but for a book trailer. The fantastically talented Danielle Fine Tweeted one day that the next two people to Tweet her back would receive a free book trailer. Guess who was one of those lucky people?
Thus began an arduous, but so wonderfully rewarding, experience of creating a bit of movie magic--starring my very own hero and heroine from Only Scandal Will Do. I’d seen some of Danielle’s previous trailers and so I knew mine would be something truly special and magical. We talked, via email, and I gave her some ideas about what I was looking for, filled out her questionnaire, and got to work squeezing my 93K novel down into 56 words and 13 images—one was repeated as a theme several times and one (the final image) was the novel’s cover.
The magic is that those few words and images captured the novel’s plot, mood, and intensity perfectly. The soundtrack, music by Kevin McLeod titled “Five Armies” is also absolutely ideal for the trailer. To sing Danielle’s praises once more, the only suggestion I had for her was that the music should have the same sound as the soundtrack to Pirates of the Caribbean. That was apparently enough feedback for her to find the perfect score. And her timing of images to music is flawless. I may be biased, but to me it’s mesmerizing.
As a promotional tool (which is its ultimate purpose), the trailer has been effective. It hasn’t had as many views on YouTube as I’d like (I think a million views would be nice LOL), but I’ve heard from people who have watched the trailer and said, “That made me want to buy the book.”
And that is probably the best magic of all.
Here’s the link to my trailer for Only Scandal Will Do. Take a look and experience the magic!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdak1uQCpcA

Thank you so much for coming, Jenna! The trailer is great!