With Facebook now allowing you to use Gifs on comments and posts, I thought it would be a good idea to cover how to make them, for all those inquisitive minds. Now, there are LOTS of ways to do this, so I'm going to cover the way that I did it, that I know works. But there will be other options out there, if this doesn't work for you.
Gifs are a great way to advertise your book, especially if you do them right. They have more 'Wow Factor' than a poster, but are also more fun to play around with. You can say more with a gif than a poster, with a surprise factor added in for good measure. Generally, my advise is to keep it simple and only change the text. That's what I'll be demonstrating today.
Also, refer to the post on Author Legalese, if you want to double-check copyright rules about pictures and text you'll be using.
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First, you'll need a picture. I suggest forking out the cash to buy one. You want top quality, but if you can't afford it, you can usually get a great image for free, if you look in the right places. Check out our How to Effectively Advertise Your Book post, for places to find images.
Once you have a picture you like, upload it into PicMonkey. Again, link in the above post. Here, you'll want to get the colours and effect however you want it. Me, I used an image that was already perfect (which was bought) so that I didn't have to play around with it.
Next, you want to add your text. Check out the examples below for an idea of what you can do. Once you've decided, add the first part of the text to your image. Find a font you like and either keep it consistent, for a seamless look, or change it up on purpose, for the second example.
You'll have to save the image, after adding each part of text, so that you then have a set of the same image with different text, as below, in my example:
In total, I have 5 images of the same picture just with variations of text.
Now, you upload into GifMaker.Me
When you click the link and go to GifMaker, you're automatically led to the page where you can begin making your gif, so there's no faffing about, trying to find the right button. It's super easy.
This part is really simple, once you know how to do it right. Make sure you've named your pictures above in the order you want them to appear. I went with a really simple 1-5. Then, click on this box here - Upload Images -, to select the images you want in your gif:
You can select all of them at once (example: all five) It's best to do them all at once, so that you don't get them in the wrong order. You can click and drag the images, to rearrange them, but if you get in a real mess, it may be better to remove them and start again.
Upload your pics and then, you'll get an example of what it will look like in the big white "Preview" box on the right. This is REALLY important, because you need to see how it looks before you hit "Create". Why? Because it might be too fast. Depending on how much text you have, you want your gif to be readable, so for a text like mine, I went for the 1650 milliseconds, under "Animation Speed". LEAVE the canvas size at 100%. That ensures that you don't have any white space, though it looks like you will, in the Preview box. That's because the preview box is set to a specific height and width, but your gif will take on the 100% size of the picture you upload. Which is why it's so important that you only use one image rather than many.
Now, you can move on. Here's Step Two:
Here, you can decide whether to leave your gif on repeat, so that it's always playing or only to play it once. Totally up to you.
The next neat little thing is that you can add a Music URL. Now, there are links to YouTube's audio library in the Advertising post, but I've yet to find a way of actually "listening" to my gif, that I added music to. If you find a way, let me know. I want to hear it. :)
Once you've done that, you're done. Click "Create GIF Animation" and it will pop up with a link to download it, just below these black buttons. It will automatically download to your Download folder, then all you have to do is rename and post it wherever you want. Voila!
Congrats! You now have your very own animated gif, to advertise your book. Or, you know, just for fun.
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Want to see how it's done? Mine was an experiment, but Elizabeth's was done by a professional, who knew what they were doing. See the difference between the two and how you can make your own, with no prior knowledge of how to do it. You can also play around with adding tags, like Elizabeth's has, for Amazon or a Title logo. What you add, is up to you.
This is my gif for Courage in the Kiss:
This is a gif that an author friend had made, that I really love, too. It's simple and effective:
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