A book trailer is not a film of the book, which is fortunate, because that would be expensive and worse than the book. It is sixty seconds of mood, promise and voice — the feeling a reader is buying — assembled from type, image, sound and pacing rather than from footage.
What you receive
- A 45–90 second trailer cut to the book’s tone, from atmospheric to comic to tense.
- A script built from the manuscript: a hook, a turn, a promise and the title.
- Professional voiceover where the trailer needs narration, with a choice of two reads.
- Licensed music and sound design, matched to genre conventions without copying them.
- Deliveries for YouTube, Instagram, Amazon’s author page and your site, plus captioned and silent versions.
How it is made
- Watch the market. Two or three trailers in the genre that work, and why — pacing, restraint, where the title lands.
- Write the script in beats, with a word count that fits the runtime rather than a paragraph that has to be squeezed.
- Build the visuals from licensed footage, illustration or typography, graded to one consistent look.
- Mix and cut, then test on a phone: if the title is not readable at that size, the trailer is not finished.
The mistake that ruins most book trailers
Trying to explain the plot. A trailer has time for one idea and one feeling. The books that sell through video are the ones where the viewer finishes and knows exactly what kind of experience is waiting, not what happens in chapter nine. We cut anything that exists to inform rather than to promise, which usually means cutting half of the first draft.
Genre expectations
Romance trailers run warm, with faces, light and a slow build to a single line. Thrillers run cold and rhythmic, with short cuts and negative space. Fantasy leans on scale and a single image of a world. Non-fiction trailers are essentially a spoken argument with a strong quote and a credential. Matching the grammar of the genre matters more than the budget, because a viewer decides within four seconds whether this is their kind of book.
The first frame is the whole trailer
On every platform the trailer appears as a still frame with a play button, and that frame decides whether it is watched. We design the opening image deliberately — the cover, a line of type, one figure in weather — then check it as a thumbnail at 200 pixels. A trailer that opens on a fade from black is a trailer nobody sees, however good minute two turns out to be. This is the difference between a video that exists and a video that sells.
Pricing
| Tier | Scope | Price | Was | You save |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | 1 trailer | $70 | $80 | |
| Professional | 3 trailers | $200 | $200 | |
| Bulk / Authority | 5 trailers | $300 | $300 |
Frequent questions
Can I supply my own footage?
Yes, and if it is high resolution it usually improves the result. Phone footage rarely holds up on a large screen.
How many revisions are included?
Two rounds on the cut. Script changes after recording are quoted separately.
Will it work as a paid ad?
Yes — a shorter cut of the same trailer is included for that purpose, with the hook moved to the front.
Commission a trailer — send the manuscript, cover and the tone you want.