The shape that works

Open on the world, not on the author. The first two seconds decide whether the rest is watched at all, and a name means nothing to a stranger.

Then the turn: the thing that goes wrong, stated once. Then the stakes, in a single line. Then the title, held for a full two seconds with the cover on screen. Thirty seconds total is plenty; ninety is an indulgence.

Cut for silence as much as for sound. A held beat before the title reads as confidence; a wall of music reads as filler.

The specifications nobody tells you

Cut vertical 1080×1920 first, because that is where the audience is, then reframe to 1920×1080 for YouTube. Do not crop a horizontal cut into a vertical one — the composition dies.

Burn in captions. Most viewers watch muted, so a trailer whose promise lives only in the audio makes no promise at all.

Use licensed music, and keep the licence. A trailer taken down for audio claims is worse than no trailer.

What a book trailer costs

A Living Cover — your cover given motion, depth and firelight, working as trailer, storefront tile and first frame — is a flat $950 here.

A chosen, cut and mixed score is a flat $1,500. That fee buys selection, cutting and mixing of licensed music. This house does not claim original composition.

Elsewhere, quotes range absurdly because stock-footage slideshows and cinematic sequences are both sold as 'book trailers'. Ask what is original, what is licensed, and who cuts to the score.

Most wasted trailer money is spent before anyone films anything: on a passage that was never going to carry. A beat sheet — which lines land, how many seconds each holds, where the score drops out — costs nothing and settles it.

Trailer, or the book itself

A trailer exists to be posted: it lives on a storefront page, a social feed or an advertisement, and it is judged on whether a stranger stops scrolling. A film book exists to be finished, and is judged the way a film is judged.

A film book here is 12% of the manuscript word count for base production — a 90,000-word novel is $10,800 — with the matching audio book edition riding with it at 33% of the film book production. A 50% deposit begins a commissioned build; the balance falls due on delivery.

Most authors who commission a film book still want a trailer afterwards, because the film gives them the footage, the read and the score a trailer is cut from. Doing it in that order costs less than doing it twice.

The order of the work

1. 01Name the one promiseWrite the single thing this book promises a reader in one sentence. Anything that does not serve it is cut.
2. 02Write the four beatsWorld, turn, stakes, title. Four beats, thirty seconds, no more.
3. 03Choose licensed music firstPick the score before the visuals, because the music sets the cut. Keep the licence on file.
4. 04Cut vertical, then reframeBuild at 1080×1920 for social, then reframe a horizontal version for YouTube rather than cropping.
5. 05Burn in captionsAssume the sound is off. The promise must be legible without audio.
6. 06Hold the titleEnd on the cover and title for two full seconds of near-silence, so the name is what the viewer leaves with.

Asked and answered

How long should a book trailer be?

Thirty seconds. Sixty if the book truly needs it. Attention falls off a cliff after that, and a longer cut rarely says more.

Do book trailers actually sell books?

A trailer with one clear promise and burned-in captions earns clicks and shares. A montage of stock footage and adjectives does not. The cut is the whole difference.

What does a cinematic book trailer include?

Original motion, a cast voice where the passage needs one, and a score cut to picture rather than laid under it.

Is a film book the same as a book trailer?

No. A trailer is a short advertisement for a book. A film book is the complete book performed as film, at 12% of word count.

Can a trailer be cut from a film book?

Yes, and that is the cheaper order of work. A finished film book already contains the footage, the read and the score a trailer needs.

What is the best free book trailer maker?

The Trailer Cutter in this Workshop is free and asks for nothing: it builds the beat sheet, the cut list and the caption card from your own book.