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.

Trailer, or the book itself

A book trailer is an advertisement for the book. A film book is the book — narrated, cast, scored and cut to picture end to end, at about one minute of finished film per thousand words.

If a trailer is what you want, the Trailer Cutter here will build the beat sheet and the cut list from your own manuscript at no cost. If you want the whole work given a body, that is 12% of your word count, and the matching audio book edition rides with it at 33% of the film book production.

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 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.