A book trailer is a short video made to introduce a book. It is a marketing asset rather than part of the book, and nothing in publishing requires one. The work of making one divides into two halves that pull in different directions: the creative half, which is script, footage, music, and captions, and the technical half, which is the shape, the length, and the file settings each platform expects of what you upload.
This guide gathers our posts on book trailers in one place: whether a trailer earns its place at all, what goes into making one, what each platform does with the file, and who owns the result. Each post answers a single question and stands on its own, so start wherever your question sits rather than at the top. We add to the guide as we cover more ground, so it is worth bookmarking.
One caveat: whether a trailer sells books is the opening question rather than the closing one, and our own post on it does not land on a confident yes. If you are weighing the time or the money, read that before any of the production detail.
Whether a trailer earns its place
- Do book trailers sell books: what can and cannot be claimed for them, without the sales pitch.
- Types of book trailer: the different things the word covers, and what each one costs you to make.
- Trailer or video ad: two videos with different jobs, and why one will not do the other’s work.
Making one
- Writing the script: what goes in, what to leave out, and how to open.
- Music you can legally use: where licensed music comes from, and what a license actually permits.
- Captions: how to add them, and why a trailer without them is working at a disadvantage.
- Free and low-cost tools: what the cheaper options give you and what they hold back.
The file each platform wants
- Length and aspect ratio by platform: the shape and duration each place expects.
- How long a trailer should be: the same question answered for the trailer itself rather than the platform.
- Resolution and export settings: what to set when the editing software asks.
- Thumbnails: which still a platform picks, and whether you can change it.
Sharing it, when, and what you may do with it
- Where to share it: the platforms worth the upload, and what each does with a video.
- Before or after launch: when to release it, and how its job changes on launch day.
- Who owns it: what you own when someone else makes it, and where you are allowed to use it.