Sample cover — replace with client asset
The Harbour Line
From$6.99
Book Trailer Production
A short, well-made video that gives your book something to say on platforms where static images get scrolled past.
- Price From $780 starting from
- Typical timeline 3–5 weeks
A book trailer earns its place for one practical reason: video travels further than a static image on nearly every social platform, and a book cover alone gives you very little to work with.
Good ones are short — thirty to sixty seconds — and do one thing well: establish the premise and the mood, then get out of the way. Bad ones try to summarise the plot, run two minutes, and use library music that undercuts everything.
We start from the same question as your cover: what does this book promise a reader? Then we build a script around that promise, storyboard it, and produce it using licensed footage and motion graphics, custom animation, or a straightforward filmed piece with you speaking to camera — which, for nonfiction and memoir, is often the most effective option of the three.
You receive the trailer in several aspect ratios, because a square post, a vertical story and a widescreen retail video are different crops, and one file forced into all three looks wrong everywhere. Captioned versions are included as standard, since most social video is watched with the sound off.
What you receive
Deliverables
Exactly what lands in your inbox, listed the same way it appears in your written scope.
- Concept and script development
- Storyboard approved before production begins
- Finished trailer, 30–60 seconds
- Widescreen, square and vertical versions
- Open-captioned and clean versions of each
- Licensed music and footage cleared for commercial use
- Thumbnail images for each platform
What we need from you
Requirements
Having these ready before we start is what keeps the timeline honest.
- Final cover artwork
- Book description and any quotes you want to feature
- For a filmed piece: your availability and a location
Production timelines are estimates. Actual schedules vary with manuscript length, revision rounds, author response time and third-party retailer processing.
How it works
Book Trailer Production, stage by stage
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1
Concept
We identify the single promise the trailer should make and build the idea around it.
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2
Script and storyboard
Both approved by you before any production spend happens.
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3
Production
Footage, animation or filming, depending on the route chosen.
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4
Edit and sound
Cut to length with licensed music, sound design and captions.
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5
Delivery
All aspect ratios and caption variants delivered together with thumbnails.
Examples
Browse the bookstore
Books this service has shaped
Sample catalog titles. Replace with a real portfolio of work you have permission to show before launch.
Sample cover — replace with client asset
The Second Tide
From$6.99
Sample cover — replace with client asset
The Evidence Gap
From$9.99
Sample cover — replace with client asset
Decision Debt
From$11.99
Cheaper as part of a package
Packages that commonly include book trailer production
If you need several services, a package is usually less than buying them individually.
Signature
Full production with a supported launch
Authors treating the book as a serious project — a developmental edit before the copyedit, a designed launch, and marketing activity in the weeks around publication.
From
$6,900
Placeholder price. $1,500 reserves your slot; balance invoiced against milestones.
- Developmental edit with a written structural report
- Editorial consultation call to discuss the report
- Cover design phase with unlimited concept exploration
- Category and comparable-title research pack
- Paperback, Hardcover with dust jacket, Reflowable eBook (EPUB) for major reading apps, Large-print paperback edition set up on request
- Up to four ISBNs assigned across editions
- Global print-on-demand across our full fulfilment network
- Timeline: 24–34 weeks from manuscript handover, depending on your revision time
Laureate
Our most complete publishing program
Authors publishing at the highest production standard — illustrated or complex books, audiobook and translation-ready assets, an author website, and a full year of marketing support.
From
$12,500
Placeholder price. $2,500 reserves your slot; balance invoiced against milestones.
- Manuscript assessment before any work is scoped
- Developmental edit with a written report and two consultation calls
- Cover design phase with unlimited exploration and photography direction
- Bespoke interior design for complex, illustrated or colour layouts
- Paperback and hardcover, Colour or premium-stock print run quoted separately, Reflowable eBook and fixed-layout eBook where the design requires it, Audiobook produced with a professional narrator, Print-ready assets prepared for translation licensing
- ISBNs assigned across every edition and format
- Global print-on-demand plus offset print coordination where suitable
- Timeline: 9–15 months from manuscript handover, scoped precisely after review
Directly, rarely. What they do is give you something worth posting, something a bookshop or festival can screen, and something to put on your website and retail listing. Treat it as an asset, not a campaign.
Yes, and for nonfiction, memoir and business books it usually works better than stock footage. Readers of those books are partly buying you.
Thirty to sixty seconds. Attention drops sharply after that, and a trailer that outstays its welcome does more harm than no trailer at all.
Often bought together
All services
Related services
Marketing
Social Media Marketing
A sustainable content plan and designed assets for the platforms where your readers actually are — not all of them.
Marketing
Book Marketing
A defined 90-day campaign of listing optimization, reader outreach and launch assets, reported on activity delivered.
Marketing
Author Branding
A consistent visual and verbal identity across everything with your name on it — because readers follow authors, not just books.
Talk it through
Not sure whether you need book trailer production?
Send us the manuscript. If this is not the service that would help your book most, we will tell you which one is.
Your manuscript stays confidential. We claim no rights in your work at any stage.