How to Make a Video Trailer for Your Book Cheaply

1. Create a free account with email or Google.

1. Add your book. Upload the cover and the blurb, or import them by ISBN, Amazon link or from your SelfPublishing.pro listing.

1. Choose the tone and narrator. There are 20 narrator voices, four of them British, and 23 narration languages. You can let the AI write the narration or type your own script.

1. Say where to buy. The closing card can point to Amazon, all retailers, "Coming soon" or your own website.

1. Steer the visuals if you need to. The optional "What must this trailer show?" field makes sure a key detail appears, and you can add up to two reference images. Illustrated books can use their own interior artwork.

1. Generate the free teaser. Most trailers finish within about 10 minutes, and you get an email when it is ready. The teaser is 20 seconds, watermarked, and available to download for 48 hours.

1. Pay only if you like it. "Keep and edit this trailer" turns that cut into a $29 Standard trailer, removes the watermark and opens Trailer Studio.

• Free: a 20-second cinematic teaser with two AI-filmed scenes and your cover at the start and end. Watermarked, one per account, kept for 48 hours.
• Standard, $29: about 30 seconds, 720p HD, no watermark, Trailer Studio editing, one minute of video re-filming, hosted for 30 days.
• Premium, $49: about 60 seconds with talking AI characters cast from your book (documentary-style scenes for idea-led non-fiction), two minutes of re-filming, priority processing, hosted for 90 days.

All trailers are 16:9 widescreen videos for websites, YouTube and most social platforms. Vertical and square files are not part of the current offer.

1. Start with the free teaser. Judge the narrator, music and look before you spend anything.

1. Write a short script. A 30-second trailer has room for about 60 to 80 spoken words: a hook, the stakes and the call to action. See how to write a book trailer script.

1. Fix it in the editor instead of starting again. In Trailer Studio, changes to the narration text, narrator, music, images and scene order are unlimited; only re-filming video uses the re-film allowance.

1. Buy the length you need. Standard covers most launch posts and retailer pages; Premium is for books where talking characters sell the story.

1. Download promptly. Standard trailers are kept for 30 days and Premium for 90, and you get a reminder about 24 hours before deletion.

A free or low-cost video editor with a trailer template costs little in cash, but you supply the parts: footage or images licensed for advertising, music licensed for promotional use, a narration recording, and the time to cut it all to length. It suits authors who enjoy editing or need a file in a particular shape, such as vertical video. For a side-by-side look at doing it yourself, an AI maker and a freelancer, see cheap alternatives to hiring a video editor.

See finished examples on the book trailer examples page.