Video boosts book sales. There, we’ve said it. Appropriately for a website dedicated to the love of book trailers, we’ve even said it in video, above.

But, because we’re all about trailers for books, here are some words. They should answer any questions you have about the trailers not covered in the video.

The steps to your own book trailer are simple:

1. Select the type of video you want from the three available in the description below and by browsing the video examples also on this page.

2. Send your video script or, if you want bookvideo.co.uk to write it, your ‘elevator pitch’ or one-page book synopsis.

3. Tell us your genre, any ideas you have, and anything else to help the video truly reflect your writing.

4. If you have a book cover, attach and send it to editor@bookvideo.co.uk, or a link to it (please don’t use the form on this page to send book covers).

5. Make payment, sit back and wait for your personalised book video link to be sent to you, typically within a week.

About that script … You’re a writer, so you probably know about making writing succinct. You’re probably not a video script writer, though, so might not know the need for added brevity and impact. Viewers don’t need sentences the way your readers do, because the video is designed to be a short, punchy summary perfect for the short attention spans of typical social media users. Think of them as sentence fragments, rather than full sentences. Video is about showing them, not telling them, so three to nine words for your text sections is ideal. Much more than that, and viewers are forced to become readers, and the impact of the video would be lost. If you want bookvideo.co.uk to take care of the script for you, we can do that for an extra £30, by summarising your synopsis or elevator pitch (that’s your book explained in one to three short sentences).

Types of video:

The Teaser. £85 – At least 25 seconds, with five text slots and four tailored video clips, selected soundtrack, plus closing clip with details of where readers can buy your book. Fully colour corrected and colour graded. Please add £30 to prices if you want us to write your script.

The Trailer. £160 – At least 45 seconds, with eight text slots and seven tailored video clips, selected soundtrack, media placeholder for your website (a placeholder is a selected image from your video, placed as a static image when the video’s not playing), plus closing clip with details of where readers can buy your book. Fully colour corrected and colour graded.

The Blockbuster. £385 – The full Hitchcock. You might even get the shower curtain scene with this version … At least one minute and 30 seconds of tailored footage and all the text slots you’ll need to showcase your plot, typically with some sound and video effects, selected soundtrack, media placeholder for your website, plus closing clip with details of where readers can buy your book. Fully colour corrected and colour graded.

What you’ll get:

A link to download a compressed, M4V version of your video (you’ll need a Gmail or Dropbox account, but they’re free and easy to create). One round of editing’s included, for anything you’d like changed.

You can use an M4V everywhere you’d use the better-known MP4. Compressed versions are indistinguishable in quality from the full versions but less than half the size, so much better to use.

What to do now:

Use the form at the bottom of this page for your video selection and message, or send from your own email address to editor@bookvideo.co.uk. That’s also the address to use for your book cover, which won’t download from this page, for web security reasons.

If you need book editing too, please note that bookvideo.co.uk founder Lee Dickinson is a Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP) advanced professional book editor at our sister website here. His CIEP page is here. Book editing includes savings of £20 (the £85 package), £40 (£160) and £100 (£385) on the three video packages, and means we’ll take care of the video script for you, free.