What to send a studio: a book trailer brief checklist

A book trailer brief is the short document you send a video studio before production starts: what the book is, who it is for, what the trailer must do, and the files and decisions the studio needs to make it. A clear brief is the single biggest factor you control in how fast a trailer is delivered and how many revision rounds it takes to get right.

Most of what you find when you search for this topic is either a do-it-yourself guide for authors or a generic video brief template written for corporate marketing. Neither fits a publisher, publishing service company or agency that orders trailers for many titles. This checklist does: it lists exactly what to send, explains why each item matters, and ends with a template you can copy into your own intake process.

Why the brief matters more than the budget

When a trailer goes wrong, the cause is rarely the editing. It is usually a missing decision: nobody said whether the trailer should feel hopeful or dark, the studio guessed the wrong audience, the author expected their own voice on the narration, or the vertical version was requested after the master was finished.

Every one of those problems is cheap to fix in a brief and expensive to fix in a rough cut. A good brief turns revision rounds into polishing instead of rework, and it lets you give the author a confident delivery date.

The book trailer brief checklist

Group the brief into five parts. You do not need long answers; you need clear ones.

1. The book

• Title, subtitle and author name exactly as they should appear on screen, including any series name and number.
• Genre and sub-genre. "Thriller" is useful; "domestic psychological thriller" is better, because it tells the studio which visual and musical conventions readers expect.
• A one-line hook and a short synopsis. One sentence that sells the book, then a paragraph or two on the premise. The trailer sells the premise, not the plot, so the studio does not need every twist.
• The manuscript or a sample, if the studio is writing the script. Mark the two or three scenes the author considers most visual.
• Release date and formats (print, ebook, audiobook), so the end card and call to action are right.

2. The audience and the goal

• Who the reader is. Age range, the books they already read, and what they come to this genre for.
• Comparable titles. Two or three books readers of this title also enjoy. They tell the studio more about tone than any adjective.
• What the trailer must do. Build pre-order interest, support a launch, revive a backlist title, help pitch the book to events or retailers. One primary goal is better than four.
• The call to action. "Pre-order now", "Available everywhere", a website, a retailer, or simply the release date.

3. Creative direction

• Tone in three words. For example "tense, intimate, hopeful". Ask the author for these; they are surprisingly revealing.
• Visual references. Links to trailers, films or images the author likes, and a note on what they like about each. Add anything they do not want.
• Style. AI-generated cinematic scenes, animation, stock footage, kinetic text, or a mix. If you are unsure, our comparison of AI and traditional book trailers helps you decide.
• Characters. Descriptions of the main characters' age, appearance and clothing, especially if readers already know them from the cover or earlier books in a series.
• Voice and text. Narration or on-screen text only? Male or female voice, accent, age? Some authors want to narrate themselves; say so now, because it changes the recording plan.
• Music. A mood, a reference track to describe the feeling, or a licensed track you already own. Do not send commercial songs you do not hold the rights to.

4. Assets and brand

• Cover file in high resolution, plus the cover without text if the designer can provide it. A text-free version makes it much easier to animate the cover cleanly.
• Interior art or illustrations for illustrated books, with the illustrator's permission to adapt them.
• Author photo and logos only if they should appear. If you resell under your own brand, state whether your company logo goes on the end card or nothing does.
• Review quotes or award lines the author is allowed to use, with the exact wording and source.
• Fonts and brand colours, if the series or your own brand has them.

5. Delivery and approvals

• Runtime. Most main trailers work at around one minute. If you are unsure, see how long a book trailer should be.
• Formats and cut-downs. List every version you need now: 16:9 master, 9:16 vertical, 1:1 square, 15-second cut-down, versions with and without subtitles. Asking at the start costs less than asking at the end.
• Deadline and why. "Launch day is 3 March, we want the trailer two weeks before" gives the studio a real target and room for review.
• One approver. Name the single person on your side who collects feedback from the author and sends one consolidated list per round.
• Where the video will be used, so the studio can check that music and footage licences cover it, including paid ads.

Information you do not need to send

A long brief is not a better brief. The studio does not need the full marketing plan, the author's biography, every character in the book, or a shot-by-shot script unless you have already written one. Too much material buries the decisions that matter. If a detail does not change what the viewer sees or hears, leave it out.

Equally, do not send a finished script written by the author without warning the studio. Author-written scripts are often summaries of the plot, which run long and give away too much. It is better to send it as a reference and let the studio adapt it, then approve the result.

Common brief mistakes, and how to avoid them

Mistake	What happens	Fix
Tone left open	The first cut feels wrong and the round is spent on mood, not detail	Three tone words and two reference trailers
Cover sent as a small web image	Blurry end card, or a delay while a better file is found	Send the print-quality cover and a text-free version
Vertical version requested late	Shots framed for widescreen do not crop cleanly	List every aspect ratio in the brief
Several people give feedback separately	Contradictory notes and extra rounds	One approver, one consolidated list per round
Spoilers in the synopsis marked as "must include"	A trailer that gives the story away	Mark what must stay secret

A copy-ready book trailer brief template

Paste this into your intake form or a shared document, and ask the author to fill in their part before you send it on.

Book: title, subtitle, author name, series, genre, release date, formats.
Hook: one sentence. Synopsis: one or two paragraphs. Keep secret: twists not to reveal.
Reader: age range, comparable titles. Goal: one primary goal. Call to action: exact wording.
Tone: three words. References: links and what you like about each. Avoid: anything off-limits.
Style: AI cinematic, animation, kinetic text or mix. Voice: narration or text only, voice preference. Music: mood.
Assets: cover (with and without text), art, quotes, logos, fonts.
Delivery: runtime, aspect ratios, cut-downs, subtitles, deadline, where it will be used.
Approver: name and email of the one person who signs off.

If you sell trailers as part of author packages, collect these answers at the moment the author buys. It keeps the project moving, and it shows the author a professional process from the first step.

What a good studio does with your brief

A brief is the start of a conversation, not a contract for every frame. A good studio reads it, comes back with questions where something is unclear, and turns it into a script for approval before any production starts. That script stage is where the author should comment most, because changes there cost nothing. Our production process shows where each approval sits.

Send your book trailer brief to MOVA

MOVA is a white-label video studio with a 100+ person team, producing book trailers for publishers, publishing service companies and agencies worldwide. We sign an NDA before the first file, deliver without MOVA branding and never contact your clients. A one-minute book trailer starts at US$300 per finished minute, is scheduled for five business days and includes three revision rounds.

See examples on our book trailer production page, or start a project with whatever you have, even just a cover and a synopsis, and we will tell you what else we need.