A trailer on its own rarely makes someone buy a book. Short video as a channel does sell books, and a trailer is the raw material for it. That is the honest summary of the evidence.
The evidence
- In an older reader survey (2012, about 100 readers), only 15.5% had bought a book because of a trailer alone, but 45% said a trailer had influenced a purchase, usually when they were already undecided.
- Circana reported about 59 million US print books sold in 2024 by authors linked to BookTok.
- TikTok reported more than 50 million BookTok-recommended books sold in Europe in 2025.
- Amazon has offered video ads to self-published authors since late 2023.
What this means for you
Treat a trailer as a set of video assets, not a single launch event. Post the full trailer once, then cut it into short moments: a line of dialogue, a character reveal, the closing question. Use the 15-second version in ads and test it against your cover image.
Measure it
- Run the same ad budget with the trailer and with a static image for a week each.
- Compare cost per click to your Amazon page, not views.
- Watch your page's sales on the days the trailer clips are posted.
We will publish real results from founding authors here as they come in. If you'd like to be one of them, see the founding author offer.