You have $1,200, a cover file, and a launch date. You do not have a shot list, a color palette, or a vocabulary for camera movement. That is fine. What you need is not a creative treatment. What you need is a one-page brief that makes decisions before the editor opens the timeline.

The one-page brief is not a compromise. It is the correct format for this situation. A long treatment invites the editor to guess which parts matter. A one-page brief forces you to rank your priorities and gives the editor a bounded set of approved directions. It also gives you a document you can send to three editors for quotes, which is the only way to know whether your budget is realistic.

Write the brief before you hire anyone. If you write it after, you are describing a project that already exists in someone else’s head, and you will spend your revision rounds correcting assumptions instead of improving the cut.

Section 1: The logline and the emotional target

Two sentences. The first describes the book. The second describes what the viewer should feel by the final frame.

Bad: “A gripping literary thriller about memory and identity.”

Better: “A literary thriller about a forensic accountant who discovers her own name in a client’s ledger. By the last frame, the viewer should feel the specific unease of recognizing something that should not exist.”

The second version gives the editor a target. The first gives them a genre. Genre is not direction. If your logline could describe forty other books, it is not doing work in the brief.

Write the emotional target as a feeling, not an adjective. “Tense” is an adjective. “The feeling of reading a sentence twice because you misread it the first time” is a target. The editor can build toward a target. They cannot build toward a mood word.

Section 2: Tone and pacing references with timestamps

Name two or three existing trailers, films, or music videos. For each one, give a timestamp for the specific moment you mean. This is the single most useful thing you can put in the brief, and it is the thing most authors skip.

“Like the opening of that one trailer” is not an instruction. “The first eleven seconds of [trailer title], where the only sound is a room tone and a single line of dialogue” is an instruction. The editor can find that clip, watch those eleven seconds, and understand what you are asking for.

Use references for pacing, not for content. You are not asking the editor to recreate another book’s trailer. You are asking them to understand that you want a slow build, or a hard cut on the title, or a music drop at the two-thirds mark. Timestamps make that legible.

If you cannot name a reference, describe the pacing in seconds. “One shot held for eleven seconds before the first cut” is a usable instruction. “Fast-paced” is not. Numbers over adjectives, every time.

Section 3: Mandatory assets and their sources

List every asset you are providing and where it lives. The editor should not have to ask for the cover file. Put the link in the brief.

• Cover art: high-resolution file, layered if available, with the typeface identified.
• Author photo: high-resolution, with a note on whether it is approved for use.
• Typeface files: if the cover uses a licensed font, confirm whether the editor can use it in motion graphics or whether they need a substitute.
• Music: either a licensed track you are providing or a budget line for the editor to license one. Do not assume the editor has a music library you can use for free.
• Footage you already own: any video, animation, or stills you have rights to. Note the resolution and the rights status.

If you do not have an asset, say so. “No author photo available” is a constraint the editor can design around. A missing asset discovered in the first revision is a delay.

Section 4: Non-negotiables and flexibilities

This section prevents the editor from spending time on elements you will reject anyway. Separate the two lists clearly.

Non-negotiables are the things that must appear: the title, the release date, the preorder URL, the publisher logo, the cover art. These are not creative choices. They are delivery requirements.

Flexibilities are the things the editor may change: the order of shots, the music track, the transition style, the pacing of the middle section. Give the editor room here. If everything is a non-negotiable, you have not written a brief. You have written a shot list, and you should be editing the video yourself.

A useful test: if the editor changes this element, will I reject the cut? If yes, it is a non-negotiable. If no, it is a flexibility. Be honest. Most elements are flexibilities.

Section 5: Approval workflow and delivery specs

Define the process before the work starts. This protects your budget and the editor’s schedule.

• How many revision rounds are included? Two is common for a project this size. More than three usually means the brief was unclear.
• Who signs off? If you are co-authoring or working with a publisher, name one person who gives notes. Notes from three people are not notes. They are a committee.
• What counts as a final delivery format? Specify the aspect ratios you need (vertical for social, horizontal for your website), the file format, and the resolution.
• What is the delivery date? Give the editor a date that is at least one week before your launch, not the day before.

If you are working with a publisher, confirm whether the publisher’s marketing team needs to approve the cut. That approval step adds time. Put it in the brief so the editor can plan for it.

A hypothetical example: one-page brief for a literary thriller

This is an invented example, not a real project. It shows how each section would be filled in for a $1,500 trailer.

Logline: A forensic accountant finds her own name in a client’s ledger. The viewer should feel the unease of recognizing something that should not exist.

Emotional target: The feeling of reading a sentence twice because you misread it the first time.

References: The first eleven seconds of [trailer title], where the only sound is room tone and a single line of dialogue. The cut at 0:47 in [trailer title], where the music drops out for two seconds before the title card.

Assets: Cover art (link), author photo (link), typeface files (link), licensed music track (link). No footage owned.

Non-negotiables: Title, release date, preorder URL, cover art, publisher logo.

Flexibilities: Shot order, music track, transition style, pacing of the middle section.

Workflow: Two revision rounds. One approver. Delivery in vertical and horizontal. Final files due one week before launch.

That is one page. It gives the editor enough to quote the project accurately and enough to start the edit without a discovery call that costs you $150.

Common failure modes

Vague mood words. “Dark,” “moody,” “literary” are not directions. Replace them with a reference and a timestamp, or with a number of seconds.

Reference clips without timestamps. If you send a link to a three-minute trailer and say “like this,” the editor will guess which part you mean. They will guess wrong. Give the timestamp.

Missing delivery specs. If you do not specify vertical and horizontal, you will get one and need the other. That is a second project, not a revision.

No approval workflow. If you do not cap revision rounds, the project expands. If you do not name one approver, the project stalls. Both cost money.

Writing the brief after hiring. The brief is how you get accurate quotes. If you hire first, you are negotiating from a position of ignorance about scope.

What the brief is not

The brief is not a script. It is not a storyboard. It is not a substitute for the editor’s craft. It is a constraint document. Its job is to make the editor’s choices easier, not to make them for the editor.

If you find yourself writing camera angles, you are art-directing. Stop. Describe the feeling and the pacing. Let the editor choose the angle. That is what you are paying for.

For a broader look at why most book trailers fail as advertising, see Why Most Book Trailers Are Terrible and How to Fix Them. The brief is the first fix. It is the cheapest one, and it is the one you can write today.

FAQ

How long should the brief be? One page. If it is longer, you are writing a treatment. Cut it until it fits on one page. The constraint is the point.

What if I do not have any reference trailers? Use seconds. “One shot held for eleven seconds before the first cut” is a reference. You do not need to name another book’s trailer to describe pacing.

Should I include the budget in the brief? Yes. Put a range. If you have $1,500, say $1,200 to $1,800. The editor needs to know whether they can license music, hire a voice actor, or use stock footage. A brief without a budget produces a quote you cannot afford.

What if the editor asks for more direction? Give them a timestamped reference and a number. Do not give them a mood word. If they still ask, the brief is missing a non-negotiable or a flexibility. Add it and resend.

Do I need a contract? The brief is not a contract. It is a scope document. You still need a contract that covers payment, revision rounds, delivery formats, and rights. The brief makes the contract easier to write because the scope is already defined.