# AI Video for Publishers & authors: Deliverables, Pricing and Workflow

CarlosVideo18+ produces custom AI video for publishing houses, book authors, online magazines and newsletters: a 15-second chapter teaser at $94, a 30-60 second book trailer at $150, or a 60+ second launch clip at $250. Flat price, 7-day delivery, 2 revision rounds, full commercial rights, fictional characters only.

## What this vertical actually buys

Publishers and authors do not buy "content" in the abstract. They buy three specific artefacts, and each one has a job on the release calendar. The first is the book trailer, 30 to 60 seconds: the asset that sits at the top of the book page, runs as a Reel or TikTok, and gets embedded in retailer listings. Its job is to make a stranger stop scrolling and recognise a genre within three seconds. The second is the chapter teaser, 15 seconds: a single hook line, one atmosphere, one call to action, made to be posted weekly while a serialised story or a newsletter arc is running. The third is the launch clip, 60 seconds: pre-order date, cover reveal, quote card, availability line. It is the video you post once and then reuse in paid placements.

Those three artefacts map cleanly onto the feed formats this audience publishes to: Instagram Reels, TikTok, YouTube and the book's own landing page. Vertical and square masters are delivered so the same cut does not need re-framing per channel. You can see finished samples of this work on the [portfolio](https://carlosvideo18.shop/portfolio) page.

## What fits where: deliverable to tier

The table below is the whole pricing decision in one view. Length is the deciding factor, because it sets the number of scenes, the number of rendered shots and the amount of sound design. Nothing else changes between tiers: delivery is 7 days and 2 revision rounds are included on all three.

| Deliverable | Length | Tier | Price | Delivery | Revisions |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Chapter teaser for a serial or newsletter | 15 s | Base | $94 | 7 days | 2 rounds |
| Mood loop for a book page or email header | 10-12 s | Base | $94 | 7 days | 2 rounds |
| Book trailer, single mood, one story beat | 30-60 s | Standard | $150 | 7 days | 2 rounds |
| Launch clip with cover reveal and release date | 60 s | Standard | $150 | 7 days | 2 rounds |
| Trailer with several scenes and characters | 60+ s | Premium | $250 | 7 days | 2 rounds |
| Magazine or anthology promo across several stories | 60+ s | Premium | $250 | 7 days | 2 rounds |

A practical reading of the table: if the video exists to feed a weekly posting habit, buy Base. If it exists to sell a book during its launch window, buy Standard. If the brief mentions several characters, several locations or a narrative arc, buy Premium, because the extra length is doing narrative work rather than decorative work. Full tier definitions sit on the [pricing](https://carlosvideo18.shop/pricing) page.

## Why fictional generated characters suit publishing

A book trailer used to cost what a small shoot costs, because it required people in front of a camera. The moment you put a human face on a protagonist, three separate problems open at once: the model question, the rights question and the schedule question. Someone has to be cast. Someone has to sign a release. The shoot has to be booked, and the shoot has to happen inside the same season as the book launch, or the trailer arrives after the moment it was meant to serve.

Fictional generated characters close all three problems at the same time. A protagonist who only exists on the page can be rendered as a consistent fictional figure who is 18+, with no real person behind the likeness, so there is no casting step and no release paperwork. A cover with no film rights attached can still be visualised, because nothing on screen claims to be an adaptation of a real person. An out-of-print backlist title with no surviving photography can get a trailer anyway. The launch still lands in its own season.

There is a second, quieter advantage for this vertical. Readers argue about what a character looks like, and a trailer that shows one real face ends that argument for better or worse. A literary, atmospheric treatment built from mood, texture, place and typography keeps the character partly abstract, which is how book marketing has always worked. Style is chosen per genre: animation-forward for speculative and children's publishing, photoreal atmosphere for literary fiction, crime and memoir, a graphic typographic treatment for non-fiction and business titles.

## The 7-day workflow

Day 1 is the brief. You send the cover, the blurb, the release date, the target platforms and any manuscript excerpt you want quoted. If those materials are all you have, that is a complete brief. Day 2 is asset preparation: cover treatment, quote cards, typography, and a written scene list with a duration for every beat, so you can approve structure before any rendering happens. Day 3 is the style frame. One still frame defines the look, and production does not continue until it is signed off.

Days 4 and 5 are rendering, motion and sound design. Day 6 is your review, which opens the revision rounds: two rounds are included on every tier, and they are meant for real editorial changes, such as a different quote, a corrected release date or a different closing card. Day 7 is delivery: a master for each target platform, a captioned variant, and a clean version without text overlay for reuse. Payment is crypto only, USDT, BTC or ETH through Heleket, settled when the brief is confirmed; the process is described step by step in [how to pay for AI video with crypto](https://carlosvideo18.shop/blog/pay-for-ai-video-with-crypto).

## Compared with the usual alternatives

| Factor | Agency or freelance shoot | Self-serve AI tools | CarlosVideo18+ |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Cost model | Quoted per project after a call; crew, location and talent priced separately | Monthly subscription, billed whether you ship a video or not | Flat $94 / $150 / $250 per finished video |
| Casting and releases | Required; likeness releases and sometimes location permissions | Avoided, but you are left holding the tooling and the prompt work | Not required; all characters fictional and 18+ |
| In-house videographer | Needed to manage the shoot and the edit | Needed to learn the tool and cut the result | Not needed; production is done for you |
| Time to first cut | Depends on crew and location availability | Fast per clip, slow across a real campaign because you do the iteration | 7 days from brief, per video |
| Revisions | Often change orders, priced per round | Unlimited, but unpaid in time | 2 rounds included on all tiers |
| Commercial rights | Contracted per shoot; stock and talent terms stack | Check the licence tier; paid media sometimes needs an upgrade | Full commercial rights included |
| Fit for a single 15 s teaser | Rarely worth the setup cost | Workable, if you have an editor on staff | Base, $94, done in the same 7-day schedule |

The honest summary: a full shoot still wins when the brief demands real stunts, real locations or a real known person on camera. A self-serve tool still wins for a publishing team that already has someone editing every day and only needs raw clips. Custom production wins in the middle, which is exactly where most book launches sit: a finished, rights-clean video delivered on a fixed date for a fixed price.

## Before you order

Send the cover, the blurb and the release date, and state the target platforms. Say whether the video sells one title or a list. If you are unsure between two tiers, take the shorter deliverable first: a 15-second chapter teaser at $94 tells you quickly whether the visual direction fits your list, and the trailer at $150 then inherits a look you have already approved. More background on format choices lives in the [blog](https://carlosvideo18.shop/blog), and the wider decision library is on the [SEO pages](https://carlosvideo18.shop/seo) index.

**Ready to brief a video?** Flat $94 for 10-15 seconds, $150 for 30-60 seconds, $250 for 60+ seconds. 7-day delivery, 2 revision rounds, full commercial rights, fictional characters only, crypto only.

[Start your order at CarlosVideo18+](https://www.CarlosVideo18.shop/order)

## Frequently asked questions

### Can you make a video from the book cover and the blurb alone?

Yes. A cover, the blurb and a short list of mood words are enough to start production. If you also send manuscript excerpts, pull quotes or character sketches, we use them for dialogue cards and scene beats, but they are optional. For backlist titles where no photography survives, the cover is usually the only asset that exists, and that is workable.

### Who owns the rights to the finished video?

You do. Every tier ships with full commercial rights, so the video can run on Instagram Reels, TikTok, YouTube, the book's own page, retailer listings and paid placements. There is no separate licence to upgrade later and no per-view or per-seat condition attached to it.

### Do we need actors or models?

No. Every character we produce is fictional and generated, is 18+, and is never a real person. That removes casting, likeness releases and the model question from the project entirely, which matters most for fiction where the protagonist has never been depicted anywhere before.

### Which tier fits a 15-second chapter teaser?

Base at $94 covers 10-15 seconds: one hook line, one atmosphere, one call to action. A 30-60 second book trailer or a 60-second launch clip sits in Standard at $150. Anything past 60 seconds with several scenes or several characters goes to Premium at $250. Length is the deciding factor; everything else stays the same across tiers.

### How long does delivery take, and how many changes are included?

7 days on every tier, measured from the confirmed brief, with 2 revision rounds included. The scene list is approved on day 2, so structural changes happen before rendering, and revision rounds are used for editorial changes such as a different quote or a corrected release date.

### How do we pay, and does it suit an publishing department's process?

Payment is crypto only: USDT, BTC or ETH via Heleket. The price is flat per finished video, so there is no subscription, no seat licence and no stock-footage line item to reconcile. If your finance team needs a document trail, the transaction hash and the brief together serve as the record.