
Per Finished Minute
Find the full cost of a finished video.
Who it’s for: Solo creators, small production teams and channel owners deciding what to buy, what to outsource and what a sustainable publishing schedule costs.
Read Chapter 1 free →Printed and shipped by Lulu. Shipping and tax calculated at checkout.
The EPUB will be available through Greenlight Publishing. The audiobook will be available through Greenlight Publishing and Spotify.

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https://behindtheviewsguide.com/books/per-finished-minute/The first three chapters. In full.
Read Chapters 1–3 here, with every paragraph, table and worked example from the EPUB. No email address or purchase required.
- 01Container, Codec, BitrateFull chapter · 14 min read
- 02Four Tiers and a CutoffFull chapter · 16 min read
- 03The Room, Not the MicrophoneFull chapter · 16 min read
These chapters reproduce the current book edition. Source dates and the book’s wording are preserved.
There’s more beyond Chapter 3.
The complete edition includes all ten chapters, the introduction, epilogue and three appendices. Here’s where the investigation goes next.
- 04Renewal DatesIncluded in the complete edition
- 05The Hours Nobody InvoicesIncluded in the complete edition
- 06The Radio EditIncluded in the complete edition
- 07What an Editor CostsIncluded in the complete edition
- 08Two Revisions and a DeadlineIncluded in the complete edition
- 09The Thumbnail Is a FileIncluded in the complete edition
- 10Four TerabytesIncluded in the complete edition
Also included: introduction, epilogue & three appendices
- Introduction: The Only Requirements the Platform Publishes
- Epilogue
- Appendix A: Sources, With the Day Each One Was Read
- Appendix B: The Purchasing Protocol and the Nine-Question Seller Detector
- Appendix C: The Debunk Ledger
Printed and shipped by Lulu. Shipping and tax calculated at checkout.
The EPUB will be available through Greenlight Publishing. The audiobook will be available through Greenlight Publishing and Spotify.
Your first three chapters stay free. The illustrated paperback is available now; the EPUB will be added separately.
Inside Per Finished Minute
The camera has a price tag. Your research, revisions, file management and evening spent fixing the edit often do not. Per Finished Minute builds the full invoice for a YouTube video, including the work that disappears when the creator does it themselves.
The book examines recording equipment, the room and audio setup, software renewals, editing, thumbnails, storage and backup. It distinguishes platform delivery requirements from equipment recommendations and reads vendor prices with their dates and locations attached. Editing-rate sources are compared with attention to what each figure covers, rather than treating a single quoted rate as the cost of every project.
The central tool is a production record: log your hours, contractor invoices and allocated expenses, then divide the full cost by the finished work. A sequence of videos gives you evidence about where the time goes and which purchase or process change might help. Read it before expanding a setup or hiring for a task you have not yet measured; the useful budget begins with the work your channel actually requires.
This synopsis describes the book’s scope. The free lesson includes source links and the date its platform guidance was checked. Read our research method.
The cost per finished minute
An unpaid hour is still an hour the video consumed.