How to Write a Book Description That Sells: 10 Tips
You want to reach readers, capture their interest, and get them to buy your book. But let’s face it: a bad book description will do you no favors.
Are you underachieving when it comes to writing a book description? Struggling to write a good one? Maybe you are, and you don’t know it. I get it. This isn’t easy!
Is your book description one giant paragraph of unformatted text? My eyes glaze over.
Boring? More than 300 words? Ya lost me.
Straight summary? It looks like a middle schooler’s book report.
This post will help you master the art of writing great book descriptions so you can wow readers and sell books.
If you want to write a great book description to appear on the book cover or jacket copy and on Amazon and other online retailers’ websites, look no further.
Whether you’re a self-published indie author writing your own book description, pitching a book to a traditional publisher, or working with a traditional publisher to refine a book description, this post can help you.
To write a great book description, do the following things:
Craft a winning book description that will attract and entice readers.
Reel them in with expertly-written copy.
1. Start with a hook.
The first paragraph should be one to two sentences, in bold. It might be a tagline (keynote) for the book. It might ask a question. One question. It might offer a few descriptive words.
2. Write short paragraphs with plenty of white space.
To keep people’s attention and avoid any confusion, write impactful prose and use short paragraphs, each separated by a blank line. You might have about four paragraphs.
Here is a book description formatting tool that will help you write a book description that can then be pasted into the Amazon KDP, Barnes & Noble Press, or Kobo self-publishing platforms (or used for your own purposes. (You can also use its built-in AI tool to provide suggestions on your description, but read the rest of my advice first!)
For a self-help or how-to book, you’ll follow the hook by setting up the problem the reader has and how that affects them, then offer the solution and the benefit(s) to the reader of reading this book. It’s OK to use a bullet list if appropriate.
For a narrative nonfiction book, include: significance, thesis, brief background, what’s special or unique about your book, and selling point(s) of the book including who the book is for. These can be given in any order. For guidance, look at bestselling books that are related to your book.
Along the way, be sure to include important keywords—words, phrases, terms, people, etc.—associated with your book that people will be searching for online.
Be sure to mention any special features, color images, or resources in the book.
An ideal word count for a book description is 200 to 300 words. A shorter version of the description can be used as text for the back cover of the book.
3. Entice with hints, questions, and allusions, but don’t give away the entire story.
Don’t think of the description as a summary; think of it as an advertisement.
If you give away too much of the story, why would anyone be intrigued?
4. Write clearly, with no wasted words.
Don’t be repetitive. Don’t be wordy. The sweet spot for a book description is about 250 words, but a word count of 200 to 300 words is “normal.” Anything longer than that might not be able to fit on the book cover or dust jacket flaps.
Some books have a longer version on retailers’ websites and a shorter version on the book cover. A book description for Amazon, for example, need not be exactly the same as what’s on the back of a paperback or hardback cover.
5. Use words that spark people’s emotions.
Write with colorful adjectives that spark feeling.
6. Write in the third person.
It’s best if the author isn’t speaking directly to the audience: “I wrote this book for readers like you . . .” In most cases, you shouldn’t write in the second-person: “You need this book. You want this book.”
Think of yourself telling a friend about another person’s book, and write the description from that perspective.
7. Avoid sweeping comparisons or claims.
Avoid comparing your book to other books or authors. Don’t make any claims or promises that can’t be backed up. You’ll also look like you’re trying too hard, you may turn off some readers, and if you trick someone into buying your book that isn’t a good fit, you may well get negative reviews as a result.
If you are a USA Today–bestselling author, for example, you can include that information in the book description. But don’t claim to be a bestseller or some bit hit until it’s already happened.
A book builds credibility with separate blurbs and reviews and a great author bio, not sweeping claims in its book description.
8. Remind the reader who the book is for.
“If you’ve ever wanted to [whatever], this book will help you [whatever].”
“The ultimate guide for adventure travelers, this book . . .”
9. Invite or tell the reader to buy.
Try something like, “Learn more now.” Or something more subtle like, “Join author [author’s name] on this exhilarating journey of [whatever].”
Such language may be prefaced by something like, “If you like [these three characteristics of this book], then you’ll love [this book].”
10. Draw on others’ helpful advice.
It can be difficult to write a book description if you have little experience with copywriting or publishing. Further help is at your fingertips if you’re self-publishing.
This book, geared toward fiction authors, gives helpful copywriting lessons. Meeks offers dozens of examples of blurbs and shows how to rework them more effectively.
Browse the book descriptions of the bestselling books in your genre. You’ll start to see patterns emerge.
Get the help of an editor. As part of my editing and book coaching services, I help clients, both self-published and traditionally published, write better descriptions. If you’re struggling, I feel your pain, and I’d love to help you.
Use Facebook or LinkedIn (or even Google Forms) to ask people what they like best or to give you feedback. It’s inexpensive and easy to set up and yields results in minutes.
Use the Kindlepreneur Book description generator tool I mentioned earlier. Not only does it help you format the description for use in Amazon KDP; it offers AI-based suggestions that some authors find helpful.
Buy one of these short books (note that both are geared toward fiction authors): Mastering Amazon Descriptions by Brian D. Meeks or How to Write a Sizzling Synopsis by Bryan Cohen. Alex Wong’s Amazon Book Description Hacks is another book worth reading.
This book will help you figure out which details about your book to include and which to leave out. Each chapter gives a specific bit of advice. There are exercises and recaps at the end of the book.
The book description for Bryan Cohen’s book gets it right and it incorporates many of the elements you’ve just read about:
The 315-word book description example above (from the paperback edition) does well in not going overboard with the formatting, but it needs a bullet list (or star in lieu of bullet points). (The Kindle version description has bullet points.)
The description seems a little too long; 315 words won’t easily fit on a book cover and it’s approaching the point where people’s eyes may begin to glaze over. To be fair, for a self-published book, the book description, say, on an Amazon page, doesn’t necessarily need to match the copy on the back cover or dust jacket.
Notice how Bryan writes in the second person in his book description? It works for that category. Not all nonfiction book descriptions will be written that way.
Equipped with this knowledge, I hope you’ll write a great book description—an irresistible book description—for your next book.
You got this!
P.S.: If you’re writing a book (or wanting to), head over to this page to get started with my emails full of helpful tips and resources for American nonfiction authors.