Learning how to write a book description is the most important and daunting task that a writer faces. You’ve written the book, invested countless hours into its development and done everything else, so now you’re left with this enormous task of convincing people to read it with a short description.
The cover is designed to peak the curiosity of readers but the description is what hooks them into reading it.
How to Write a Book Description that Sells More Books
This is the most important element to marketing a book and it’s also the most difficult to master. There’s a reason copywriters make such good money!
The biggest problem is how authors view a book description. It’s not a summary of your book. It’s an advertisement. That’s the mindset you must have going into this daunting task. Once you begin to see the description as a marketing tool rather than a summary, it becomes must easier.
Keep Book Descriptions Short
A book description should never be longer than 250 words. You cannot afford to bog readers down with an overly-long book description. Plus, you also run the risk of including unnecessary plot points. So keep it at 250 words.
Always Write it In the Third Person
Even if the book is written in the first person, or even if it’s a biography, write the description in the third person. Remember, this is an advertisement for your book, not a summary.
Save Prose and Verbose for the Book Itself
A book description should be clean, simple, and straight-forward. There’s no need to overly describe things. In fact, since it’s an advertisement, you should focus more on actionable selling words than adjectives to describe the plot.
Always Include a Tagline
Your book description must include a tagline at the top, usually in bold font. This must hook the reader into reading the rest of the description. This tagline is usually the only thing people will see when browsing books so its purpose is to hook them into clicking to read the full description.
Power Words are Essential
Google the term “power words” to see what works best. These are words like “chilling” and “passion.” These words resonate well in book descriptions. Power words are also known as selling words and convince buyers to actually make a purchase.
It Takes Several Rewrites to Master a Book Description
You’re not going to get it right the first time. Just like your book draft, your first description will suck. Rewrite it several times.
One good strategy is to find a bestselling book from the same category as yours and pay attention to how they wrote their description. Then plug in the pieces that make your book interesting while maintaining the same format.
Practice makes perfect when learning how to write a book description so keep at it. Don’t give up!