Creating a Fabulous Book Description

Writing a good book is awesome but it takes a great book description to get readers to click the buy button. If you are like most writers you may find it difficult to sum up your complete novel with only one or two paragraphs. There is an art to it and it should be taken very seriously. Your description is the only thing a reader has to tell them if your book is worth picking up, so make it count. I read books daily so one of the first things I do when asked to review a work is check out the Amazon book page. I like to see the cover, read the description to get a feel for how quickly I would want to read it for a review. Sadly enough people do a very poor job with their book description so I want to give a few tips from a readers point of view that may help.


Stay Away From the “And Then” 


If you’ve followed some of my previous articles you may notice that I talk about the writer who has the ‘and then’ syndrome. That means when you are writing you line up the sequences and write and then they went here and then they went there and then they stopped. This method drives me mad, it is very amateurish so avoid it at all cost. Take your time and think of a great summary that gives the readers just enough to follow but leave them wanting more. Your description is literary the “commercial” for your book. It is a marketing tool that can make or break you. You only have a small window of opportunity so use it wisely.


What is Your  Story About?


Of course you know what your story is about but can you sum it up in two sentences or less? That is a big challenge believe me I’ve tried. If you can narrow your book down to a few words it is really easy to narrow it down to a few paragraphs. I personally like writing my description like I am doing a book review. I give an overview and then end with a question. Ex: Lauren is a backstabbing home wrecker who finds love with her best friend Misha’s husband Tori. Will Misha discover their secret? That’s an example from my upcoming book Your Husband, My Man coming out this month. You get the jest of what the book is about and the question pulls you in enough to want to know if Misha in fact finds out about her husband cheating with her best friend. Learn how to narrow your story down into one to two sentences, once you master that you can easily do a paragraph.


Never Give Away to Much of your Plot


I have read book descriptions that literary tell the complete story. It leaves no surprise and it actually makes the reader feel like they don’t have to read it anymore. The game of writing a good book is to have it read by your target audience. One way to do that is by having a compelling book cover and the other half is pulling them in with the book description. Your book description should not give away the whole story line. You have to keep it a mystery. When you watch movie trailers it gives you what the movie is about by combining a few great lines, action scenes and a cliffhanger. Be descriptive by combining the beginning of your story or the drama a conflict and the cliffhanger (a question) Give your audience an image to hold on to. Reel them in with suspense and the drama of your story line.  Remember you only have one shot with grabbing your readers attention. Make every word count. If you like what you’ve read please hit the like button and don’t forget to subscribe for more Urban Fiction News, Reviews and Resources.

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Published on July 11, 2014 18:49
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