Writing a Book Description

Share

For freely offered writing Resources go to RuthFordElward.com


WRITING A BOOK DESCRIPTION

To say that writing a book is a challenge would be an understatement. Writing a book is a huge commitment, and it doesn’t just end once the book has been finished. Publishing and Promoting a book can be just as challenging a task as actually writing the book.
In a way, promoting the book is just as important as writing it. After all, it doesn’t matter if the author wrote an incredible book if nobody knows that the book even exists.
Many are saying that because of online publication and the increase in self-publishing it is easier for new writers to get noticed. Most people who are saying this though aren’t actually writers themselves. It would be more accurate to say that thanks to the support of sites like Amazon and Smashwords, self-publication has now become a more viable option for many writers.
However, along with this has come the responsibility of promoting your work and an important part of that is creating your book description.


Because so many writers are self-publishing their works and putting it in the online marketplace, it means there’s that much more competition, so writers have to do everything they possibly can to make their book seem enticing.
In order not to get lost in the sea of other self-published books, the two things that will potentially draw in the reader are the book cover and arguably the more important, the book description.


Some will say, the reason the book cover isn’t quite as important is because the book cover mostly exists to draw the reader in so the potential reader will look at the book description. Very few readers will ever say they bought a book just because of the cover, instead saying something like the cover caught my eye, but the description on the back of the book made it sound interesting.
Despite the fact it is infinitely shorter then writing an actual book, many writers will struggle more with their book description than any other part of the book.





If you ask a writer about their book, they could probably talk for hours about their writing, the messages they were trying to convey, what they were thinking when they wrote certain pieces of dialog or characters. A book description doesn’t allow for any of this, with most descriptions being roughly around a mere 150 to 200 words, which boils down to two or three paragraphs.
Book descriptions have to be short and to the point, but at the same time they also have to capture the interest of the reader and not reveal too much.


One should consider only including major plot points, not anything that would be a sub-plot or a minor piece of the story, even if they are exciting. With such a limited word count, it is important to use powerful words that literally capture the attention of the reader and make the book enticing.
Don’t use the word ‘scary’ if you can use the more powerful word, ‘terrifying’. At the same time, not every single word can be a power word, otherwise they go from being powerful to just being average.
At most, there should be six to ten power words in the total description, and they should ideally be spaced at least a sentence apart.


Taking the time to create a book description that will enthrall and excite a reader can make or break a book sale. Think about it…it is the elevator pitch gone digital. You literally have 30-60 seconds to hook the reader and interest them in your work. Taking the time to get it right will pay off in the long run.