You’ve done it — you’ve written the book, you’ve commissioned a beautiful cover, and you’re ready to start finding readers and selling copies. But wait! There’s that pesky little detail in the process of publishing your book: providing a book description. Figuring out how to frame your story and catch the eye of a future reader — or, say, a BookBub editor — can be a daunting challenge. But that’s why we’re here! Below are my best tips on how to write a compelling description for your book so it has a great chance of drawing in readers.
I’ve included screenshots of examples for reference — click on each image to read the book description in a new tab.
1. Keep your target audience and genre in mind
To attract the right readers to your book, you need to use language that really calls out to them. You can do this by purposefully keeping your specific genre in mind as you write your promotional copy.
If you’re writing fantasy, for example, that’s a great start — but what kind? Readers will look for you to tell them whether your book is an urban fantasy, a historical fantasy, an epic fantasy, or something else altogether. Don’t muddle the description with genre jargon that may overwhelm curious searchers, but do call out elements of the genre that you know readers like. What types of characters does your hypothetical fantasy story revolve around? Are they discovering their own magical abilities or embarking on an arduous quest? Highlighting the elements you love about your genre of choice will alert readers to your expertise and passion for the stories you’re writing and show them that they’ve found the book they’re looking for.
Another way to approach this task is to think of how readers looking for a book like yours might search online for relevant titles. What keywords and descriptors would they use? Make sure those are right there in your book description so no one has to scroll through pages of search results before they find your work.
You can see that this book description calls out two tropes (enemies-to-lovers romance and a female private eye) and a subgenre (“a hilarious paranormal mystery”) in the second line of text, making it easy for readers to immediately know what they’re looking at and whether or not it’s for them.
This tip works for nonfiction, too! This description immediately calls out what the book is (“an essential self-help guide”) along with a few keywords (“chronic pain” and “myofascial release”), so the reader can understand the book’s genre and contents at a quick glance.
2. Strike the right balance in your content
Beyond beckoning to genre readers with clear descriptors, you’ll also need to decide how much of your plot to include in your book description. This can be a real dilemma — include too little detail, and your book will seem bland and vague, with little to motivate your potential audience to buy it. Give away the whole thing, though, and no one will need to read the book to find out what happens!
To approach this conundrum, we suggest focusing your description on a couple of main hooks and a twist or two. A hook can be anything that makes your characters or your story unique. What’s so special about your main character? How did they land in their current situation? Look for the unexpected elements of your story and characters and highlight them just enough to pique readers’ interest, without explaining too much of the why or how. And don’t forget to add your twist: Hint at the part of the plot that’s going to send the whole story sideways. Most readers love to be surprised, so use your book description to promise them you’ll do just that if they pick up your book.
In this description, we’re drawn in with a couple of hooks that leave us asking questions: An injured teen is hiding (why?). She disappears from the hospital when the detective helps her (where does she go?). And when the detective searches for her, we get the twist: The Mafia wants the teenage girl dead. Without spoiling the plot for us, this description has given us enough information to be intrigued and ready for more. We’re still left wondering where the girl went and how she came to be pursued by such powerful enemies, but we know enough about the book to decide whether it’s what we want to read or not.
Here the author sets the scene: A female main character who doesn’t believe in love meets a nice guy looking for happily ever after. These are already effective hooks for a romance reader, but with the twist — an unnamed threat from the past resurfaces, putting the new relationship at risk — the reader has even greater incentive to buy the book to find out what happens next.
3. Get creative
Okay, so you’re telling readers what your book is. You’re giving them enough detail about the plot to get them intrigued. How else can you draw them in? Get creative with your words!
You can do this in all sorts of ways: Use humor to demonstrate a character’s personality. Employ evocative language to make the sentiment of the book clear. Highlight engaging quotes from trade publications or reader reviews to show that your book is unique and compelling. And above all, use a distinctive voice to make readers feel like they’re getting to know you and your work. What you’re saying in your book description is important, but how you say it can make all the difference to a potential reader.
Samantha Irby’s book description goes heavy on the humor so readers can get a sense of what the book itself will be like. Placing an evocative quote near the top of the text and pulling out humorous anecdotes from the book show readers clearly what to expect — and might get them chuckling before they even buy it.
Writing in the first person can be a creative and effective way to catch a reader’s attention. In this description, the narrator launches straight into a description of her past before outlining her current circumstances, pulling the reader into the story and perhaps even into rooting for her as she enters an interstellar war. We immediately get a feel for the tone of the book as a result of this strategy.
4. Include realistic and recognizable comps
A common practice in writing promotional copy for books is to compare the book or author to others in the genre that readers might already be familiar with. I’m not talking about comparing yourself to the genre’s greatest, most famous authors — but rather about finding the writers your future readers already flock to for their favorite books. If you’re not well acquainted with other authors writing in your lane, it’s time to do a little research!
Search for books in your genre with similar themes, plots, and covers to yours. Look for the authors with bigger ratings counts and followings and dive a little deeper. If the comparison stands up, consider mentioning that your book is great for fans of that author in your book description. It’s a helpful signal to readers that they’re on the right track when they’re looking for new content, and the familiar names will show you’re on top of trends in your subgenre.
This description smartly offers three relevant comps to other authors, so readers who recognize those names will understand that they’ve found a book in the same wheelhouse as an author they already know.
In this description, the book is compared not just to another author but to a popular series. This is a way to offer an even more specific clue to readers about the type of book you’re offering!
5. Use formatting to your advantage
Retailers allow you to use all kinds of formatting — from bolded and italic text to changing the font size — so it may be overwhelming to think about what you can and should do with your book description to make it stand out.
I think it’s great to keep it simple — too much formatting will make the text look scattered or hard to read — but using something like a simple bolded sentence at the top of your description can help catch a reader’s attention and draw them in, either by telling them about the book’s plot and genre or by putting forth a main hook. Use line breaks or paragraphs to make your text readable and approachable. Just remember, any formatting you use should make the description look clean, crisp, and easy to read.
Here, the author uses a single bolded sentence at the top of the description to tell the reader exactly what they’re getting in terms of author, plot, and genre.
Formatting can be especially helpful for descriptions of box sets. This author’s use of line breaks, bolded text, and italics helps potential readers easily see all the content they’re getting and parse out each book’s plot, a couple of reader quotes, and a discount offer. The description is long, but it’s broken up in a way that looks clear and easy to read.
6. Proofread!
Last but never least, all this hard work can go to naught if you don’t proofread. Don’t go to the trouble of researching, writing, and formatting your book description without making sure you get a couple of sets of trusted eyes on your work to make sure it’s free of typos, spelling and grammar errors, and incorrect formatting. Potential readers want to know they can trust you to write and edit well, and your book description is your first and best chance to prove that to them. Pay close attention to detail and have a friend or editor look over your copy before you publish it.
You’ve worked long and hard on your book, and you deserve for it to do as well as it possibly can with readers. Focusing your energy and attention on creating a stellar book description will only help you on your way to your goal of reaching your perfect audience and getting your book into their hands. I hope these tips have given you food for thought and will help you create an impactful, enticing book description that spurs readers to buy your book!
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