What self-published author (including this one) doesn’t want to write more powerful and intriguing book descriptions?

With that in mind, I bought Brian Meek’s 2019 book, Mastering Amazon Descriptions: An Author’s Guide, to help both you and me.

Book descriptions are super important, so you really want to get yours right.

Will this book help you? Here’s what you need to know.

More powerful and intriguing book descriptions convert

Meeks, who writes both fiction and nonfiction, explains that a book description that resonates with readers will help you convert more “looks” to “buys.”

You see the value in that, of course, especially if you’re paying for advertising.

If you’re running Amazon ads, you’ll spend less to get people to buy when your description convinces them to do so. If you’re not advertising, you’re selling more books than you would with a lackluster description.

Instruction is brief

The first few chapters explain the importance of a compelling description.

The true “here’s how to write more powerful and intriguing book descriptions” instruction is just a few pages long, starting with Chapter 4 and concluding at the end of Chapter 7. There isn’t a lot there, but there doesn’t need to be.

What’s in those few chapters is helpful. I would have liked to have seen a formula or template to go with it, but you can use what’s there to create your own.

Sample book descriptions and re-writes

The bulk of Mastering Amazon Descriptions is 40 before-and-after book descriptions. Meeks shares the original description, a short critique, and his re-write. “Read them all,” he advises, rather than flipping through to find those in your genre.

I read maybe the first 10, all for fiction. Then I started skimming to find nonfiction examples.

I found one.

One.

One nonfiction book description out of 40.

That doesn’t mean that nonfiction authors can’t learn from the instruction and the descriptions for novels – they can.

But it does mean that Meeks should include that detail in this book’s description because it’s important. If I bought this as a nonfiction author rather than as someone working to help authors identify helpful resources, I would have been disappointed. (And maybe even annoyed.)

Table of contents doesn’t help

Why didn’t I just check the table of contents to find the nonfiction examples, you ask?

I did.

But the chapters are numbered without titles. Not much help there, ya know?

And without chapter titles in the table of contents, you can’t identify the padding – and there’s a lot of it – without continuing to turn the page as you move through the book.

More fluff than a Rice Krispies treat

Speaking of fluff … I take notes when reading books I plan to review on this site. Here’s what I wrote for a couple of chapters:

• Chapter 29: Bizarre
• Chapter 37: What the what?
• Chapter 44: Huh?

I realized by the end of Chapter 29 that it was originally either a long Facebook group post or a blog post written while Meeks was attending an authors’ conference. It has nothing to do with writing compelling book descriptions.

Here’s a sample from the chapter: “To those who are not here in Las Vegas this week, we shall miss you.” It concludes with another sentence referencing “tonight.”

I think you can understand my confusion.

Skip those chapters.

Still, the fluff is obvious, which makes this book quite skimmable, in fact. You’ll see quickly which chapters are padding and which are relevant.

Kindle price is $9.99

I paid $9.99 for the Kindle version. That seems high for a book with so much filler text, but if it helps me sell more books, it will pay for itself.

For that price, though, I expected more tools and less random content.

And I’ll admit that sometimes I felt like I was being pranked. For example, right up front, Meeks tells us to copy and paste text promoting his book – and with his Amazon Associates link no less – into a Facebook post to see how many more likes we get than we usually do.

I mean, have people actually done that – recommended his book before they’ve even read it just because the author told them to?

Some might see that as clever … others might decide it’s insulting to the reader.

Do I recommend it?

Did I get $10 worth of value from this book?

I did.

Will you?

It will help, especially if you write fiction. You’re likely to see at least one before and after for your genre. If you’re like me, examples help provide clarity.

It will help nonfiction authors, too, but because there’s only one nonfiction example – and examples are the bulk of the book – it’s less useful to them.

This isn’t the wildly enthusiastic review I was hoping to write (especially because I laughed out loud during the first few pages). But I did learn from the book, and for that, I’m grateful.

What book would you like me to review next? Please tell us in a comment.

If you’re like most, you read the Amazon book description at the top of the page.

That’s because you’re looking for specific information. If you can’t find it, you go on to the next book in the search results.

3 common mistakes

That book description is the reader’s gateway to your book — it’s what convinces a reader that your book is the solution to their problem. And yet, so many authors and publishers slap up something quick and vague — using as few as two sentences sometimes — on the most valuable real estate on your Amazon’s sales page.

Is it time for you or your publisher to revisit your description to make sure it meets reader expectations? Here are three common mistakes you’ll want to look for in yours.

1. It doesn’t answer the question, “What is the book about?”

It seems obvious, but sometimes that question isn’t answered. Oh, the words are there, but they don’t say enough for a reader to make a decision. Sometimes, the author is too focused on appearing literary. In other cases, a nonfiction book is described in two sentences, but needs 10.

2. It doesn’t have enough information or what’s there isn’t helpful.

Sometimes it’s not clear if the book is fiction or a memoir. Some nonfiction book descriptions are misleading — they over-promise and the book under-delivers, so the reader is disappointed. Disappointment leads to negative reviews and bad word-of-mouth.

BookBub, the company that sells discounted books through targeted daily email newsletters, offers helpful information from its research in an article on its site, “How to improve your description copy to sell more ebooks.”

One key tip: Help readers recognize themselves in your description by using phrases such as, “Fans of cozy mysteries about cats with magical whiskers will love this book.”

With nonfiction, be clear, concrete, and specific. How many methods does the book offer for retiring before we’re 50, or how many illustrations are there in the “turn your trash into treasures” crafting book?  Use bullet points to detail what we’ll learn from reading it.

For both fiction and nonfiction, make sure you include the keywords that will help your book get discovered in a search.

3. It has so many spelling, grammar, or capitalization mistakes that the reader knows the book will be hard to read.

If reading the description makes book buyers wince, they will never make it through the book — and they know it. Errors in the book’s description indicate that the book will be full of them, too. If the writer can’t spell, can she write? Maybe, but mistakes are distracting and diminish the reader’s enjoyment.

What’s more, if the author doesn’t care enough to present a polished book description, will she care enough to make sure the facts in a nonfiction book are accurate?

There are so many books available. People don’t need to bother with books that signal upfront that the author didn’t care enough (or know how) to proofread the description. 

Fixing the problems

Fortunately, improving your book’s description isn’t hard. Try these ideas:

Study descriptions for books by mainstream publishers in your genre. The large, established publishers have this figured out. The best-sellers page for your category on Amazon is a good starting point, too. Click through on the books to read their descriptions and analyze the various elements. Are any of them missing from yours?

What about keywords? Did you incorporate them into your description so your book gets found there?

Here’s the description for one of my favorites, Gone Girl.

It gives you two key pieces of information quickly: You learn what the book’s about, and you know it’s well-written.

Add to cart. 

After you or your publisher have written yours, show it to a few people who know about your book. Ask them if the description is accurate, interesting, and compelling. Would it encourage them to buy the book? Do the same with a couple of people who aren’t familiar with the book, asking the same questions.

Pay an editor to proofread and polish your description. (And, if you haven’t done so, pay somebody to edit your book, too!)

Your book’s description on any online retail site should be working hard to sell the book for you. If it isn’t, fire it and get a new one.

Learn more about how to optimize your book’s Amazon page in the Build Book Buzz training program, “How to Sell More Books on Amazon.” Amazon sells 75 percent of the books purchased online, so you can’t afford to make mistakes there.

What catches your attention in an online book description?