Why is it so hard to write your book’s description?
If a friend were to ask us to write her book description we’d do it in a heartbeat and it would be a darned good description. Right?
There’s a good reason why most of us have such difficulty writing our own.
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I’ve tried for months to write the description for my new book “Happy Every Day“, but for each version I write, I feel as though I didn’t say enough or I said too much.
Alas, this is normal.
The reality is the author is not usually the best person to write their own book’s description. As the author it’s difficult because we are too close to our own work.
A few authors can do it very well, by stepping away and detaching themselves to write a brief and clear description, hitting on all the necessary points and not go too far.
Through trial and error, I’ve learned a few things, such as:
How to Write The Best Book Description Ever
My book is non-fiction.
1) Hook the reader in the first sentence: Make the first sentence a standout headline that not only sums up the book enticingly and very quickly, but also compels the reader to read the rest of the description.
2) Make the description personal, clearly explain why anyone interested in this type of book needs to read it.
3) Create an emotional connection by describing how the book will make the potential reader feel after reading it or after putting to use the tips it provides.
4) Detail what the reader will get out of the book – what’s in it for the potential reader? If he or she is unhappy, will it make him or her happier than ever before? If so, why? Because the tips are practicable, doable and instantly useable? What else? List the benefits.
5) How? For example, everyone wants to be happy, so how does “Happy Every Day” achieve that goal?
As you can see there’s a lot to consider and yet, most of us do this without thinking about it when we write a review on Amazon for a book we love.
We go to the Amazon page of the book we just read, write a compelling headline in the subject field (because, admit it, we want people to read our reviews), and then we write what we thought of the book, usually hitting on the above 5 points without even considering that we are doing so.
Sounds easy. Unless it’s your own book.
So then what? Well, you can hire someone, or ask a good writer friend to write it, or maybe you do as I have and create a writing contest (over).
If you really want to write your own book’s description, then it’s a good idea to practice writing book descriptions or reviews for other authors and see how enticing you can make them.
What tips would you add to the 5 above for writing the best book description ever? Share in the comments.
