“The Fine Art of Writing Effective Book Descriptions”

If you ever post an ebook to Smashwords, you’ll be asked to write both a long and a short book description.  In effect, you’re writing a digital equivalent of jacket copy, something a browsing reader can take in at a glance and, along with an eye-catching cover, make a decision to download.  Thus writing an effective book description is critical to grabbing a browsing reader and pulling them in.  Book descriptions, especially the short ones, aren’t easy but they’re necessary and hugely important to your success as an indie (or any other type of) writer.

The opening book in my series Tales of the Quantum Corps is entitled Johnny Winger and the Serengeti Factor.  Nearly a thousand downloads have been done of this title.  Below is the long description originally uploaded to Smashwords:

Your buddy is a nanoscale robot named ANAD.  Your enemy is a programmable virus named Serengeti.  The Red Hammer cartel has created an addictive antidote to a man-made pandemic.  Looks like Quantum Corps has its hands full again.  Lieutenant John Winger leads his beleaguered nanotroopers into combat, on battlefields across the globe and inside the world of atoms and molecules.  First episode in the Tales of the Quantum Corps. 

Not too bad.  The purpose of any kind of description like this is to grab the reader’s attention, to intrigue the reader into learning more, maybe even to provoke the reader into thinking: “I should find out what this is about.  It may be important to me or it may be really entertaining.”   The long description above puts the reader right in the middle of the story immediately, gives you a serious problem and provides a path for resolving this problem, if only you’ll look a little closer.  You have a buddy.  You have an enemy.  You have a problem and you have a potential solution.  Moreover these elements aren’t what you’d necessarily expect…I mean, really, do you have any buddies who are a billionth of a meter tall?  What’s this all about?

Now look at the short book description:

First episode in the Tales of the Quantum Corps.  Lieutenant Johnny Winger leads his troopers into battle...but his troopers are robots the size of atoms.  How do you train and discipline soldiers like that?  Winger fights off an intelligent virus created by the Red Hammer cartel.  He has to learn new ways to command...and fast.

One thing to note is that Smashwords, and most platforms or publishers, enforces a word limit on your short description.  The limit is 400 words.  In about two or three sentences, you have to capture the essence of your story in such a way as to immediately grab a reader and yank him in.  Browsing readers have limited time and attention spans.  To grab the reader’s attention, you’ve got two things to work with: your cover and your short description.  That’s what the reader sees first.  Think first impressions matter?   Every reader on this planet judges a book by its cover…and its description.  If they’re not intrigued, they move on and you’ve lost a sale or a download. 

Let’s unpack my short description above.  You’ve got a name and a brief few words on what the book is about.  You’ve got a battle.  You’ve got soldiers, but they’re the size of atoms.  You’ve got a command problem: how do you train soldiers the size of atoms?  And you’ve got an adversary and thus a reason for needing to do this training.  The last sentence implies there is some kind of time limit or urgency to the whole affair. 

Good short descriptions are vital, even critical, to your success as an ebook author.  These descriptions should snag the reader—Hey!  Look at me…I’m different…pay attention to me!—and give them just a notion of why they should look closer.  If you do your work properly here, the reader can then delve more deeply into the title and read more…the digital equivalent of flipping through the pages or perusing the table of contents. 

One dictionary defines intrigue as a covert or underhanded scheme.  I think that’s accurate.  You’re trying to get past the reader’s natural defenses, his natural skepticism about something being a waste of time.  Readers don’t like to have their time wasted.  They’ve got shields up and it’s up to you as a book promoter to find a way to get past them.  A good book description will reach through those shields and connect with something that tells the reader: “Hey…pay attention…this could be important…or useful…or entertaining.”

Take care with your book descriptions.  Spend time on them.  A good one will pay dividends for a long time. 

The next post to The Word Shed comes on October 23.

See you then.

Phil B.