To craft a strong book description, you must focus on both the structure and the content of your copy.
These best practices are designed to optimize book descriptive copy both for machines (e.g., Google and other search engines) and humans (potential readers considering the book) in general search and at retail. This combines SEO and book marketing best practices to create a description that will help your book rank in search for relevant queries and will help convince readers to buy the book.
Start with a bold headline.
You have just a few precious moments of a consumer’s time and attention to get them to “read more.” This is a straightforward “elevator pitch” is the most critical component of your description for search engine optimization and discovery.
The first sentence or two of your book description (approximately 25 words or 200 characters) , and should include
- The headline should be ~25 words, up to a maximum of 200 characters in order to optimize display across devices.
- It should be formatted in bold and separated by a hard paragraph break to visually separate it from the rest of the description
- Include important keywords, topics, and phrases to align with consumer search. You want to include the high-level topics and themes that readers are most likely to be looking for.
- Focus less on the plot or story and more on what the product is and why someone might want to buy it. (“A fast-paced crime thriller set in Sweden from the award-winning author of ____” is better than “It was a dark and stormy night...”.)
Provide a clear, detailed description.
Remember that potential buyers can’t pick up the book and see it online. If a potential buyer is reading your expanded description, you want to give them all the information they need to make a decision.
- Include one or more paragraphs with rich detail about the book (~100-400 words). Typically, the more information you can provide the better.
- Detail the notable topics, themes, plot elements, and features of the book.
- Who or what is the book about?
- Where is the story set?
- What happens?
- Weave in relevant consumer terms and phrases if they fit naturally and as appropriate.
- Paragraph breaks and other structural elements like bold and italic fonts and bullet points all help to provide emphasis and highlight key aspects of your book. (Read more on HTML formatting.)
Make the sale.
Conclude the description with a strong close. Emphasize the value, who the book is for, and why someone should buy.
- Close with a short paragraph (~50-100 words), emphasizing the value and brand promise.
- Who the book is for?
- Why this book?
- Good comps (“for fans of…”), review quotes (“the book the NY Times called…”), relevant awards (“from the Newbery Medal winning author of…”), and audience guidance (“great gift for DIYers”) are compelling and persuasive ways to drive home a sale.
Overall recommended copy length is 225 – 750 words. Some titles will lend themselves more readily to longer copy than others. The point is to keep the beginning 1-2 sentence relatively short and to the point, and then provide as much detail as possible in the expository section – weaving in relevant consumer semantics and key descriptive elements throughout the copy.
Note: Marketing Insights only assesses the length and structure of your book descriptions, not keyword usage or quality of the description itself.
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