Your description appears on your book's Amazon detail page and is often a reader's first experience with the content of your book. A well-written book description is important for enticing readers. Think of your description like the text on the back cover of a paperback or the inside flap of a hardcover book. This is often the first impression readers have of your story's content and your writing style.

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How to write your book description

We recommend following these three simple steps for writing an effective book description. Make it simple, compelling, and professional.

	Simple Describe the main plot, theme, or idea only. Avoid details that may overwhelm or confuse a reader who’s only taking a second or two to decide whether to find out more about your book. Also, keep your language short and simple. Aim for a 150-word paragraph with sentences that are easy to scan.
	Compelling Avoiding overwhelming and confusing details will help make your description compelling, but also consider how to grab readers' attention. For example, write a first sentence that draws them in. This sentence may be a reader's first impression, so make it special. Also, set expectations by showing what genre your book belongs to.
	Professional Again, this might be your reader's first impression, so make sure your description is polished--no misspellings or grammatical errors. It may be hard to edit a text you've looked at several times, so show it to others to get a fresh set of eyes.

HTML in your description

Because your book description will show on the Amazon website, it can include formatting such a line breaks, bolding, and italicization using Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). HTML uses pairs of angle-bracketed tags to provide display information text they surround.

HTML Tag	Description	Usage	Example
<br>	Creates a line break.	This is how you add a line break after a sentence.<br> If you want a gap (empty line) between your sentences, add two line breaks:<br><br>	This sentence has one line break after it. This sentence has two. See space created above this sentence.
<p></p>	Defines a paragraph of text. Creates a line break at the end of the enclosed text.	<p>This indicates the start of a paragraph, and there would be a line break after the closing HTML tag.</p>	Start of the paragraph with a line break here. Next sentence after “p” tag.
<b><b>	Formats enclosed text as bold.	This is how you <b>bold</b> a word.	This is how you bold a word.
<em></em>	Emphasizes a phrase. Generally formatted as italic.	This is how you <em>emphasize a phrase</em>.	This is how you emphasize a phrase.
<i></i>	Formats enclosed text as italic.	This is how you <i>italicize</i> a word.	This is how you italicize a word.
<u></u>	Formats enclosed text as underlined.	This is how you <u>underline</u> a word.	This is how you underline a word.
<h4></h4> to <h6></h6>	Formats enclosed text as a section heading: <h4> (largest) through <h6> (smallest). <h1>, <h2>, and <h3> are not supported.	<h4>This would be formatted as largest header.</h4> <h5>This would be formatted as medium header.</h5> <h6>This would be formatted as smallest header.</h6>	Large Header Medium Header Small Header
<ol>	Creates a numbered list from enclosed items, each of which is identified by a <li> tag.	Here's how you create a numbered list: <ol> <li>List Item 1</li> <li>List Item 2</li> </ol>	Numbered List Item Numbered List Item Numbered List Item
<ul>	Creates a bulleted list from enclosed items, each of which is identified by a <li> tag.	Here's how you create a bulleted list: <ul> <li>List Item 1</li> <li>List Item 2</li> </ul>	Bulleted List Item Bulleted List Item Bulleted List Item
<li>	Identifies an item in an ordered (numbered) or unordered (bulleted) list.	See above for how to incorporate this tag into your lists.	N/A

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Finished example description with HTML

Here is what a description looks like in your KDP account with HTML:

<strong>They watched a man die. </strong><br><br> It’s been many years since Gentry and Rosling visited their hometown. It’s been even longer since they spoke to each other. When they were only children, they witnessed a murder. The pain of that day drove a wedge between them and has haunted them ever since. <br> <p>Now, Gentry is the pastor of the local church—the same church where Rosling has taken over her dying grandmother’s duties. Together again in their small Southern town, the two adults wrestle with their faith. Gentry’s faith is strong, while Rosling struggles to believe at all. As they come face-to-face with the pain of their childhoods, they must learn how to be whole again, even when healing seems impossible. </p> <i>Heartbreaking and inspirational, The Thing about Mustard Seeds is a tale of redemption in the face of insurmountable odds. </i>

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This is how it will look on the Amazon detail page:

They watched a man die.

It’s been many years since Gentry and Rosling visited their hometown. It’s been even longer since they spoke to each other. When they were only children, they witnessed a murder. The pain of that day drove a wedge between them and has haunted them ever since.

Now, Gentry is the pastor of the local church—the same church where Rosling has taken over her dying grandmother’s duties. Together again in their small Southern town, the two adults wrestle with their faith. Gentry’s faith is strong, while Rosling struggles to believe at all. As they come face-to-face with the pain of their childhoods, they must learn how to be whole again, even when healing seems impossible.

Heartbreaking and inspirational, The Thing about Mustard Seeds is a tale of redemption in the face of insurmountable odds.

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Common troubleshooting steps

Can’t get your description to look right with the HTML? Check the following things to ensure you have all your bases covered before contacting us.

• Do you have both the opening tag and the closing tag? Example: <b>bold</b>
• Have you included enough line breaks? Remember – to have an empty line, you will need two line breaks : <br><br>
• For lists, do you have the <li> tag in addition to either the <ol> or <ul> tag? See table above for an example of how to use both tags together.

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