How to Write and Format Your Amazon Book Description

Your book description is the only sales pitch most readers will ever see. They’ve noticed your cover and your title, they’ve clicked, and now they’re deciding in a few seconds whether to buy, read a sample, or go back.

It’s also the part of the upload most authors write last, in a hurry, straight into a small box on KDP. Here’s how to do it properly: what to write, how to format it, and what Amazon won’t accept.

What a book description is for

A description isn’t a summary. Its job is to make the right reader want to start reading, without giving the story away.

For fiction, that usually means the main character, what they want, what stands in their way, and the question the reader will need answered. For non-fiction, it means the problem the reader has, what the book helps them do, and why they should trust it.

Everything else, like subplots, backstory and the twist in chapter twenty, can wait.

A simple structure that works

You don’t need a formula, but most strong descriptions follow a similar shape:

1. A hook line. One bold sentence at the top that makes someone keep reading. It’s often the only line people see before “Read more”, so it matters most.

She came to Hollyford to open a bakery. She didn’t plan on finding a body in the flour store.

2. The setup. A short paragraph introducing the main character and their situation. Who are they, and what’s about to go wrong?

3. The stakes. What happens if they fail? What do they stand to lose? This is where tension comes from.

4. The question. End on the question the reader will want answered, rather than the answer.

5. A reader signal. One line that tells the right readers this book is for them: the genre, the mood, or what it’s like. For example: A cozy, clean mystery with recipes, perfect for fans of small-town sleuths.

Keep the paragraphs short. People read descriptions on phones, and big blocks of text get skipped.

The formatting Amazon allows

KDP lets you format your description, but only with a small set of options:

• Bold, italic and underlined text
• Small headings
• Bulleted and numbered lists
• Paragraphs and line breaks

That’s enough for a bold hook line, a short heading or two, and a list if you’re writing non-fiction. Anything else, like colours, fonts and font sizes, is stripped out.

You can type into KDP’s description box and use its formatting buttons, or paste in formatted text. If you’re comfortable with it, the box also accepts the equivalent HTML tags.

A common problem: pasting from Word or Google Docs can bring hidden formatting with it, which KDP may strip unpredictably. Pasting from a tool that only uses the formatting KDP allows avoids that.

The 4,000-character limit

Your description can be up to 4,000 characters. The formatting is counted too, so a heavily formatted description has a little less room than it seems.

In practice, very few good descriptions come close. Most effective fiction descriptions are a few hundred words. If you’re near the limit, it’s usually a sign you’re summarising rather than selling.

What Amazon won’t accept

Amazon’s guidelines rule out several things in descriptions. Including them can get your listing rejected or edited:

• Links, email addresses and phone numbers. No website addresses or contact details.
• Prices and time-limited offers. No “only 99p this week” or “on sale now”.
• Reviews and requests for reviews. Review quotes and testimonials belong in Amazon’s separate Editorial Reviews section, not the description, and you can’t ask readers to leave a review.
• Emojis.
• Spoilers. Don’t give away the ending or major twists.

If you want readers to find your other books or your newsletter, that belongs in your back matter, inside the book itself. See What is Back Matter in an Ebook.

Write it before upload day

The best time to write your description is while you’re still close to the book: while the characters, stakes and tone are fresh in your mind. Written at the last minute, descriptions tend to turn into plot summaries.

Write a first draft, leave it a day, then read it as a stranger would. Does the first line make you want the second? Does it end on a question you want answered?

It’s also worth reading the descriptions of the best-selling books in your genre. You’ll notice they’re shorter than you’d expect, and almost all of them open with a strong single line.

Doing it in Libba

Libba’s Amazon tab has a description editor next to your manuscript. Its toolbar only offers the formatting KDP allows, so what you write is what Amazon shows. If you’ve already written a short blurb for your book, you can start from that.

As you type, Libba counts the characters, including the formatting, and warns you about things Amazon won’t accept, such as links, email addresses, emojis, prices and review requests. On upload day, one button copies the description with its formatting, ready to paste into KDP’s box. A second copies it as HTML, if you’d rather paste into the source view.

The same description also works for Kobo, Apple Books and the other stores.

Common questions

How long should my description be? Long enough to hook the right reader and no longer. For most novels, that’s 150 to 300 words.

Should I use a heading? A bold hook line usually works better than a heading for fiction. Headings can help in non-fiction, for example to introduce a list of what the reader will learn.

Can I include review quotes? Not in the description itself. Add them to the Editorial Reviews section on your book’s Amazon page instead.

Can I change my description later? Yes. You can update it from your KDP Bookshelf at any time, and testing a new version is a good idea if a book isn’t selling.

Your description, categories and keywords together make up your Amazon listing. See also How to Choose KDP Keywords and How to Choose KDP Categories Using Books Like Yours.