Kindlepreneur Book Description Generator
Here are some instructions for using the generator. You can also watch this video.
- Select the platform you want to format the description for (Amazon, B&N, etc).
- Enter your book description. If you're copying and pasting from Word Doc, use the below sub-steps to ensure you don't bring over any hidden code from Word:
- If you're on Windows: you can use the combination Ctrl + Shift + V to paste without formatting
- If you're a Mac: you can use Option + Command + Shift + V to paste without formatting
- Choose from the available formatting options. If an option is grayed out, that means it's not supported on that particular platform. If you see other book descriptions looking different than the options available here, that means those books were grandfathered in before the current rules were put in place.
- When you've got your book description looking the way you want, click “generate my code.”
- Paste the code into the platform you're publishing on.
Font Sizes
Font Style
Paragraph Style
Tutorial on Book Description Generator's Use:
Click HERE to see more videos like this
Important: Amazon complains of “Invisible Characters”
If when you go to publish your book description, and Amazon responds with “Description may not contain invisible characters”… there's a reason.
This means that there are <><> tags with nothing in between the two <> tags. These need to be removed before Amazon will say OK.
This change happened relatively recently, and can explain why some of your previously working descriptions are no longer acceptable. Simply remove these blanks and you'll be good to go.
FAQ for the Book Description Generator
Below, you’ll find answers to most of the common questions you might have about Kindlepreneur’s Book Description Generator and how to use it.
- How do I publish my book description on Amazon?
- I want to write and add an Amazon Editorial Review. How do I do that?
- How do I publish my book description on Barnes & Noble?
- How do I publish my book description on Kobo?
- How do I space the paragraphs in my book description?
- How do I format bullet points or use numbered lists with the Book Description Generator?
- Don’t forget these other Kindlepreneur resources!
But first, a few things to take note of:
- You might see other books with different looking descriptions than what’s offered above. That’s because Amazon has changed their allowed HTML over the years, and when they change it, previous books are grandfathered in and keep using the older look.
- There is no way to add pictures to a book description.
- iTunes is not included in the generator because, in order to publish directly through Apple Books, you must use their software and they naturally have their own HTML rules for this.
How do I publish my book description on Amazon?
1. Sign into your Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing account here by clicking the yellow sign up button.
2. Once signed in, navigate to your ‘Bookshelf’ and select the book you’d like to edit. Alternatively, create a new book by clicking on the button seen below.
3. Scroll down to the section ‘Description.’
4. Paste your description directly into this box. Click ‘save and continue’ at the bottom of the page. If you’re publishing for the first time, you’ll have to upload your manuscript and cover before you can proceed. Click ‘save and continue’ again, set your pricing, and click ‘publish’ thereafter.
5. After clicking ‘publish’ your description may take up to 72 hours to update.
Another method you might use is by going through Amazon Author Central. You can do that as follows:
1. Sign into your Amazon Author Central account here. This is where you manage your author pages, editorial reviews, add books to your profile, and can even edit your book description for books.
2. Select the ‘Books’ tab at the top of the page.
3. If you’ve correctly added your books to your author page, you’ll see a list of books and the one you want to edit. If not, you can add a book to your author page by clicking this button and entering the books name:
4. Once you have your book present on the books page, click on it.
5. Here you’ll find your ‘Product Description.’ Click the ‘Edit’ button, hit ‘Edit HTML’ and paste in your HTML description and hit ‘Preview.’
6. If you’re satisfied with how your product description looks, hit ‘Save Changes.’
7. Important to note: if you use this method, whenever you make changes to your book on KDP, your book description will revert to the one you originally used in KDP when first publishing your book. It’s easier to just change the book description on KDP and allow the book to update.
I want to write and add an Amazon Editorial Review. How do I do that?
1. To create an Amazon Editorial Review, make sure to follow Amazon’s guidelines when using the Kindlepreneur Editorial Review Generator. Amazon’s guidelines for review creation are as follows:
2. Editorial reviews can be reviews left by other authors, publications, or even some of the highlights of the reviews your readers have left for you. Select a few from your book reviews then click on the Amazon Editorial Review Generator.
3. Enter your review text. Separate each review onto a separate line. You can bold or italicize reviews as you wish. You can even add in five little stars.
4. Once you’re satisfied with how your editorial reviews look, hit the ‘Generate My Code’ button.
5. You now have your handy HTML code that you can paste directly into the HTML editing pane in your Amazon Editorial Review section.
6. Once you have your code, sign into your Amazon Author Central account here.
7. Select the ‘Books’ tab at the top of the page.
8. If you’ve correctly added your books to your author page, you’ll see a list of books and the one you want to edit. If not, you can add a book to your author page by clicking this button and entering the books name:
9. Once you have your book present on the books page, click on it.
10. Here, you’ll find your Editorial Review section.
11. Click ‘Add’ to add your Amazon Editorial Reviews. Hit ‘Edit HTML’ and paste in your HTML description and hit ‘Preview.’
12. Hit ‘Preview’ and ‘Save Changes’ once you are satisfied. The reviews will appear in your Editorial Review section within 3 to 5 days.
How do I publish my book description on Barnes & Noble?
1. Head to Barnes & Noble and login to your account here.
2. Create your book by following the simple onscreen steps.Or edit your book by selecting it in the ‘Projects’’ tab.
3. Select the tab ‘Book Details.’
4. Paste your book description into the Default Book Description box as seen below.
5. Hit ‘Save and Continue’ and proceed until your book has been published or updated.
How do I publish my book description on Kobo?
1. Head over to Kobo Writing Life and sign in to your account here.
2. Once in your Dashboard, click on the ‘eBooks’ tab.
3. Click on the book you’d like to edit.
4. On the ‘Describe Your eBook’ page, scroll down until you reach the ‘Synopsis’ block.
5. Paste your description into the block then hit the ‘Save and return to Library’ button on the right.
How do I space the paragraphs in my book description?
There are two handy methods for spacing paragraphs in your book description.
Method 1
1. Enter your book description text. When you come to the end of a paragraph, hit ‘enter’ as you usually would in writing. Your description will look like this:
2. The description above has a very clear space between the paragraphs, and when you hit ‘Generate My Code,’ your HTML looks likes:
3. The space between your paragraphs will remain there when you paste it into your book description box on Amazon, Kobo or Barnes & Noble.
Method 2
1. Enter your book description text. When you come to the end of your paragraph, instead of hitting ‘enter’ as usual, hit ‘shift’ and ‘enter’ together. Your paragraph spacing now looks like this:
2. Notice the lack of space between paragraphs? When you hit ‘Generate My Code’ for your HTML, it will look as follows:
3. Now, when you copy your HTML over to your book description box on Amazon, Kobo or Barnes & Noble, it won’t have the space between paragraphs.
How do I format bullet points or use numbered lists with the Book Description Generator?
Once again, there are two fun methods you can use to generate bulleted or numbered lists.
Method 1
1. Click the ‘Bullet List’ or ‘Numbered List’ buttons under ‘Paragraph Style’.
2. Enter your list.
3. Hit ‘Generate My Code’ and you’ve got your HTML to be pasted into your book description box on the relevant retailer. Easy.
Method 2
1. To make unique bulleted or numbered lists that are still HTML friendly, you can use the Kindlepreneur Book Description Generator’s icons.
2. Instead of clicking on the ‘Bulleted List’ or ‘Numbered List’ options, use your icons. Select an icon, then type your sentence.
3. Hit either ‘shift’ and ‘enter’ or just ‘enter’ and do the same with another icon.
4. You can select any icon and use it to create a numbered or bulleted list. Once you’re satisfied, click ‘Generate My Code’ to create your HTML.
Don’t forget these other Kindlepreneur resources!
If you think this book description generator's great…well, we've got more where that came from. Be sure to check out some of our top articles that might just help you along your author's journey.
- Parts of a Book
- ePub vs MOBI vs PDF
- How to Write a Children's Book
- ProWritingAid Review
- MasterClass Review
Cheers!
How do I use this tool in Draft 2 Digital?
You can copy the code and paste it in D2D. I’d recommend using Amazon’s since they’re usually the most strict. Then paste it into D2D and they’ll publish as such.
Hi Dave,
Thank you for making this tool, it’s one of the handiest things I’ve ever used.
I am having a problem though with Amazon telling me I have invisible characters in my description. I entered my blurbage into the tool, stripped of all formatting, then used the tool to format it, then copied and pasted it into Zon, so I don’t understand what or where these “invisible characters” are. Is there something I can try or should be doing differently? Any help you can provide is greatly appreciated.
Cheers
Hi Jennie, not sure. When you say you “stripped all the formatting” did you do that by pasting it without any formatting? Because when you copy and paste from Word, it will bring in hidden formatting – might not show in the program but it is sometimes there. Try typing it in or using the special instructions on how to copy and paste without formatting in the steps above.
I think I’ve got it now. I had to put everything in as one huge paragraph, then separate it out into it’s smaller components once it was in the generator, because even the paragraph mark seemed to throw a spanner in the works. Thanks.
Help- after I go through all the steps as recommended above…the em dash does not work at all especially when I preview it on kindle. It just shows up as two short dashes: – –
And that’s how it looks like when it goes live too.
Hmm..I’ll love into that.
Thanks. I’d appreciate it. It almost seems impossible and I’d have to settle with two short ones.
Hi Dave, I’m having problems uploading this. It appears Amazon is not accepting the tag. I’m getting the following message: ‘Description may not contain invisible characters’ with the tag underlined. I’ve copied and pasted the description generator code with no lick and have even gone so far as to start with a completely unformatted text and added in the html tags manually. Any ideas? Is Amazon playing silly b.s again and there a way around this?
Thanks
A chance that this happens is if you used Word Doc, then copied and pasted into the Book Description Generator, it can sometimes bring in HTML from word that aren’t allowed. Try typing it in Text or in BDG. Should clear it.
Hi Dave. Nice work on the new tool. I noticed that headers 1, 2 and 3 are grayed out and I am unable to make a section of my description larger than the rest when I use the other active headers, especially when I want to increase the font size of introductory “question or Buzzfeed section” of my description. How can this be achieved with the other active headers? Thanks once again
Hi Charles, that’s because the larger text is no longer allowed. They used to, and those that published their books back when it was allowed are grandfathered in, but new books have to abide by the new rules. So, our Book Description Generator grey’s out or doesn’t allow you to use something that would trigger an Amazon rejection.
I’ve been using your description generator for awhile now, and I think it’s great. Just checked out the latest version, and I see that one formatting option is missing–the horizontal line. I found that very useful in separating my description from, say, non-description info like the series books can be read as standalones.
Is that nifty line no longer allowed? If it’s not forbidden, can you bring it back?
Thanks.
Nope – no longer listed as a supported HTML of Amazon. Hence why we don’t have it in the book description generator now. Want to ensure all authors are compliant in the best standings with Amazon.
Hello there. Thank you so much for this resource Dave. I am going to rewrite all my book descriptions using this fantastic tool. I have also subscribed to catch all your great content.
Quick question, I have gone through the tutorial and typed in my book description (did not copy and paste as know that can be problematic) but I cannot seem to bold the text or change the size. I am on my laptop. Am I missing something crucial I need to click on?! The options I am trying like bold and heading 4 etc are ok for amazon kdp but not working on here. I have loaded the template in different ways but not sure why?
I watched the tutorial but cannot see what I am doing wrong
Thanks for your help in advance
Caroline
Hi Caroline, which market are you trying to do that for?
Ah.., thanks very much Dave; for your mentorship.
I have done as you have said and now I’m a happy man.
May God richly bless you and all that you do!
I was having trouble with Amazon. An italicized phrase would start okay but never turn off. The issue with Amazon missing spaces between words returned. Then I noticed the
code creates to start and to end italics, but all the site’s
explanations refer to the code as and . I replaced the em’s with i’s and Bingo! Amazon author central swallowed it and even the trouble with missing spaces went away. Of course, this is a big test of one… but I thought I’d share
Hmm. I guess entering code into a comment is a bad idea. Okay: the code is starting and ending italics with em inside the pointed brackets, and I changed to i inside. I hope that now makes sense
I cannot get it to work on my site.
This is for changing your book description in your Amazon KDP Dashboard. Your website might have different requirements
https://www.amazon.com/gp/p… I know. I tried that. 72 hours later it still looks like this. Will you look at my code and tell me if I did something wrong or is it the newest version of KDP not accepting the html?
I cannot see your code. Your kindle book looks okay, although It is just text without formatting. Did you do them at the same time?I just did seven books the other day and they took effect within 2-10 hours each
cannot figure out how to get the coding to post here without the coding being enacted upon. is there a way to do that or an email or PM environment I can post it to you in?
This worked perfectly for me. 7 books done!
I need this desperately to create paragraph breaks in my books’ descriptions. But this did not work for me. https://www.amazon.com/Gloa… (done 4 days ago, so it should have updated by now.)
Hmm..not sure what`s going on.
How do I post the coding here without it doing what it is supposed to? The HTML works fine here, just not on my amazon page. https://www.amazon.com/gp/p…
I used the generator and saved the results in my book description through KDP/Bookshelf. Bookshelf shows the update as live but the description still looks like it did before (which is to say, terrible). Does it just take a while for it to actually update in Amazon, despite getting the confirmation email that my updates were live?
Hi Dave! Congratulations on the tool, very cool, really helps a lot! The only thing I miss about the tool are those little lines in the lower right corner to stretch the size of the window. Congratulations on your business and success in this new year!
Great resource. One suggestion would be to be able to post above the limit and then delete what is necessary.
Hi Dave, thank you for this amazing tool and help!! Regarding the invisible characters issue, I do not understand how to remove them or what exactly to remove. Do you mean to remove them completely? Or to follow your “good” example and insert text between them? If I remove them completely, aren’t I removing the formatting I need? What part do I remove of the >< to keep the line spacing I’ve created? Do I just delete those two symbols and the rest of the code will still work? Thank you!
Thanks for the updates to the book description generator. I noticed that the option for Amazon book description that has 4000 characters is missing. Can you guys update that?
Hi Dave just used the description HTML code generator…easy enough. I typed it in from my notes. Hope all goes well..thanks so much for this tool.. 😀
When Amazon tells you “Description contains an unsupported HTML tag, but they do not tell you which tag”, is there anyway around that? Also, is it recommended typing the description right into the box and not copying and pasting?
Sorry for missing this Scott. I actually have a new version of the Book Description Generator coming out very soon that will help with exactly this. I’ve been in the programming of it for a while and I think it will knock your socks off.
Fantastic, looking forward to using it! SA
I just fell in love with you a little – ps. do not tell my husband…oh who am I kidding, this tool is so awesome I’m going to tell him myself! Thank you. This is awesome.
Awesome and glad you like it. I’m actually working to add more to it in a couple of weeks. I want to include the ability to format and see what it looks like for other markets like Apple, B&N and Kobo. 🙂
Big Thanks, Dave!
I was fed up taking time to craft a good description, only to have the formatting look so bland on the Amazon sales page. Your program worked perfectly.
Awesome and glad you liked it! I’m actually adding more to the generator as we speak 🙂
Very cool tool Dave. I am awaiting final approval for our first book. We have a number of songbooks but this is our first foray into Kindle Publishing. Very exciting! I used the tool and am really looking forward to seeing the results. Thanks so much for this – I really appreciate it!
Awesome and glad you liked it!
Hi Dave,
I just get the following code
surely That is not right?
What am I doing wrong?
Sadly, the HTML code you entered disappears because it is HTML code and this is a website. But I’m sure it looks weird if you’re not used to code and what it looks like. Try putting it in your book description box in KDP and see what it looks like when Amazon publishes it. It will look exactly like you saw it in the generator above before you clicked to get your code.
I HAVE NO PROBLEM IN WRITING MY CRIME DRAMAS AND COMEDY BOOKS BUT FIND IT HARD TO REACH THE MARKET PLACE, DAVE. DO YOU EVER ACT AS AN AGENT TO GET THE SALES MOVING. THEY ARE ON AMAZON KINDLE AND IN PRINT.I AM NOW WRITING SCRIPTS FOR THE BBC BUT WOULD LOVE TO GET A BEST SELLER, CHINA
Sadly, no. I do not have any services.
I use this tool so much! Thank you for providing it. Love Publisher Rocket, too!
Awesome and glad you like it! I’m actually going to be sprucing this tool up very soon. There are some things I want to add 🙂
I managed to get it in, but the box is so small to work in and none of the formatting tools work. HELP
I’ve tried Ctrl/Cmd+V a million ways. cannot get my description into the box
how about a picture in your description? I won an award and wanted to put it in the description. https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Sadly, you cannot. Amazon won’t let it happen.
Boohoo, I figured not since it was not in the tool, but figured it would not hurt to ask! Thanks, Dave!!
Yup. And no problem. Glad to have helped!
What about doing a video and highlighting your award and adding it to the bottom of the page – video reviews – or something like that?
You could, but you aren’t allowed to put links in your book description.
Amazon doesn’t allow you to review your own book. (But the other day, Amazon sent me a recommendation that I buy my own book! (Thanks, Amz, but I’ve already read this one, lol)
Are you not allowed to Center a few lines in the blurb?
Sadly no.
Thank you for this tool, it was incredibly helpful. I have just published my first French travel book on Amazon and was struggling with the description and this solved it completely. many thanks Neal
Hi Dave,
I wanted my first line to be extra big and bold, but I do not think it took the larger print and the bold. Can you tell from this?<div>In the tradition of Craig Johnson ‘s Longmire mysteries comes a new epic western suspense series.</div><div>
</div><div>What am I doing wrong?
If you highlight that sentence and click the bold button, it will make it bold. Or you can click one of the H tags…each will make it bigger to smaller (from H1 to H6).
HI Dave! I used this generator so much for my first 3 books that I bought KDP ROCKET!
I have a question. I just published a fantasy book today co-authored by my 10 yr old grandson – is not that cool. Well, I used your generator for the book descriptions and on my Mac when I look at the store the description is great but on my iphone the ‘About the Item’ on Amazon is all wonky.
Did I do something wrong(which I’m sure I did…)
Thanks so much! Lurene
Hi Lois. That is awesome. As for the coauthoring – rock on! As for about the item, is it showing your book`s description there or something else?
This is a wondferful tool. Thanks. I seem to be having one problem though: I do not know how to get different font styles. For example, every sample I generated came out as Times New Roman when I preferred Arial. How do I get the converted HTML in Arial and NOT Times New Roman?
What a great tool. I especially loved it that I did not have to download anything onto my hard drive–It is all within the browser. Brilliant and thanks Dave. Just one question. I could not figure out how to get the emdash to work. I had to settle for two successive hyphens which in certain screen formats results in one hyphen at the end of line A and the next at the start of line B. Any solution there?
Hi Jeff and glad you liked it! As for your question, hhmmm…I’m not sure about that. The above program is supposed to look like the way it will on Amazon and should offer everything amazon would offer. But I’ll look into that.
Thank you for your too! It was greatly appreciated.
This did not work for me. Amazon rejected it for having hidden charactersIs this tool up to date for Amazon`s standards?
Hi Jonathan. Did you read the section directly under tool titled: IMPORTANT: AMAZON COMPLAINS OF œINVISIBLE CHARACTERS That should help.
I see that but I’m confused… Do I need to remove?
</h3>
</h3><h3>
Should I replace these with
???
You need to remove the empty sections.
Absolutely LOVE this tool! What a great way to stand out!!
Awesome and glad you like it.
Hi Dave,
I’ve used the generator previously for other books, but when I used it this time for another book, none of the html worked in the Amazon description. Everything becomes bolded, not just specific phrases, and the font size won’t vary. I tried it in Author Central as well as going to my Author edit page. Same problem with an editorial review I added in Author Central – all bold, but no other html. Not sure why this is not working for me.
Where did you copy it from? Google Docs, or Word?
Google Docs. Previous time was from Word.
UPDATE: When you asked this question, I thought, “Ah, That is the difference!” but I found a text editor for the Chromebook I’m using and did a series of cuts and pastes to make sure I was only using plain text. Still did not work, so I’m still at a loss.
Well, the existence of the bold means that there is coding being transferred into the HTML editor above. There is a way (different between mac and PC) where you copy something, but strip out all data other than the text itself.
This HTML Generator is so great because it uses only Amazon codes, and because it tracks how many characters are being used. Thank you so much, Dave!!One suggestion: Could you make it possible to drag and expand the window that show the formatted book description?
Thanks Rebecca! After my programming team is done with V2.0 of KDP Rocket, I’ve got some ideas on how we can improve this…that included.
I use this tool just about everyday. Dave, you rock!! Thanks for all that you do. cannot wait for KDP Rocket 2 btw!
Awesome man and thanks!
Great tool, Dave, been using it for years. Unfortunately I’ve got the “no invisible characters allowed in book description” error message in KDP and I cannot work out what`s wrong with it. I have none of those empty tags. :(I know what to do: I’ll copy it from the Amazon listing and reformat it on this page. D’oh!
Yup that worked. I did not have to reformat it. It puts in a load of non-breaking spaces but I can live with that. Cheers, Dave!
Awesome and glad that worked for you. I have a blurb below the tool that talks about how to get around that. Also, long time no chat!
Thank you SO MUCH for this!! With the new KDP format, I had to submit my new description for review which meant my book went off-line AND if it was wonky, it would require another lag to fix it- so I held my breath….. it is beautiful!!! Worked the first time. Thank you!!
You’re welcome. I’m glad it helped make the transition easier for you.
I read the instructions over and over and still could not get the description to general the html code properly for Amazon KDP to accept.Here is my code: <div>Los Angeles, 1954 ¦ Organized Crime, boxing, and ¦ romance…</div><div>
</div><div>Jimmy Doherty, hard-luck orphan from the south side of Chicago, was mentored in the Sweet Science by Father Tim Brophy, the Battling Priest of St. Vincent`s Asylum for Boys. Jimmy ‘s fists were good enough to take him to LA where he`s rising up the local fight-cards. He plans to be a contender and even bigger plans for Lindy ”his trainer ‘s only daughter, who`s sweeter than apple pie and harder to resist. </div><div>
</div><div>When Lindy is arrested for killing a boxer, Jimmy is forced to join forces with the arresting detective ”who would like to do much more with Lindy than put her in handcuffs ”in a desperate search for the real killer. </div><div>
</div><div>Love can be murder ”in the ring and out…
</div><div>
</div><div>
</div>Can you help me find the offending Amazon code?Thanks,
Carol
What`s the purpose of the empty <div> section?
Anyway, remove the <div>, they aren’t in the supported list I saw.
The best way to generate a clean code is to start from an unformatted text. I use Notepad for PC to write up my text since sometimes the browser can stop working and whatever you’ve typed in can disappear. Then, as instructed, highlight the sections of the text you want to change and use appropriate buttons in the tool to do what you want to do.
I have 66 books. My paperback descriptions via CreateSpace are all formatted with HTML. I was not sure what to do about my kindles as it did not make reference to HTML, so I just left them as plain text. I’d really like some formatting though. Can I do that? What`s the best way to do that? Use this tool and change things in Author Central? Use this tool and put into KDP? I think I tried to change my details in Author Central one time and it would not give me anything different than what I had in my KDP account. I cannot remember. (I just mean changing the base descriptions, I can add reviews and such via author central.)
Yup – through this tool.
HI
can you tell me about book translation, i need to translate from English to ARABIC and Vise versa
https://kindlepreneur.com/b…
Just Amazing. I was not sure that people are alive who serve for free until I reached this website.
Hi Dave,
I pasted in the code the Amazon Book Description Generator generated, but Amazon is now telling me that “Description may not contain invisible characters”. Do you know what this means?
Thanks!
Hi Harry, yes, the answer is in the comments below, but basically, these hidden characters occur when formatting has been done and then something deleted, but the formatting remains.
Hi, Dave, tried to use this with the MS Edge browser, with no luck. Was able to use it with the Chrome browser. You might already know that. Maybe mention it somewhere in the article above, if it works with some browsers and not others? Thanks so much for all of your resources!
I’ve actually never heard of MS Edge browser, but I’ll keep that in mind. Glad you love the resources though.
Microsoft replaced the Explorer browser with Edge. It’s the default browser for computers with Windows 10.
Oh, okay. Thanks. We’ll see what we can do about that and what needs to be done in order to get it to work on those.
Great it all works the only thing missing is (Center) I tried adding my own but it won’t let me when I go to upload to KDP it says HTML error – so can you please add this to the style and structure. Surely Amazon will approve centering right?
No…all of the allowed HTML functions by Amazon have already been programmed into the Generator above. Any other HTML is strickly forbidden.
That is a shame. Thanks for answering so quickly.
No problem and glad to help!
I have used the Book Description Generator twice, but my desription on my Amazon book page looks the same!! I edited the description and copied the code and pasted it into my books KDP description and published it. BUT IT DID NOT CHANGE!! Help!! Can someone tell me what is wrong??
Hi Dave,
I just used the code generator and got a string of code at the end of the description,
e.g.,
Also, another example is after one sentence I got:
Do these examples count as the extra code that you suggest above that we delete? Thanks for this tool.
-Sally
Thank you Dave. You’re the BEST!
This is a wonderful tool, thank you, Dave. I am going to try this in Author Central to see if it works in there…. You see, I always use Author Central, rather than KDP, to edit my blurbs. This is because Amazon prohibits the use of review quotes in blurbs within KDP, but Author Central have told me that they allow these to be added to the blurbs via their site. So, I add review quotes in my blurbs for all my books via this platform. The only hassle involved is I have to re-enter the blurb for the kindle version in Author Central after editing the book in any way in KDP. This is because the blurb reverts back to the KDP version after every change for some reason. Hope this tip helps anyone reading this 🙂
Hey Dave,
Thanks so much for this tool but I’m having a frustrating problem. I wrote up my Description, clicked for the coding, and did a “Copy and Paste” as directed but got a message “Description may not contain invisible characters” and I can not figure out what the problem is.
This is the Description. Most of the br’s are underlined in red on my Amazon page, but not here. I would be very grateful for some help. Thanks!
Have you ever felt you were more sensitive than you wanted to be?Has anyone ever hurt your feelings, lied or broken a promise to you?Does the concept of “heart wounds” resonate with you on any level?Does this statement make sense to you? You can’t get better with the same mind that got you sick? You need new thoughts and new knowledge in order to be healed!Imagine if you could learn how to eliminate things and thoughts that seem to be blocking you from achieving Happiness. Dr. Jeffrey Gurian shares in his book “Healing Your Heart, By Changing Your Mind- A Spiritual and Humorous Approach to Achieving Happiness” how he has learned through his own personal experience and years of study to overcome all the above and more.Burdened with a severe stutter until he was in his 20’s and beyond, seemingly unable to be helped by therapy, and combined with the confusion of A.D.D. and a bit of O.C.D. thrown in, he was faced with having to deal with that for the rest of his life. His low self-esteem and lack of confidence told him he would never have the things that other people had. He engaged in negative thinking.He felt he would never marry, have children, a successful career or even something simple as having his own apartment!Being “Graced” with the knowledge that there was really nothing wrong with him, he worked on basically “taking his mind apart” and examining all his thoughts to find the negative ones that were not valid.He used this technique to heal himself of his stutter and go on to achieve all the things he feared he would never have, becoming a husband, a father, and a homeowner.He also became a Cosmetic Dentist, a Clinical Prof. at a major New York university in the Oral Medicine/Oro-Facial Pain Dep’t., a lecturer, comedy writer for many big stars, comedian, author, radio and TV personality and a Healer. It’s this journey and how he did it that he wants to share with you. And being one of the only doctors with a long, successful career in comedy has given him a very unique perspective on how to incorporate humor into your life.In this book you will learn:How to overcome the fear that’s stopping you from achieving your goals.How to release the “heart wounds” that affect every decision you make.How to examine your thoughts to discover which ones are not valid.How to stay connected to your “inner child” and create your own “Happiness Center”.How to reprogram your mind through the use of affirmations.This book was written in the hopes of helping each reader learn to achieve a state of Happiness. It’s out there waiting for you. So please scroll back to the top and click “Buy Now”!
Hi. I am not sure if it’s one of my browser add on, or if I’m just stupid, but I can’t seem to find the description generator anywhere on this page. Has it been taken down because of the errors?
Hi, sorry about that. It’s momentarily down for maintenance and a upgrade. Should be back and working tomorrow 🙂
Unsubscribe.
From: Kindlepr
To: km.weiland@ymail.com
Sent: Thursday, September 21, 2017 12:06 PM
Subject: Re: Comment on Amazon Book Description Generator
#yiv6777542460 #yiv6777542460 a:hover, #yiv6777542460 a:hover span {color:#1188d2!important;}#yiv6777542460 .yiv6777542460button-cta:hover {color:#ffffff!important;background-color:#1188d2!important;}#yiv6777542460 .yiv6777542460button-cta:hover span {color:#ffffff!important;}#yiv6777542460 #yiv6777542460 #yiv6777542460 #yiv6777542460outlook a {padding:0;}#yiv6777542460 body {width:100% !important;}#yiv6777542460 .yiv6777542460ReadMsgBody {width:100%;}#yiv6777542460 .yiv6777542460ExternalClass {width:100%;display:block;}#yiv6777542460 @media screen and ( _filtered_a ){#yiv6777542460 html {}#yiv6777542460 .yiv6777542460content {width:100%;}#yiv6777542460 table {border-collapse:collapse;}#yiv6777542460 h2.yiv6777542460headline {font-weight:700;font-size:20px!important;margin-bottom:5px;}#yiv6777542460 .yiv6777542460button-cta {display:block!important;padding:0!important;}#yiv6777542460 div.yiv6777542460header {padding-top:20px;}#yiv6777542460 div.yiv6777542460footer {padding-bottom:20px;}}#yiv6777542460 #yiv6777542460 p.yiv6777542460mod-tools a:hover {color:white!important;background:#8c989f!important;}#yiv6777542460 @media screen and ( _filtered_a ){#yiv6777542460 td.yiv6777542460avatar, #yiv6777542460 td.yiv6777542460spacer {width:38px!important;}#yiv6777542460 td.yiv6777542460avatar img, #yiv6777542460 td.yiv6777542460spacer img {width:28px!important;}}”Hi, sorry about that. It’s momentarily down for maintenance and a upgrade. Should be back and working tomorrow :)” | |
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Dave Chesson
Hi, sorry about that. It’s momentarily down for maintenance and a upgrade. Should be back and working tomorrow 🙂 2:02 p.m., Thursday Sept. 21 | Other comments by Dave Chesson | |
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| | Hi. I am not sure if it’s one of my browser add on, or if I’m just stupid, but I can’t seem …Read more |
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Hi! The description generator isn’t working properly. It adds a whole lot of extra symbols that Amazon doesn’t recognize. Here’s my example, and the code below it.:
Police Officer Harrison McNamara grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth. The former Wellington Estates heir has dedicated his life to taking criminals off the streets. But when he goes undercover to expose a blackmailing scheme, he meets a freelance model who may hold a key to his past.
For psychologist Laura Carson, freelancing as a model is the perfect bridge until she can set up her practice. But her modeling agency isn’t what she expected. Encountering the enigmatic undercover cop might be everything she’s ever wanted—and everything she must avoid.
As Laura and Harrison grow closer, their past threatens to destroy them. Trapped in an unending cycle of guilt and blame, can they find a way to bury the sins of the past for a future of redemption and love?
Code:Police Officer Harrison McNamara grew up with a silver spoon in
his mouth. The former Wellington Estates heir has dedicated his life to taking
criminals off the streets. But when he goes undercover to expose a blackmailing
scheme, he meets a freelance model who may hold a key to his past.
For psychologist Laura Carson,
freelancing as a model is the perfect bridge until she can set up her practice.
But her modeling agency isn’t what she expected. Encountering the enigmatic
undercover cop might be everything she’s ever wanted—and everything she must
avoid.
As Laura and Harrison grow
closer, their past threatens to destroy them. Trapped in an unending cycle of guilt and blame, can they find a
way to bury the sins of the past for a future of redemption and love?
We got a fix on it and it should be out tomorrow…plus an upgrade as well.
Thanks 🙂 This is such a wonderful tool.
From: Kindlepr
To: km.weiland@ymail.com
Sent: Thursday, September 21, 2017 1:16 PM
Subject: Re: Comment on Amazon Book Description Generator
#yiv9513886779 #yiv9513886779 a:hover, #yiv9513886779 a:hover span {color:#1188d2!important;}#yiv9513886779 .yiv9513886779button-cta:hover {color:#ffffff!important;background-color:#1188d2!important;}#yiv9513886779 .yiv9513886779button-cta:hover span {color:#ffffff!important;}#yiv9513886779 #yiv9513886779 #yiv9513886779 #yiv9513886779outlook a {padding:0;}#yiv9513886779 body {width:100% !important;}#yiv9513886779 .yiv9513886779ReadMsgBody {width:100%;}#yiv9513886779 .yiv9513886779ExternalClass {width:100%;display:block;}#yiv9513886779 @media screen and ( _filtered_a ){#yiv9513886779 html {}#yiv9513886779 .yiv9513886779content {width:100%;}#yiv9513886779 table {border-collapse:collapse;}#yiv9513886779 h2.yiv9513886779headline {font-weight:700;font-size:20px!important;margin-bottom:5px;}#yiv9513886779 .yiv9513886779button-cta {display:block!important;padding:0!important;}#yiv9513886779 div.yiv9513886779header {padding-top:20px;}#yiv9513886779 div.yiv9513886779footer {padding-bottom:20px;}}#yiv9513886779 #yiv9513886779 p.yiv9513886779mod-tools a:hover {color:white!important;background:#8c989f!important;}#yiv9513886779 @media screen and ( _filtered_a ){#yiv9513886779 td.yiv9513886779avatar, #yiv9513886779 td.yiv9513886779spacer {width:38px!important;}#yiv9513886779 td.yiv9513886779avatar img, #yiv9513886779 td.yiv9513886779spacer img {width:28px!important;}}”Thanks 🙂 This is such a wonderful tool.” | |
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Sunanda Chatterjee
Thanks 🙂 This is such a wonderful tool. 3:16 p.m., Thursday Sept. 21 | Other comments by Sunanda Chatterjee | |
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| | We got a fix on it and it should be out tomorrow…plus an upgrade as well.Read more |
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The tool seems to be broken 🙁
Pity – I used it before & it was great
I contacted Dave the other day and his team are looking into it
Hi Dave, thank you so much for creating this description generator and sharing it with us!
I regularly use your tool but for the past couple of days I am noticing that the tool doesn’t work as it would normally. Just wanted to let you know and thank you for your generosity.
This has stopped working for me completely the past couple days. Any style button that I try to click has no effect. Not sure what’s up. I’ve found this tool invaluable up until now, though…and for free! Thank you so much for it.
Hi Janell, same experience for me. The tool was so good that when I try now doing without I find it very time consuming with other options and difficult.
The only code this is generating is and
I highlighted and clicked on bold and italic, but those codes aren’t appearing.
This tool worked well recently, so hopefully only a temporary glitch?
Thanks for making this tool available free of charge! I’ll be following this website closely as I used to be a Kindle publisher back in 2012/2013 and want to get back ‘into the game’. Expect more comments from me!
Regarding the tool: Author Central seems to reject the H2 tags and the “strong” tags are only accepted when I change them to “b” tags. To be continued (my submission is now being reviewed).
The tool needs an update. KDP rejects some of the html code being generated.
A couple of months ago, Amazon made a change to their descriptions rules (I’ll put the reason at the bottom of this comment). They don’t want their to be any HTML code that doesn’t have words in between it.
Examples:
Good: This has words
Bad: or
or etc..
With the program above, that happens sometimes when you have typed something in, formatted it, and then erased it. The Generator will delete the words but sometimes leave the code in it.
We’re working on a fix, but it’s actually pretty difficult and my team is tied up with the AMS Keywords feature we’re adding to KDP Rocket.
But as a solution, just go through your code and if you see any code without words, delete it and you’ll be good to go.
Reason why Amazon made the change: People were stuffing code on the Description so as to send signals back so a server letting them know when the page fired – sort of like the FB Pixel does. Ultimately Amazon realized that just code was probably not good anyways, and so make the code rule.
Do you know if Amazon will allow for short video segments to be inserted in the description, and would you know how we could go about inserting a video if they do? I saw an Amazon reviewer insert a video of him leafing through a colorful book on art (with no audio), that he inserted alongside his written review, and the interactivity looked really good. I would love to know if possible, and how it could simply be done. I’m very grateful to you for your brains and generosity. 🙂 Thank you! The Amazon reviewer’s name is: Parka, at http://www.parkablogs.com.
I have researched this… it’s against amazon tos.
I am almost speechless, although talking to my computer, reading this cool info aloud. I find it hard to believe this is real, but I am grateful and especially grateful to you. Thank you so much for this info! I found a typo repeat of phrase above, please look into it, it’s confusing for readers. “In the example above, I needed to first tell the website that I wanted an Ordered List by using the tag and then tell it each line each line with . “
Terrific! Can we downland this to our computers, Dave?
This is such a great tool, thank you for creating this!
I’ve actually shared a post about it on my blog so that others can find it too. 🙂
Dear Dave,
So sorry. Some kind of very odd mistake. All is fine now. But thank you again for this wonderful assist. I am extremely grateful!
Anthony
Dave, a million thanks to you for this! However, I’ve had a strange thing happen. I was using your marvelous HTML tool to make descriptions for a series of small booklets we are doing that are going up on the Create Space site for print on demand books (Kindle later). The first one worked well, and I did about fifteen more over the next few days and put them up in a hurry as I was leaving for a few weeks. Now that I’ve returned, I see that all of them, including the first one that had originally looked good, are now all on their Amazon pages, with no formatting, but just the html coded description that I generated here. In other words, all of the HTML symbols are showing up, just as I put them into the description box in our Create Space setup, and the original good one has turned into the same. I’m quite sure I’m doing something wrong, and would appreciate any advice. Thanks again!
Anthony
I self-published via Lulu.com, not KPD. Do I need to submit the code to Lulu, or is there a way to give it to Amazon? I do not think that Lulu supports this code for changing my book’s description.
Man, unfortunately this isn’t working at all when I paste it into Createspace. I followed all the directions. All the tags stay visible and there is no formatting to be seen. So frustrating. I used Moxilla Firefox. I also switched to Google Chrome to see if that would help and it really didn’t work there. Boohoo, what to do 🙁
Great tool!
Dave, KDP is flagging the code.
***This will appear on your book’s Amazon detail page. may not contain invisible characters
Hi Eeva, you can see the answer to that in a below comment, but I also copied and pasted here too: Hi Conrad. A couple of months ago, Amazon made a change to their descriptions rules (I’ll put the reason at the bottom of this comment). They don’t want their to be any HTML code that doesn’t have words in between it.
Examples:
Good: This has words
Bad: or
or etc..
With the program above, that happens sometimes when you have typed something in, formatted it, and then erased it. The Generator will delete the words but sometimes leave the code in it.
We’re working on a fix, but it’s actually pretty difficult and my team is tied up with the AMS Keywords feature we’re adding to KDP Rocket.
But as a solution, just go through your code and if you see any code without words, delete it and you’ll be good to go.
Reason why Amazon made the change: People were stuffing code on the Description so as to send signals back so a server letting them know when the page fired – sort of like the FB Pixel does. Ultimately Amazon realized that just code was probably not good anyways, and so make the code rule.
Thanks for the reply, Dave! Will check the code then. 🙂
This happens ALL THE TIME…not sometimes. This tool is great. The codes is accepted by KDP the first time but any subsequent updates I make on KDP’s eBook Details Page (like changing a keyword later on). I get this error message on your code. It’s frustrating. I have to convert it back and redo.
i love this tool so much. I use it all the time. The only problem is that every time I need to make a small change to my ebook files or update the price, I have to redo the description because of the code glitch. I’ve tried just cutting and re-pasting, but the only thing that works for me is to delete the old description, come back here and make it all over again and then paste it back on amazon. It would be awesome if there was a way to log in to access saved descriptions to speed that process along.
Hi Melissa. Yeah, that would be useful but it would be a LOT of hardware and programming to save such a thing. But we’ll try to look into what we can do so as to help. Thanks for the heads up and glad you like it!
Thanks for the tool. Helped me get through a jam today!
Awesome Art and glad to hear it!
This is cool. Thanks alot. I will dedicate one of my best Ebook to you soon.
Haha…awesome and glad to hear it. 😀
Thank for this Dave, Just about to upload three small Kindle books. I will let you know how I get on.
Awesome and sounds good!
This is so helpful. We’ve been using simple code and then amazon just deletes it before we can get it to preview.
Do you have a code for the (seems everyone has it but I can’t for the life of me code it) additional spacing between paragraphs? I’m talking a half space between paragraphs, not an additional full space between paragraphs (which I can get with a easily. Thanks!
Hi Jennifer, not sure I understand your question. If you take the HTML code created here, and paste it into the description section in KDP, your HTML should show up – haven’t heard of Amazon automatically removing anything. As for extra spacing, it’s a difference between and
Your work was very impressive; I really appreciate the research part of it which made your article very rich and understandable.if you want to improve product ranking on amazon please email us at tylerharrisseo@gmail.com
Hey Dave, I could’ve missed it, but I don’t see it in the comments or post. Any idea how to fix what might be wrong if Amazon gives you the following message after copying and pasting the code generated from the tool above?
“This will appear on your book’s Amazon detail page. may not contain invisible characters”
Not sure what happened, but I just recopy and pasted the same exact code several times and they took it. Persistence pays I guess 🙂
Thanks again for the GREAT tool!
Hi Conrad. A couple of months ago, Amazon made a change to their descriptions rules (I’ll put the reason at the bottom of this comment). They don’t want their to be any HTML code that doesn’t have words in between it.
Examples:
Good: This has words
Bad: or or etc..
With the program above, that happens sometimes when you have typed something in, formatted it, and then erased it. The Generator will delete the words but sometimes leave the code in it.
We’re working on a fix, but it’s actually pretty difficult and my team is tied up with the AMS Keywords feature we’re adding to KDP Rocket.
But as a solution, just go through your code adn if you see any code without words, delete it and you’ll be good to go.
Reason why Amazon made the change: People were stuffing code on the Description so as to send signals back so a server letting them know when the page fired – sort of like the FB Pixel does. Ultimately Amazon realized that just code was probably not good anyways, and so make the code rule.
This is great! Shared on FB and Twitter
Awesome and glad you like it!
Do you have any good ways to A/B test different
– Book descriptions
– Covers
– Titles
Or anything else on Amazon ? If not, have you had any success A/B testing those things on your webpages and directing to Amazon ?
Thanks!
Hi Scott. Two ways:
1. You can always go to a FB group and ask them which ones they like (best when that group is your target market)
2. Use Pickfu.com. They’re pretty amazing at this sort of thing.
Also, I got into depth on Book Title A/B test (but much of the A/B testing part can be done for all of those) here: https://kindlepreneur.com/how-to-title-a-book-with-good-book-titles/
thanks!
This is a life saver…Thank you!!!!
Awesome – glad you like it.
Very nice! Thank you for offering this great tool for free. This is so helpful.
Awesome and glad you like it!
Dave, can this tool be applied to the “editorial reviews” and the “about the author” section?
Yes it can.
Love this tool! Just used it – thanks for keeping this up on your site and for making it simple for the tech-challenged:-)
haha…no problem. I’ve actually got a lot more on the works and the way I see it, the quality of my tools is a direct reflection on myself. Besides, I love using them too 😀
What happened? The page is broken since the last time I was here, Dave…
You cannot scroll down in the text box anymore.
I bought the rocket and every other tool you’ve mentioned on your site thus far–got all my books ready and then got stuck here….*whimper*
?????
All fixed and good to go now…with a new shiny layout as well 😉
You’re awesome =)
haha…thanks!
Hey Dave, this really helpful tool doesn’t appear to be working currently. I can’t scroll down within the text box. Could be a problem on my end but I did want to pass it on just in case. Thanks for providing this resource.
Hey Jordan, yeah, I got word that certain browsers weren’t working nicely with it. So, right now, my team and I are doing a complete redesign to make it better, easier to use, and MUCH more stable on all platforms. Should be good to go in a couple of days. 😀
Dave, you are the best! Looking forward to the redesign! 🙂
haha..thanks buddy. Yeah, me too. As you probably know, I’m sort of a design freak – so it takes me a while (and a lot of coffee) to find something I think is both aesthetic and more optimal. I’m glad to take this on because I’ve never liked the above.
Any update on the progress of the fix, Dave?
Yup…fixed.
Oh good—just mentioned this above. Should have read further =)
Thank you for this amazing tool! Can you use it for the description on the CreateSpace page too? The formatting is different on my kindle page and my paperback page for some reason.
Yes you can. Createspace uses the same HTML, however the CSS will be a little different. What that means is, it will look close to what you see here – but not exact like on Amazon kindle sales pages.
Hey Dave!
Thanks for this tool.
How can I add image to this description? Is it possible?
Thanks…but sadly no images can be added to the book description section of the Sales page.
Okay Thank you so much for this tool…
Love, love, LOVE this tool!!! Thank you! I feel like I’ve just gotten the best birthday present EVER!
haha…awesome – AND Happy Birthday!
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You’re the BEST! Thank you! I am so excited and having fun with this! WOW!
Aw shucks. Thanks!
This is outstanding. Thank you.
Awesome Michael, and glad you like it!
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This is great! Thank you for the tool. I remember seeing another tool that was $27/mth to do this same thing.
Oy! Yeah and no….not even a force “share” or “optin to get the code” type deal. Just straight up. Although I will admit, putting this together and getting it RIGHT, was a SUPER headache. But getting comments like yours makes it all worth it.
Thank you again.
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Ah, this is brilliant. I think I love you. I’ve wanted a tool like forever. Thank you! Sharing.
That moment when your favorite writing author likes your stuff! PS: Loving your book “Storming”. I’m half way through it!
Whoo! Happy dance back at you. 🙂 Great to hear you’re enjoying Storming!
Thank you for this tool! It is extremely helpful! I really enjoy and appreciate your helps and insights as well!
Awesome Kevin!
I applaud you for doing this, Dave! Authors shouldn’t have to pay money for an awesome book description just because they don’t know a little HTML.
Amen to that and I completely agree.
This is awesome. I’m going to mail my list about it now. But do you plan to add and other headline tags later?
Hey Brittmalka, H1-6 are all on the left. I didn’t call them that because many people won’t understand what H1, or H2 mean. So the button was just designed to show the font size as a whole.
Wow, thanks! I completely overlooked the menu to the left.
Uh oh…I’ll keep that in mind. Yeah, I designed it that way because I was hoping to make the box feel like the area in which your book description would show…but perhaps it’s better up above so that there is more typing room.
Isn’t he great? That’s my buddy! 😀
Awesome tool Dave. Thanks a lot.
haha…thanks Michal 😉
One word: amazing!
Four words: you are too kind!
This will be one of the most used external tools for Amazon… Great job Dave!
Thanks Conrad. It was created based on my frustration over the fact that I keep messing up my own hand typed coding and there would be a missing space of missing end bracket…and I’d have to wait another 24 hours before Amazon updated…haha.
YOU ARE THE MAN! GO DAVE.
haha….thanks buddy! That has seriously been a thorn in my side for the past 3 months…but getting the CSS perfect, was the hard part…that and fitting it into my site without having it affect or be affected by my other CSS…oy.