Tuesday, January 14, 2020

Author Toolbox Blog Hop: HTML Information to Format Your Book Description on Amazon

#AuthorToolboxBlogHop
Hello and welcome to the Focused on Story Blog and to the Author Toolbox Blog Hop #AuthorToolboxBlogHop which meets every third Wednesday of the month to share resources and tips for authors. Thanks to Raimey Gallant for hosting this venture. 

Please join us to learn more about the craft of writing and to meet bloggers who are dedicated to helping each other become the best writers possible. Click here to visit other blog hop participants.
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If you are an author or publisher, you know how important a book cover and book description are for getting eyes on your book.

You also know how difficult it is to write a book description whether it's for a fiction or non-fiction book. Spending hours on figuring out just the right phrases, choosing the bullet points, and crafting the correct Call to Action at the end can all be for naught once you upload it to the KDP form that is all about your book.

I filled in that box on the KDP form for the book description for my journal, Your Words, Your Life Story, and waited for my masterpiece to be published. Below is what I copied to the book description space. 

Notice the larger font in places, the bold and italicized words, the bullet points and spacing.

Do you want to tell your family and friends about your life experiences, but you don't know where to begin? The task is overwhelming? You need help in recalling memories to share? Life story teacher and published author, J.Q. Rose, can help.

Your Words, Your Life Story: A Journal for Sharing Memories, is a journal and a guide for capturing the moments that impacted your life—the happy, sad, funny and crazy times that shaped a generation. Family and friends want to relive your experience through your words.
Not into writing? Discover audio and video programs to bring your authentic voice to your family.
This journal does not ask silly questions but prompts you to remember life experiences and details to develop a rich tapestry to share in single vignettes or in a compilation. You can take the opportunity to tell those small stories you know so well, and then organize and keep them just for your family and/or to publish them. 

Your Words, Your Life Story will help you ignite and share your memories.

Free added bonus: Receive support for your journey down memory lane through the Private Facebook group, Tell Your Life Story and Memoir. In this helpful group, we share our stories, resources, tips, experiences, and memories. You’re invited to join in no matter where you are in telling your story, just beginning or completed. Hope to see you there. (You need not purchase this book to come in.)

Preserving the experiences of the past for future generations is important. They will wonder as they peruse the stories how you ever lived without a TV, computer, or microwave (or what else they may be using in the future?). 

The story of your life, the struggles, the joys, the accomplishments, will be what the next generations understand. Your account will be a guide to help them through their own lives.

Start now to put together the stories that make up your life story, a treasured family keepsake.

Inside Your Words, Your Life Story you will find:
·        *Larger print
·        *No silly questions
·        *An easy way to begin
·        *Inspiring quotations
·        *Ways to spark memories
·        *Exercises for you to recall YOUR life stories
·        *Lined pages to jot down memories
·        *Information on storytelling
·       * Links to sites for submitting your story
·       * Links to sites for telling your story via writing, audio and/or video
   
     INSTEAD, all the formatting was gone! Just a bunch of sentences piled together all in one paragraph. I didn't realize I had to use HTML in order to format the description. With my heart pounding, I checked the KDP help page and sure enough, there are supported HTML tags on the sales page, but no help in how to use them. Click here to see the KDP help page for supported HTML tags.
  
      Now I was really scared! Was I done? With a junky description like that, no one would take time to read it.
     But I was saved by a timely video by Keith Wheeler who directed viewers to use an HTML Auto Generator that would format the description for me.

     YOU TUBE VIDEO--Book Descriptions That Sell by Keith Wheeler



    Click here to discover Dave Chesson's Kindlepreneur Amazon HTML Book Description Auto Generator.

         Click here to join the Telling Your Life Story and Memoir Circle Facebook Group. It's so much easier and more fun to tell your story when like-minded people are there to support and share with you. See you there!

       I hope this information is helpful to you. Do you have another way of converting your book description into the HTML format? Please comment below.
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Your Words, Your Life Story: A Journal for Sharing Memories by J.Q. Rose
Now that you've read the book description, 
you may want to know more about the journal for you 
or as a gift for someone in your life. 
Click here to order the paperback journal.


Your Words, Your Life Story: A Guide to Sharing Memories
The content in the journal is available as an eBook, 
a Guide to readers on telling their life stories.
Click here to download the digital copy from your favorite online bookseller.
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GOOD NEWS: I finally figured out how to send the Rose Courier out to subscribers. The inaugural edition went out on Thursday, January 9. 
If you subscribed and didn't receive a copy, let me know!
To receive the February edition, please enter your email address at the top of the page under The Rose Courier to get this jazzy update every month. Thank you!!


    








17 comments:

Computer Tutor said...

Good tips, Janet, and what a clever template-book for a memoir. I wish you best of luck with that.

Maggie Blackbird said...

Thank you for sharing this blog post. It was really interesting to read.

emaginette said...

I think MS Word can save documents as a web page which is HTML, isn't it? Otherwise, I have no idea. Good luck though. I know you'll figure it out. :-)

Anna from elements of emaginette

Raimey Gallant said...

Your book sounds really interesting and reminds me how quickly generational memories can be lost if no one takes the time to document them. Great post!

Helena Fairfax said...

Thanks for that handy link, JQ. I've struggled with he html for my own book descriptions and ended up in a right mess. It took a while to work out. I'll check out the link. Thank you!

Juneta key said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Juneta key said...

Another tip is if using WP you can created a post page and paste your words then switch to coding and copy the HTML code done there. I have done that with I had a large piece and need to cut time expended doing it.

You can format your blurb to how you want it to look in visual editor then switch to code edit to copy and just delete when no longer need it.

Great tips and post. I'll make note of the resource too.

Louise said...

Useful tips, I didn't realise you could use HTML in Amazon descriptions! Thanks for sharing :)

J.Q. Rose said...

Thank you,Jacqui.

J.Q. Rose said...

Thanks,Maggie.

J.Q. Rose said...

I never thought about using Word saved in html, but I'm not sure if amazon takes all the tags in Word. I did convert it using Blogger, but amazon wouldn't take that at all.

J.Q. Rose said...

Oh, Raimey, you are correct. So many rich stories are lost because no one bothered to write them down. We need to document the times we live in for future generations. Uh, oh, I'll get down from my soapbox now! Thank you.

J.Q. Rose said...

Good, Helena. Glad it was helpful.

J.Q. Rose said...

Thanks for that tip using WP. I tried doing the HTML in Blogger, but it didn't convert right for amazon. I've been trying to decide if I want to switch to WP and that may a pro for doing so.

J.Q. Rose said...

Louise, I didn't think you could use HTML either, but yes, they even have that page of acceptable tags. It really makes a big difference in the look of the description on the sales page. Thank you for stopping in.

Sandra Cox said...

I love YOUR LIFE STORY. And what a purrfect gift. I've given it out for a gift now on three different occasions and each time its met with enthusiasm.
I also liked the way you formatted your description. I need to remember that one.

J.Q. Rose said...

Thanks,Sandra. Delighted to hear you are giving this life story book as a gift. I think we always choose gifts for someone else because we like it. So that is quite a compliment. I can remember the html generator in case you forget!!

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