Writing a Book Summary

You’ve written a book! It’s published! Now you want to get the world interested in the book you worked so hard to perfect. Many authors will agree that writing a book summary is on of the toughest part of writing.

A good book summary shares what the story is about and who the characters are, but doesn’t give away crucial details that spoil the excitement of the story. An excellent summary will whet the reader's appetite just enough that they want to hear more. 

A note on what NOT to do - 
You’ve done your best to accurately and concisely describe your book for the potential reader, but the temptation to go the extra mile to boost sales is pretty strong. Adding more content to increase interest okay, but try to avoid the following:

• Pornographic, obscene, or potentially offensive content, even if your book has these elements. Book descriptions should be acceptable for any and all readers because anyone has access to the book description. Think about movie trailers for adult movies. Though the theme of the advertisement makes it clear that the movie is intended for an adult audience, clips that would be only appropriate for adults are not used to advertise.
• Personal information such as phone numbers, physical mail addresses, or e-mail addresses. You are promoting your book and it's content, not yourself. So keep the focus on the book.
• Anything time-sensitive information or information that will need regular updates. Price information, links to other websites, shipping offers, lecture tours, etc. are all things that will change over time. Save this information for promotional materials other than the book description.
• SPOILERS! Revealing crucial story or plot points are called spoilers for a reason - they spoil the reading experience! If the reader already knows what will happen, why would they want to read it?
• Book reviews. Leave those where they belong - the comment section or editorial review section.
• Solicitation for customer reviews. It’s unprofessional to request book reviews while describing your book and most book sellers won’t allow it. The reviews, quotes, and testimonials are best solicited in another venue.

Just remember, a book summary is just that - a summary of your book! Summarize enough to peek interest, but not too much ;)