HTML IN KDP BOOK DESCRIPTIONS

When you publish your book on KDP it's now permissible to use a little HTML to jazz up your Product Description.

I believe this works best for non-fiction books, where special items like bulleted lists make more sense. Still, in the case of a novel I don’t think it would be out of line to use italics or bold text to emphasize a plot point or two.

FYI, the approved tags are: b, br, em, font, h1 through h6, hr, i, li, ol, p, pre, s, strike, strong, sub, sup, u, and ul. You’re probably familiar with many of these guys, but here’s some info on some of them: ol and ul are ordered and unordered lists, respectively, where li identifies each list item. (Ordered lists get numbers, unordered lists get black bullets.)

Both s and strike run horizontal lines through text, while u underlines it. You get italics with either i or em. Similarly, b and strong both come out bold. If you find yourself using subscript (sub) or superscript (sup), you might be writing a book about water (H₂O) or the spicy world of Triple X (X³).

(This list of tags was adapted from KDP’s reply to an email query sent by author/publisher Tom Corson-Knowles and reproduced on his Webpage, TCK Publishing.)

Some words of advice about using HTML tags in the Product Description window: What you’re submitting is not a page of text, nor a page of HTML code—it’s a bastard hybrid that takes special handling. Send those guys no unintended line breaks. Make your book description one solid hunk of text, with the occasional set of HTML tags inserted where called for.

If, for instance, you have an unordered list, understand that the end tag for each item (</li>) contains within it a line break. If your description were to show each entry on a separate line, KDP will insert an additional line break at the end of every list item. On the sell page, that comes out as double-spaced text, which is probably not what you were going for.

Similarly, don’t add a line break (<br />) after header code end tags (e.g., </h2>). There’s a built-in break that varies in height depending on the size of header used. And by the way, because of pre-existing style code on their Web site, h2 headers come out in a custom-designed color called Amazon orange.

Always review your book description after your book goes live. Be prepared to come back to the page and make changes. I know it’s a hassle, but you’re in public now. Act accordingly.

If you have a lot of header code in your description, and a big fat typo in the first line, you have a decision to make.

Changing book items from the KDP window can take over twelve hours. And I believe the book will just sit there on the sell page, mistakes and all, the whole time.

Turns out you CAN fix the problem fast—in about ten minutes, in fact—but you have to go about it a different way.

If you have a bio up on Amazon's Author Central (and why don't you?), you can go there to fix your defective product description. Log onto your account, click Books at the top of the page, then select the book in question from the list.

The item will come up with the Editorial Reviews tab live, and that's where you want to be. (Note: You won't find this tab at Author Central UK; you have to use the American version.) If you have reviews on this page, scroll down to the last item: the Product Description. Click Edit.

You can now view your description in one of two windows, Compose or Edit HTML. You may notice your carefully sculpted headers are no longer so special. The thing is, the selection of HTML available on Author Central is rather limited. You can't use header code here, just italics, bold, line breaks, and lists (ordered or unordered).

But you CAN correct your typo, that's the good news.

The bad news? If you enter any changes on this page you will lose your ability to make changes on the KDP page forever. That means, in lieu of headers you'll have to type the text out in bold caps.

Since most descriptions of novels can do without header text, this is probably a good compromise.

By the way: After you preview your changes and click Save at the bottom of the page, you'll get a message saying the new stuff will be on the Web page in three to five business days. Not true, fortunately. Ten minutes or so will usually do the job.

Back in Editorial Reviews after the save, you'll notice the Compose window is now blank. But exit this book and return later, both windows will be populated again.

Tantalizingly, if you put header tags in the Edit HTML window, they show up in the Compose window. It's an illusion. Click Preview to see what's really headed to your sell page. The Preview window is accurate.

Keep in mind, the rules for HTML use are the same at Author Central as they are on the KDP page. The Edit HTML window shows you the text in one big block paragraph. If you break it up for easier viewing, the system will insert page break codes everywhere, converting your book description into erratic, double-spaced text. Next thing you know, you're back at Author Central going over the whole thing again. It can start to get tedious...