Book Description First Aid Kit

Are you querying a manuscript and getting no-response rejections?

Do you panic when people ask “What’s your book about?”

Are you inclined to over- or underexplain your plot?

Maybe your book description isn’t working. And if it’s not working, chances are your submissions aren’t getting the attention they deserve.

Laura Stanfill, publisher of Forest Avenue Press, has fussed over and revised her own query letters for years. After evaluating more than a decade of submissions, teaching querying to authors, and successfully selling her debut novel to a small press, she is excited to apply her brain and experience to your book’s description.

This purchase includes Laura’s feedback on your book description only, not your whole query letter, not a synopsis, not a proposal. By “book description,” we’re talking about what you’d see on the back of a printed book, no more than 300 words. You will receive a thorough evaluation of your draft description, revision suggestions, and questions to open up new possibilities for inclusion, all from the publisher’s desk. As a bonus, you will have the opportunity to ask follow-up questions and/or to submit a revised draft within a month of getting your feedback.

This is best for you if you have a finished draft of a full-length manuscript, even if you’re not submitting immediately; polishing a book description can sometimes spark new revision ideas. It’s also a great service for self-publishing authors; Laura is a metadata expert and can help you craft an effective description that will get attention online.

Laura Stanfill is the award-winning publisher of Forest Avenue Press and a published author. She teaches classes and workshops to demystify the industry and has keynoted at Willamette Writers, Terroir Conference, and Words and Pictures. She graduated from the Yale Publishing Course in 2018 and earned two Oregon Literary Fellowships and a Regional Arts and Culture Council grant to support her work.