diff --git a/src/calibre/library/cli.py b/src/calibre/library/cli.py
index 69d590ccdd..2306a819cb 100644
--- a/src/calibre/library/cli.py
+++ b/src/calibre/library/cli.py
@@ -179,8 +179,7 @@ List the books available in the calibre database.
                           ' database. Should be a comma separated list of'
                           ' fields.\nAvailable fields: %s\nDefault: %%default. The'
                           ' special field "all" can be used to select all fields.'
-                          ' Only has effect in the text output'
-                          ' format.')%','.join(sorted(fields)))
+                          )%','.join(sorted(fields)))
     parser.add_option('--sort-by', default=None,
                       help=_('The field by which to sort the results.\nAvailable fields: %s\nDefault: %%default')%','.join(FIELDS))
     parser.add_option('--ascending', default=False, action='store_true',
@@ -194,9 +193,7 @@ List the books available in the calibre database.
     parser.add_option('--prefix', default=None, help=_('The prefix for all file paths. Default is the absolute path to the library folder.'))
     parser.add_option('--limit', default=-1, type=int, help=_('The maximum number of results to display. Default: all'))
     parser.add_option('--for-machine', default=False, action='store_true', help=_(
-        'Generate output that is more suitable for machine parsing. Book entries are separated using the ASCII Record'
-        ' Separator character (30), individual fields in an entry using the Group Separator (29) and individual'
-        ' filenames using the File Separator (28)'))
+        'Generate output in JSON format, which is more suitable for machine parsing. Causes the line width and separator options to be ignored.'))
     return parser