diff --git a/src/calibre/gui2/comments_editor.py b/src/calibre/gui2/comments_editor.py
index 5d91492875..10df79073a 100644
--- a/src/calibre/gui2/comments_editor.py
+++ b/src/calibre/gui2/comments_editor.py
@@ -226,6 +226,7 @@ class EditorWidget(QWebView): # {{{
                 for body in root.xpath('//body'):
                     if body.text:
                         elems.append('<p>%s</p>'%body.text)
+                        body.text = ''
                     elems += [html.tostring(x, encoding=unicode) for x in body if
                         x.tag not in ('script', 'style')]