diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/fb2/fb2ml.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/fb2/fb2ml.py
index 55349cd426..13fbba976d 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/fb2/fb2ml.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/fb2/fb2ml.py
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ from calibre.constants import __appname__, __version__
from calibre.utils.localization import lang_as_iso639_1
from calibre.utils.img import save_cover_data_to
from calibre.ebooks.oeb.base import urlnormalize
-from polyglot.builtins import unicode_type, string_or_bytes, range
+from polyglot.builtins import unicode_type, string_or_bytes, range, filter
from polyglot.binary import as_base64_unicode
@@ -195,12 +195,12 @@ class FB2MLizer(object):
from calibre.utils.html2text import html2text
metadata['comments'] = '{}'.format(prepare_string_for_xml(html2text(comments.value.strip())))
- return textwrap.dedent('''
+ header = textwrap.dedent('''\
%(genre)s
- %(author)s
+ %(author)s
%(title)s
%(cover)s
%(lang)s
@@ -220,7 +220,10 @@ class FB2MLizer(object):
%(year)s
%(isbn)s
- \n''') % metadata
+ ''') % metadata
+
+ # Remove empty lines.
+ return '\n'.join(filter(unicode_type.strip, header.splitlines())) + '\n'
def fb2_footer(self):
return ''