The dictionary defines synopsis as "a condensation or brief review of a subject: summary."
Okay, I get it. You need to boil down the essence of your book so that you provide only the important information. Agents and editors don't have a lot of time to find out how much they need your masterpiece, so make it short.
At PitchFest, agents asked me to send them my book along with a "short" summary.
"Oh," I said, "like four pages?"
That evoked a head tilt with a wry smile. "No. Two pages. Double spaced."
"Oh." Gulp. "Fine." I forced a big smile. "No problem."
No Problem! I had four and a half single pages that had been whittled down (with extreme angst) from ten. How could I possibly hone down all that important information to two double-spaced pages. I threw my head down against my arms on my desk. Impossible!
Thankfully, I have cheerleaders--my writer's group. With their support, I worked and reworked the synopsis until I had it tamed to a reasonable length.
How did I do it? It wasn't easy. Good thing my kitties don't understand English.
I checked out online resources with information about the short synopsis. (Because there is also a long synopsis.) See the links at the end. I tried to keep my thinking within the main plot, ignoring subplots, no matter how amazing they happened to be. I then wrote a super short outline that hit on the suspense, character interaction, and a hint of romance. From that outline, I tried to find those parts that were pertinent to the genre, Urban Fantasy/Paranormal.
Finally, I had the basics, the information that showcased the story points. Next I tried to cut out the extra description. Whew! A lot of that. Then I needed to cut out superfluous words. That forced me to make the sentences more active. A good thing.
Of course, I still had too many words and so I had to delete more of my beautiful babies. Ouch! But I persisted, dried my tears, and prepared the finishing touches--writing the synopsis in the present tense, third person using my voice.
I wanted the reader to view the synopsis through my protagonist's eyes so they could get the flavor of the book. When I finished, I had two double-spaced pages plus two lines.
At present, I'm in waiting mode for the results of those submissions. But now that I have a nice short synopsis, and a query letter (that is another whole story), I'm all set. Right? Oh, no. One of the publishers asked for a back cover blurb and a one-sentence blurb (an elevator pitch). Eek! More work.
And, then, since I'm half-way through the second book in the series. . . . You see where I'm going with this.
For today, though, I'm simply going to concentrate on writing--one word at a time.
Synopsis examples
Synopsis tips for Literary Agents
Recipe for a Successful Synopsis
A few of the authors at the SinC workshop talked about hybrid publishing, going with both traditional and e-publishing. For successful authors, this seems to be more the norm than an outlier. These authors have established a name and collected a readership. Why do they need the traditional houses? There's a great article about this trend at The Passive Voice, PassiveVoiceBlog.
Last Saturday I attended an all-day workshop on publishing put on by Sisters in Crime (SinC). The panels discussed Small Press (Indie), Traditional (Legacy), and Self-Publishing. Authors explained the benefits and down-sides of each.
Indie publishers have the advantage of a quicker turn-around time and most don't require agents. However, the author has to take care of tasks like promotion and cover art.
Legacy publishers take care of publicity, editing, cover art, and bookstore distribution. Their downside includes the necessity of an agent, early deadlines, lack of flexibility, and the amount of time it takes to produce the book.
That leaves self-publishing. Many authors claim to have made a lot of money with self-publishing. If you look at the claims, you'll find that most come from previously established authors who already have a following.
For those of us who are unknown, the story will be quite different. Before any author takes the risky step of self-publishing his book, he has to establish a platform. A platform is an online identity, created by Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc.) and a blog.
People will buy something written by a familiar name, once. If they like it, you're in luck. This brings me to an important part of self-publishing, the editing. Before you send anything out onto the web with your name attached to it, hire a competent editor to go through it. Don't cry about the cost. Do it! Reader's are not used to literature that has spelling or grammatical errors. One or two in 75,000 words can be overlooked, but no more.
We new authors are still learning, and we need someone to point out problems before the public sees them. Editors do that. Once your name is associated with sub-par work, you've blown it. You won't get another chance. There are too many books out there.
Be prepared to take care of all those little details normally handled by the publisher. Things like cover art, promotion, technical aspects of formatting for different platforms, ISBN numbers, etc. Learn about quotas, royalties and keeping tabs on your sales. You're now in the business of publishing.
You can hire people to take care of any or all of the publishing responsibilities, but it will be costly.
The bottom line? Look at the publishing choices and make an informed decision, one for which you are willing to do the work and then enjoy your new published state.
For more information on the workshop, see my blog this Friday, 4/4, at MostlyMysteryBlog.
