Get Published, Part 10 – Writing a Killer Synopsis (the first of two installments)

This post will be delivered in two installments, because of length.  Here’s the first… the second half appears in the next post).

It would be nice if this getting published stuff was an exact science.  Like enrolling in school or entering a management trainee program. 

You sign up, you show up, you do the work, you avoid pissing off the wrong people, and badabing, a career happens.

But that’s not the real world.  In publishing, or in those other pursuits.

The General Shape and Form of Getting Published

But when it comes to selling your story there is a linear process, in a rough sort of way, and it doesn’t include having a close personal relationship with an agent or an editor at a Big Time publisher.  Or, if you’re a screenwriter, someone in the movie business, which actually happens a lot. 

It’s a process for the rest of us, and it goes like this:

First, you write a story that is worthy of publication.  That’s the very essence of understatement, and the subject of parts 1 through 7 of this series.  Indeed, of this entire website.

My advice: finish that before you sweat the details of how to get it published.

Then you find a way to get your story in front of an agent, rather than directly to an editor or publisher (unless you do have that close personal relationship).  You stand about as much chance of success going direct as you do convincing Target to sell your new invention.

How do you get the attention of an agent?  Let me repeat myself from the last post: somehow.

Somehow breaks down into two major strategies: you corner one at a writing conference or elsewhere, or you query one with an enticingly written sales pitch.

The centerpiece of which is called a synopsis 

Behold the Mysterious Synopsis

Even though the word itself  sounds like some scary neural malfunction or perhaps something that might fall out of your nose, a synopsis is potentiallly the most p0werful tool you’ll ever have to get your story sold.  Which means, you need to master it.

A synopsis can be a paragraph, a page or several pages in length.  The precise nature of the document depends on the tone and content of the story, and of your comfort level and personal style.

Which is to say, other than length you have a lot of latitude as to how it reads.  Which can be either good or bad news, depending on your inherent marketing sensibilities.

But let’s be clear – when it goes beyond, say, two to three pages, your synopsis switches labels and becomes either a treatment or an outline.  And you should consider neither of those it as part of the selling process.  At least not initially.

Yet, a synopsis by any other name is still just a summary of your story.  So it’s good to know your way around this toolbox before you crack it open.

Writing the Query Letter

Any way you define it, though, a synopsis must be accompanied by a letter of introduction and intention, called a query.

You can imbed a very short synopsis into your query letter, or you can include a slightly longer one as a separate document.  Sometimes both, if the letter-version is merely an introduction to a separate pagethat covers this base.   

If you opt for the latter, your synopsis should be never be more than a single page in length.

At this stage – the initial query letter – these are your only two options.  You either embed the synopsis into the letter, or you include it with the letter as a separate document, with only a reference to it in the letter itself. 

Why?  Because a story summary of more than one page – a treatment or an outline – is a tool for later.  It’s something you pull out of your bag of tools when the agent likes the initial query letter/synopsis and asks for more.

In other words, if your query works.

The initial synopsis reads a lot like a dust jacket.  A longer one — the one you don’t send initially –  reads a lot like a book review.  Wrap your head around that and you’ll own the difference between them.

Short Synopsis First, Long Synopsis Later

When an agent asks for a more detailed description of your story they will almost always ask you to send in several sample chapters.  Be very clear on this, though — they are not asking for a full outline of your story, which could be as long as 50 or more pages.  No, this longer synopsis is more like 6 to 12 pages, enough to cover each of the four parts of your story, describe the plot points and give enough depth about the character arc and themes to bring the whole thing alive.

That outline is for your eyes only.  It’s a tool, and a powerful one, that is in essence the skeleton of the narrative version of your story.

Make sure any sample chapters submitted include the opening of the book, then a chapter from later in the story, with an introductory paragraph that places the later chapter into context. 

Do not, however, ever send the closing chapters of the book.  Leave a description of the ending to your longer synopsis.  The shorter synopsis should only cryptically describe the ending, and it such a way that the reader will want to investigate further because they are already hooked.

In summary, the process goes like this: query letter with embedded synopsis… or query letter with a one-page synopsis… leading, upon request, to a longer synopsis, plus several samples chapters… leading, also upon request,  to the submission of the entire manuscript.

Variations on this sequence are frequent. 

Sometimes an agent will ask to see a finished manuscript on the strength of a killer live pitch or even just a compelling query letter, which includes that one-page synopsis.  Or they’ll ask specific questions about the story, which you need to be prepared to address.  Either way, you’ll have to dance your way into this party, step by artful step.

Be clear, though – it isn’t the query letter that will convince them.  It’s the synopsis.

Click here to read second half of Part 10 – Writing a Killer Synopsis.

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