Having a great synopsis of your book is one of the most crucial things a writer can have, but it can also be the most difficult. Without this important piece of information, a potential agent won’t know what the book is about, and then they don’t have a reason to read the book. If they don’t know what it is about why would they read it?
A synopsis is a short outline of the story. It shows what happens to the main character, how that character changes, and it reveals the ending. It allows the potential agent to look at the book and decide whether or not to buy your book. Writing a compelling synopsis is one of the hardest and despised things a writer faces. You may ask why this is important. Without this little nugget of information, a potential agent doesn’t have a way of knowing what your book is about.
There are three main questions that a synopsis must answer:
Who is the story about?
What is it that they want and what stops them from reaching their goal?
How do they get what they want?
With these three questions answered, you are well on your way to making a great synopsis. When writing a synopsis, you should think about what the potential agent’s likes and dislikes are so that you don’t send it to the wrong person. Think about it this way, would you want to send a horror synopsis to a romance agent? When you perfect your synopsis, read it out loud to yourself, and to several other people to see if they would be interested in your book. Reading your synopsis out loud will help you to better your writing technique when pitching to an agent or potential publisher because they want you to be confident in your work.
Synopses are one of the most important things that a writer will ever write. It can be a dreaded piece of literature because all authors must write if they are going to query an agent or publisher. Perfecting the synopsis is one of the ways to make sure that your writing stands out, but do not go over the top. Make sure that you are proofreading and polishing your work which is a key element when writing a synopsis. If it is not grammatically correct or has a lot of other errors, the agent will not even read the work you have given them. Make sure all your work is edited so you can stand out the way that you want to because all your hard work is worth it.
Just remember: you want to write something that will grab their attention and make them potentially buy the book rather than put it in the slush pile. Think about it this way, what would make you want to take a chance on an author. What would give you the edge over other people doing the same thing as you? What makes your book special? Why would your book be publication worth? Lastly, how do you make the agent care about your work? These questions will help you to write your best synopsis, and get the potential agent to buy your book.
Here are some articles that will help you to write a great synopsis:
Links for Writing a Synopsis:
https://www.janefriedman.com/how-to-write-a-novel-synopsis/
http://www.writersdigest.com/editors-picks/learn-how-to-write-a-synopsis-like-a-pro
http://www.publishingcrawl.com/2012/04/17/how-to-write-a-1-page-synopsis/
Image Source Reference:
http://graemeshimmin.com/how-to-write-a-novel-synopsis/
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