Monday, September 21, 2015

Monday's Links to Writing & Marketing Blog Posts


By: Jane Friedman

It’s probably the single most despised document you might be asked to prepare: the synopsis. The synopsis is sometimes required because an agent or publisher wants to see, from beginning to end, what happens in your story. Thus, the synopsis must convey a book’s entire narrative arc. It shows what happens and who changes, and it has to reveal the ending.

Don’t confuse the synopsis with sales copy—the kind of material that might appear on your back cover or in an Amazon description. You’re not writing a punchy marketing piece for readers that builds excitement. It’s not an editorial about your book.

Unfortunately, there is no single “right” way to write a synopsis. You’ll find conflicting advice about the appropriate length, which makes it rather confusing territory for new writers especially. However, I recommend keeping it short, or at least starting short. Write a one-page synopsis—about 500-600 words, single spaced—and use that as your default, unless the submission guidelines ask for something longer. Most agents/editors will not be interested in a synopsis longer than a few pages.

While this post is geared toward writers of fiction, the same principles can be applied to memoir and other narrative nonfiction works.

Why the novel synopsis is important to agents and editors

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To read the rest of the post, click here:

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If you missed my writing & marketing tweets and retweets yesterday, here they are again:
  • Back to Basics: Writing a Novel Synopsis | Jane Friedman http://ow.ly/Srdas
  • Letting Go of the Practice Novel http://ow.ly/SrhmP  "Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with it is a toy and an amusement..."
  • The Non-Structural Language of Story - Storyfix.com http://ow.ly/Srhrb
  • 7 Essential Tools For Creating Superb Bestselling Book Titles http://ow.ly/Srhw2
  • AdviceToWriters - Advice to Writers http://ow.ly/SrhyN
  • Meaning What You Say, And a Bit More | Writers In The Storm http://ow.ly/SrhCM
  • The Four Benefits of Pre-Writing (a guest post by Kaitlin Hillerich of Ink and Quills) | She's Novel http://ow.ly/SrhH8
  • Create a Compelling Book Title - Rachelle Gardner http://ow.ly/SrhK1
  • The State of the Publishing Industry in 5 Charts | Jane Friedman http://ow.ly/SrhN2
  • Where to go When Your Self-Editing Can’t Get You There (or They’re? or Their?!) – The Wise Ink Blog http://ow.ly/SrhQY
  • Authors: Have You Blabbed or Scoped Yet? by France Caballo — The Book Designer http://ow.ly/SrhVl
  • How to Be a Better Writer: Turn Struggle Into Success http://ow.ly/SrhXi
  • Fiction University: Who's There? Introducing Characters in a Scene http://ow.ly/SrhZW
  • How to Create a Remarkable Villain (Beyond the Clichés!) http://ow.ly/Sri5k
  • 9 Reasons Screenwriting Is Exactly Like Poker - ScreenCraft http://ow.ly/Sriah
Happy writing and running, Kathy

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