Recently I conducted an interview with the truly incomparable Clare Allan-Kamil on the subject of synopsis writing. As the synopsis is the first example of your writing an
agent, editor or publisher sees, it’s vital to get it right – if they don’t
like your synopsis they might not even bother to read your sample chapters. As
daunting as it seems, there are tricks and tools you can use to make your
synopsis stand out.
This interview is also available on the Writers Victoria website.
Why do
publishers/agents need to see a synopsis? Can’t they just read the submitted
novel?
You are asked to submit a synopsis because the
commissioning editor (or equivalent) will assign the reading of your manuscript
according to the genre. They’re matchmakers who like to ensure that the right
person reads your work. So, they will give a literary manuscript to an editor
who specialises in the literary genre and a crime manuscript to an editor who
specialises in crime (do you really want someone who specialises in cookbooks
assessing your historical fiction?). Commissioning editors do not have time to
read your entire manuscript in order to decide who best to assess it. A
synopsis allows them to sort manuscripts quickly and effectively.
Secondly, publishing houses receive countless manuscripts
on a weekly basis; sadly, they do not have time to read every manuscript. A
synopsis is a quick and effective way for them to sort through which
manuscripts are worth their limited time.
Lastly, if you as the author can’t explicate what it is
that you’re writing about in one to one-and-a-half pages then the book is
likely to be just as rambling and unstructured. In a way, publishers are
forming an understanding of you from the very first paragraph of the synopsis –
do you know what you’re writing about, can you succinctly explain your work to
others, do you know about structure?
Why do you think the
synopsis is so important to get right?
The synopsis is your novel’s flagship. It provides the
assessor with a profound first impression of your work and you as a writer. So,
your synopsis must be clear, it must show that you understand what it is that
you’ve written, and must demonstrate a solid understanding of your readership
and the market.
As editors have less and less time to spend trawling
through the slush pile they need the synopsis to help them determine: where
your book sits in the market, who the readership is, what genre of book it is
and what it’s about. And they need it done five minutes ago!
Also, a publisher needs to know that the person they are
considering giving a publishing contract to is cogent and clear about their
writing. A publisher can’t afford to have an author incapable of speaking about
their book at book launches, in interviews and at festivals.
Importantly for the author, a synopsis can help focus your
work – it’s a great way to check if your structure is sound, if there are any
lulls in the action, or if your characters have a weak emotional arc. In this
way, the synopsis is a blueprint – an architectural plan – for your novel. It’s
not just for your pitch; it provides a structure for you as you’re writing.
It’s a good idea, therefore, to write a synopsis at the beginning, the middle
and the end of your writing process.
It’s important to realise that you can have a fantastic
book that will languish in the slush pile simply because the synopsis didn’t
sell the quality of the book well enough.
What are your top
tips for writing a good synopsis?
Engage immediately
You absolutely have to engage the reader in the first two
lines as well as capture who you’re writing for. You can, for some kinds of
books, start with a question derived from the thesis of the book. For instance,
for a non-fiction submission about starting up a small business you wouldn’t
say ‘this is a book about small businesses’ (because that would be dull). However,
you might start with a question: have you ever considered opening your own
business? Are you tired of working for other people? This kind of opening is
already informing the assessor that you know who your audience is and you know
how to engage their interest quickly. Also, bring to the fore a sizzling quote
and place it straight after the introduction. This will also help with
immediate engagement.
Your tagline needs to
be perfect
The tagline for your book needs to come at the very
beginning – a succinct and captivating sentence that sums up your book’s
thesis, audience and uniqueness to the market. It’s worth spending a lot of time
crafting this one sentence. You need to find the sentence that makes the reader
go: oh, that’s interesting, I’ll read on. Revise your tagline until it’s
perfect; this will take time.
Choose your
comparison titles carefully
At the end of the synopsis, it’s a great idea to link your
writing to comparable titles. When doing this think carefully about who to
compare yourself and your work to. If you compare your work to Margaret Atwood
but you actually write spy fiction in the vein of John Le Carré, this does not
reflect well on your understanding of the industry, of genres and your own
writing. If you are lucky enough to have a publisher contact you, they are
going to want you to talk about why you liken your work to Margaret Atwood. If
you listed her because you thought it would look good but you’ve never actually
read her, this will not go down well. Be honest and do your research.
What are the key
mistakes authors make when writing a synopsis?
Telling the ENTIRE
story
The synopsis, while it does need to cover the basic
storyline, should focus on the themes or thesis at the heart of the story. This
is why it’s a great idea to have your five second pitch well-practiced; if
you’re fortunate enough to bump into an editor at a party, instead of panicking
and then launching into a rambling retelling of the entire story, you know what
the key narrative arc of your story is and can express it in a way that reveals
the novel’s broader themes (and you can do it in one or two captivating
sentences). You can apply this thinking to your synopsis – it isn’t a retelling
of every event in the novel. A synopsis covers the broad brushstrokes, the
pivotal turning points and the character’s emotional arc.
Poor spelling and
grammar, and other errors
The minute an editor spots that you’ve misspelt the name of
the author you’re comparing your writing to, that one of your main characters
appears to have an unexplained name change half-way through and that your use
of punctuation is random at best, they will not look at your work favourably.
The synopsis is a professional document and you are approaching a publisher
with the desire to do business with them – so treat it like a business document.
Have a trusted friend (who is good at spelling and grammar) look over your
work. In fact, have several trusted friends look over it. Errors make your work
look amateurish and indicate that you don’t care enough about your work to get
it right. Lots of errors also signal long hours for a copyeditor and a drain on
the publisher’s limited finances.
Not telling the opening
and closing of your story
Publishers are not going to steal your work. They’re just
not. So you don’t have to worry about holding back on the good bits. In fact,
you must tell the publisher the good
bits – you’re trying to sell your work to them so why would you leave out what
makes your writing special? It’s like trying to sell a new medical treatment
without revealing that it cures cancer. You must reveal how your novel opens, what the central plot is, what
the biggest twists are and how it all ends. The publisher wants to know if your
book is any good and where it’s going to fit in the market so they can’t be
ill-informed by a patchy synopsis.
Is there a perfect
structure for a synopsis?
A perfect structure involves getting to the point quickly, giving
an indication of the audience early on and keeping it brief. No matter what,
your synopsis should never exceed the publisher’s requirements on length: if a
publisher asks for a one page synopsis then they mean one page. In particular,
the character arc should be made very clear in the synopsis – how does the main
character/s change over the course of the novel? What do they learn?
How long should a
synopsis be?
Ideally a synopsis should be kept to a minimum but different
publishers have different requirements. Some publishers want a three page
synopsis while others only want half a page. Stick to what the publisher asks
for. It’s a good idea to have more than one synopsis prepared, from a single
paragraph to six pages.
Is there anything
you think should not go in a
synopsis?
The belt, buckle and
braces
Avoid overloading your synopsis with unnecessary details,
especially biographical. Some people make the mistake of providing their full
name, place of birth, where they went to school, what their fifth grade teacher
wrote in their school report, the time their bike was stolen from out the front
of the supermarket and they had to walk home in the rain … you get the picture.
Even the fact that you’ve always been interested in writing, ever since you
wrote that poem in primary school, is just not relevant to the publisher. You’ve
only got a small window of opportunity where the publisher is focused on your
proposal – sometimes as little as five seconds. The information you include has
to be relevant and instantly engaging.
Excessive boasting
While you do want to sell yourself, there’s a fine line
between promotion and arrogance. Be careful with boasts such as: ‘my work is
better than anything Shakespeare ever wrote’, or ‘this will win the Man Booker
so you better think seriously about publishing me’. Excessive boasting will not
endear you to publishers.
Not including
comparison titles
Be careful about saying you don’t read books, or you can’t
find any books out there that are anything like your work because you’ve
‘broken the mould’. This is very, very rarely the case (even the most
genre-bending books can be compared to aspects of other works) and being unable
to list comparable titles makes you appear lazy, ignorant or arrogant. Some
people are loathe to compare their work to others in case it makes it look like
their writing isn’t unique – this isn’t why a publisher wants you to compare
your work. Publishers like to know that a prospective writer is well-read,
understands the market and understands themselves as a writer.
What’s the
difference between a synopsis and a blurb?
The blurb needs to reveal the highlights of the plotting,
or the key themes. The blurb teases the reader and gives them a broad sense of
the story, leaving it tantalisingly unfinished – the reader should have no
choice but to open the book and begin reading, desperate to find out what it’s
all about. The blurb is often derived from the synopsis but it is purely a
selling tool. By comparison, the synopsis is a selling tool but it’s also all
the other things we’ve been talking about: a time-saver, an indication of
intended audience and your book’s position in the market, your quality as a
writer, the key plot points succinctly explained, etc. The most important difference is that a
synopsis must give away all
significant plot details including how
it ends while a blurb should never
give away the ending.
Any tips for making
a synopsis stand out? I.e.: should it be funny? Should it be written like it’s
from the main character of the book?
Publishers don’t want to see quirky fonts, a kaleidoscope
of colours, pictures (unless you’re an illustrator and you’re submitting a
picture book – in that case, draw away!), designs for the front cover, or
glowing quotes from your best friend, hairdresser, niece or grandma (unless
your grandma is a Miles Franklin winning author – in that case, quote away!). Your
synopsis doesn’t need to have gimmicks – it just needs to be succinct and
immediately engaging. Find the human element in your story that readers will
identify with, the thing that touches the central nerve, and put it right up
the top of your synopsis.
Does the genre of a
book affect the synopsis? I.e.: is there a certain way to write a synopsis for
a crime novel that might not suit a literary novel?
It’s all much the same. Some genres lend
themselves to opening with the character (versus the themes). A synopsis is
more about the mechanics of the book – revealing what makes the book tick – so
in that sense the genre is evident in the structure itself. For example, crime
novels often use the discovery of the first dead body as the inciting incident
and have plenty of twists and turns. Of course, the genre will also be evident
in any quotes you use and your sample material (so choose sample chapters
carefully).