The Dreaded Synopsis by Literary Agent Jessica Faust

It’s probably one of the most dreaded words in publishing. Any time I tell any author she has to submit or write a synopsis, I invariably get a loud groan. It’s hard, it’s frustrating, and I know of very few authors who like writing them.

But what makes a good synopsis and how much do they really matter?

A synopsis can matter not at all and it can matter greatly depending on the editor and on the situation. To make things easier on you, I think you should always assume that a synopsis matters a great deal. If you’re submitting a full manuscript with a synopsis, the synopsis probably won’t matter as much (most of us would prefer just to read the manuscript). However, if you have reached the stage in your career where you are selling on proposal and no longer need to write a full manuscript before sending to editors, a synopsis is crucial. In this case, it’s the only thing an editor has to judge the rest of your book by. The synopsis is used as a guide to see if the plot and characterization follows through as strongly as it did in your chapters.

If you are submitting a proposal first (as many agents will ask you to do) you better have a strong synopsis. In that case, we often use the synopsis as a guide to see if we should be requesting the rest of the manuscript or not. We might love the chapters, but I’ve read some really screwy synopses (in which the plot took a dramatic turn in the wrong direction) that have pushed me to reject the book rather than ask for more.

How long should a synopsis be?

Well, for the most part that depends on the requirements of the house, the line, or the agent or editor. For me, my answer is to always tell you to send whatever you have. However, that being said, I prefer something shorter and more succinct (if you have it). I think the perfect length of a synopsis is 3 to 5 pages. That should be enough for you to give all of the important details of the story. To reiterate here, it doesn’t matter how long your synopsis is as long as it is strong and tells the story: 10 pages is fine too.

What do agents/editors look for in a synopsis?

And this is what you’re really here to read. Because believe it or not, a synopsis can make or break your ability to get a book deal. Numerous times I’ve received rejection letters from editors who were basing their feedback on the synopsis, because quite simply what they were commenting on wasn’t even in the chapters we submitted. When trying to sell on proposal (and yes, it is possible to sell fiction on proposal), an editor is going to place a great deal of emphasis on the synopsis. It’s the only way for her to figure out how the book plays out.

So how can you be sure your synopsis sings?

• The writing. Like your book, your chapters, and your query, your synopsis needs to be well-written and strong. A weak, hastily written synopsis is going to give the editor the impression that you’re a weak writer who doesn’t or won’t take the time necessary to really make sure that what you’re turning in is the best it can be.
• The voice. It’s not as easy to make your voice come through in a synopsis, but it should still be evident, at least to a small degree. The synopsis should not be a dull, dry play-by-play (or even chapter breakdown) of your book. It should never say something like, “Chapter three begins with . . .” Instead it should be your retelling of the story, in your voice. It should be a short narrative of your story.
• Showing, not telling. Like the writing in your manuscript, the synopsis should show the highlights of what is important to your book, what scenes move the story forward and show how the characters grow. We don’t need to know about every single secondary character and we don’t need to be told what happens every step of the way. We do however need to know how the core of the story plays out, the heart of the story.
• Conflict. This is a bit of a repeat of what I said above, but sometimes people hear things different, so let me reiterate, the synopsis should show the conflicts and challenges faced by your characters and in your plot. What is keeping your characters apart or bringing them together? What challenges does your sleuth face or your warrior? How is the crime solved, what are the red herrings?
• Genre. If you are writing a paranormal romance, for example, make sure that your synopsis has an equal balance of showing how both the paranormal and the romance come into play. Editors are buying your book partly based on hook, which is the paranormal element, but also want to make sure that the romance is strong enough to place this on the the romance list. If you’re writing a mystery or suspense, you want to show how the characters solve the crime, and in suspense, you want to show the suspense. If you’re writing fantasy you want to show the world building, but you also want to make sure the plot is equally strong.

I have to admit, I hate a synopsis as much as you do, but they are a necessary evil of the business, especially when you reach the point in your career where you get to sell on proposal, and because many of my clients are now at that stage I’m working more and more with them on creating a synopsis that’s as strong as the chapters they’ve written.

As with everything else you’re doing besides writing the book, make sure you take the time to write a strong synopsis, but throw all the rules out the window. Write a synopsis that sounds like you and that works with your book and for your story. That’s the synopsis we want to see.

Originally reposted on STET on 2/11/11 with permission of the author.  Thank you, Jessica!

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As owner and literary agent at BookEnds, Jessica Faust prides herself on working closely with her authors to make their goals come to fruition. Currently she's seeking submissions in the areas of historical, contemporary, fantasy, paranormal, and erotic romance; fantasy, steampunk, women's fiction, and mysteries; and YA, especially steampunk, dystopian, and fantasy YA. In nonfiction, Jessica specializes in current affairs, business, career, pop reference, parenting, women's issues, sex, and general nonfiction. While open to anything, Jessica is most actively seeking unique fiction with a strong hook, and nonfiction with creative ideas and large author platforms.

A veteran of publishing, Jessica began her career in 1994 as an acquisitions editor at Berkley Publishing, Macmillan, and Wiley, where she had the unique opportunity to acquire and edit both fiction and nonfiction. Jessica takes her editing experience to the agency, where she works closely with her authors to create the best possible proposal submissions.

Jessica has been a regular columnist with Romantic Times magazine, taught at New York University's Continuing Education Program, been recognized as Agent of the Year by the NYC Romance Writers of America chapter, and is asked regularly to speak at writers' conferences throughout the world. On average she is a guest speaker at eight conferences each year. She is a member of RWA, MWA, and AAR.

A native of Minnesota, Jessica now lives in New Jersey with her family. Her personal interests include cooking, entertaining, reading, traveling, and spending time with friends and family.

You can contact Jessica directly at jfaust@bookends-inc.com or follow her through Twitter at http://twitter.com/BookEndsJessica.

When Beta Readers Take Your Work Too Personally

Originally posted on STET in March 2011.

by Rebeca Schiller

About a year ago when I was submitting Julius for critique at the Novels-List at the Internet Writing Workshop some of my fellow critters took offense of my characters’ lifestyle.

Jake and Corinne are in their late 30s. They have successful and lucrative careers, but they hate their jobs and decide to quit to launch this Marxist magazine, which you all know by now is called Julius. The offended critters were not troubled by the fact that my characters were Marxists, but that they  had the gall to eat out often or order takeout. One person even said that my characters were irresponsible.

In that particular instance I had to explain that in New York City food to order, in many cases, is much cheaper than cooking from scratch. The response I received in an email from the critter was that they should be eating ramen noodles because he knew what it was like to be unemployed and not have money.

Oops. I guess I might have pushed a button or two. I wrote back and explained that my characters had the means to quit their jobs to launch a business, and that eating at restaurants and ordering takeout was an activity that defined them as cosmopolitan and busy New Yorkers.

Other critters questioned their politics, arguing that the breakdown of the Soviet Union and the Soviet-bloc countries proved that Communism had been a failure. One person even proclaimed Julius as a polemic defending a unworthy economic system. One person stopped reading because she  disagreed with their politics.

All I can say to these critters is this: Simmer down now. Don’t take it so personally. It’s fiction. These characters are not real. They are my sole invention.

However, it’s not all bad; there are the positive reactions. One beta reader seems to be in love with Corinne and commented, “Where has this girl been my entire life?” Um, in my head. Sure some of Corinne’s quips and gestures are based on me and even some of her wisecracks I can imagine saying–after all, I wrote them. But her personal demons are very different from mine, and let’s face it, although, we share an obsession over Alvah Bessie, I’m not haunted by his spirit.  Another reader, also a published writer, loves Jake. She sees him as attractive, intelligent, and said he would be the type of guy she would want to date. I would too, especially the way I’ve pictured him in my head and in the bedroom.

Although I’m in my ninety-something iteration of the draft and the story is going through a major overhaul, what’s interesting to note just by the sample of these comments is that Julius seems to be pushing buttons–both good and bad. I’m not getting, middle of the road reactions, but extreme ones.  I just hope that by the time it’s finally finished, and published by a major house that I’ll get a good review by Michiko Kakutani  and slammed by Glenn Beck–now imagine what my sales will be like?

~~~~~

Rebeca Schiller is the online editor of HAND/EYE Magazine. Previously, she wrote for a number of print and online publications on a wide variety of subjects from pet health to real estate.

Rebeca also has been a contributing reviewer for The Internet Review of Books, ForeWord Magazine, Political Affairs Magazine, The Feminist Review and Dan's Papers. She is the editor-in-chief and publisher of Alvah’s Books.

Rebeca lives on Shelter Island, NY with her three dogs and is working on her first novel Julius.

Vlog on Short Stories by Author Jackson Pearce

What's your best advice for short story writing?  Share your thoughts in the comments!

Passive Voice = Passé

by Amy Sue Nathan



One of my favorite parts of Stephen King’s On Writing is when he moves his desk out of the middle of his office to a place against the wall, noting that the world doesn’t revolve around him and that he didn’t need to sit there and wait for the stories to pop into his head, that the stories are all out there and he needed to go get them.


He pursues his stories.


King is adamant in his opinion of using active vs. passive voice and in the editing I’ve done for several writers, I’d say that this is the snafu even the best and most seasoned writers run into from time to time. In novices it’s lack of experience and in experienced writers it can be just a lapse, the failure to re-read and catch something - which is why it’s always good to have more eyes on your work than just your own.


So why is active better than passive? In life it’s always better to do than not do.


For example:


The entrance exam was failed by half the students.


It makes sense, right? Of course it does. But it’s passive. Think of passive as passé. And while the adjective passé means out-of-style — the noun passé means an attack (in fencing) that doesn’t hit the target.


And as writers we want to hit our targets — we want our words to be sharp, our thoughts concise, our sentences well-structured. It doesn’t mean there is no creative license. It doesn’t mean there no exceptions to the rule. It does mean you should try your passive sentences in an active voice to make sure it doesn’t serve your story - and your reader - better.


For example, let’s take those same students again:


Half the students failed the entrance exam.


Ah, much better. It means the same thing but ‘the students failed’ is active while ‘the exam was failed’ is passive.


I am a visual learner, so I picture things in my mind. Can I picture - truly picture - ‘the exam was failed?’ That makes the exam the subject of the sentence. Can I picture - truly picture - ‘the students failed?’ Yes I can. It’s a clear-cut roadmap to the meaning, while the passive version is more of a roundabout way of saying it.


I think for many of us it’s a habit. When I write quickly - or blog - I use passive voice. No crime in being passé in rough drafts or online. But not in a finished, polished piece of writing.


Here’s a list of passive verbs to watch out for in your writing.


is
am
are
was
were
will be
will have been
has been
had been
would have been
being
to be


Here are some other passé verbs worth looking out for:


exists
seems
appears
represents
presents
constitutes
offers
has
acts as
displays
makes
exemplifies
describes
characterizes
shows
occurs
contains


Is this an issue in your writing? Any suggestions for how to catch those pesky passive verbs aside from using the search function in Word (which I adore)…let us know!

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.com.



Reposted with permission of the author.

The Fiction Author's Platform

by Karen Dionne


"We keep hearing this phrase, 'What's the platform?' . . . Well, what it is is this: What does the author bring to the table? Talent is not enough. The number of slots open to fiction on a publisher's list is being reduced all the time." -- Literary agent Nat Sobel, quoted in Poets and Writers Magazine

In 2006, when then-Simon & Schuster editor Marcela Landres visited the Backspace discussion forums for an online Q&A, she claimed the fiction author's platform was absolutely imperative. At the time, a number of our published authors objected, saying they didn't have a platform, and they still got published. Their thinking is understandable - an author wants to believe their novel sold because it was good.


But then we started looking more closely, and realized that one of them was a midwife who'd written a book that featured a midwife; another was an animal lover who'd written a novel about horses; another was a stay-at-home soccer mom who'd written a novel about - you guessed it.


Marcela put it honestly if somewhat bluntly: If she had to make a decision between two equally good novels, and one author had a platform and the other did not, she'd choose the author with the platform every time.


Why? Because an author's having a platform means the likelihood of the publisher selling many copies of that novel increases.


After a novel is written, it's all about sales. The agent has to convince potential editors that THIS book is different from all the rest. The acquiring editor has to convince the marketing committee and the editorial board that this book is the one on which they should take a chance. The publisher in turn has to convince the booksellers in order to get them to stock it; the booksellers have to convince their readers that THIS is the novel they should buy.


Before any of that can happen, the author has to sell themselves. It’s not as hard as it sounds - all it means is that you need to figure out what makes you and your novel unique, and then work with it so that you too, “bring something to the table.”


Just as a real platform elevates a speaker above his audience, if fiction authors can find a way to make themselves stand out from the crowd, the odds of their fiction being picked up by a major publisher increase.


The fiction author's platform could be a unique subject matter that has mass appeal. They could be well-connected. They could show potential publishers early on that they're savvy about selling by including a marketing plan along with their novel.


I know aspiring authors frequently don't like to think about the business side of things, and the idea of positioning themselves to look attractive to potential publishers turns them off. But if someone wanted to become an astronaut, they wouldn't think twice about doing everything required to get the job. If an author wants to get published, they need to understand and accept how the publishing business works, work with it, and turn it to their advantage.


Writing is art, but publishing is a business. Publishers need to make money on the books they buy, and doing that depends on choosing books with the potential to sell well. Particularly for a debut novelist who's just breaking in, the publisher needs something to make that book stand out from the thousands of others - something that'll make the novel get noticed and purchased - a platform.

Detroit native Karen Dionne is the internationally published author of two environmental thrillers. She is cofounder of the online writers community Backspace, and organizes the Backspace Writers Conferences held every May and November in New York City. Karen is a member of Sisters in Crime, the Mystery Writers of America, and the International Thriller Writers, where she serves on the board of directors as Vice President, Technology.

The Three Lives of a Writer

by Janna Qualman

It occurred to me with certain clarity this week that I live three lives. Three. All from this one body.

They're separate, but pieces of them overlap. Each is carried out by real parts of me.

Life in the Flesh

I am living, breathing, my body holds a spirit. I primp and present my physical self, nourish my person without regularly exercising it, drive an automatic SUV, read aloud, sing aloud, stir breakfast--and sometimes dinner--with my favorite wooden spatula, lose myself to folding laundry, loathe putting it away. I wince when the phone rings, but love to give hugs. My mind wanders while I'm in church, and I mutter ridiculous things to the family dog. I find solace and happiness and frustation and doubt in the act of writing, can't get enough kisses from my daughters, am never sated. This is real life. The one I've lived for thirty-[two] years, with emotion and experience and depth. Real time. Tangible existence.

Virtual Life

I am a presence. With pictures, sometimes, but most often with words. My thoughts and essence are on display, whether through blog posts or online statuses. I give of myself through a filter, the filter of this internet that is not my physical location, just designed representation. It's me, too, but with time delay. With edits. Smooth, composed. Confident. I banter, I share, I feel, I learn and love. Virtually.

Life through Fiction

I am what my mind creates. My characters are extensions of me, their stories fill me. New experiences, lived vicariously. Papered emotions, felt as if real and raw. People as real to me as the Postmaster, my daughters' teachers, the person driving behind me, my best friend's mother, because they are real, in some other place, even if only by manuscript or in Word document. Entirely made up, but true, honest at the same time. I exist so that they can exist. And because they exist.

These three Jannas, they feel individual, so different, so distinct. But I reconcile one with the others. Aren't I all of them? My three lives. Defining one existence.

What about yours?

Janna Qualman is one who finds inspiration in the layers of everyday life. She loves words, fiction (and the truth found within), her family, and the three C's: chocolate, coffee, and chai. You can visit and learn more at her blog, Something She Wrote (http://somethingshewrote.blogspot.com/) or on Twitter, @jannaqualman.

Reading Across The Racial and Cultural Divide

by Randy Susan Meyers

I read a post on author Tayari Jones’ blog some time ago that hasn’t left my mind. She asks why books by black writers aren’t considered universal, starting her post with these words:

“In the last few years, black writers have been speaking out about double standards in the world of publishing. Among these are Martha Southgate’s NYT essay,“Writers Like Me” and more recently, Bernice’s MacFadden’s “Black Writers in A Ghetto of the Publishing Industry’s Making”. In these articles, both writers (who also are novelists) put into a public conversation the issues that black writers have been complaining about for years — like why is it that stories about black folks that are written by white folks get so much traction. (The Help, The Secret Lives of Bees, Little Bee, etc.) How come books about us by us are not thought to be “universal”? Why are black faces on the cover of a book thought to be so alienating? At this point in the gripe session, I break out my favorite oh-no-he-didn’t moment — when someone asked me what percentage of my work is “black” and what percentage is “human.”

It’s not only a great post, it’s an important question for all readers and writers. For readers: you/we are missing a vast store of great books by staying within one’s cultural boundaries. We’re missing great reads and, as important, we’re missing that most important (to me) method available to understand each other. How better to understand other’s experiences, than to immerse in their lives through novels and memoirs? Whether or not one has issues with The Help in it’s portrayal of black servants in the South, it is beyond argument that one will be immersed in a more honest, experiential read with Anne Moody than with Kathryn Stockett.

We don’t need to read across racial and cultural lines as do-gooders. We don’t need to read for the common good or as an act of charity. We should be doing this for the reason Jones’ makes in her post in regards to the need for black writers to be considered American authors as well as black American authors, “It is going to be up to readers.”

I am not going to belabor her points — she makes them far better than I could. I will say that I am grateful that I found her through Twitter (another point for Twitter!) And I am grateful that it led me to read one of her books, because now I can look forward to reading all her work.

My main question is this: I gobble novels. I read a certain sub-genre (the troubled family in a troubled culture) like crazy. Jones’ novel Leaving Atlanta is a perfect gem of the genre. I also read reviews, magazines, papers — you name it — like crazy. (My home would be a candidate for Hoarder, if I weren’t also addicted to recycling and clear surfaces.) So why didn’t I know about Jones before Twitter? Why is Kim McLarin, a great writer, not a household name? Why are there so few readings by black authors in my home town of Boston — a city rife with author visits?

Yes, it’s up to us as readers to discover the gems we’ve been ignoring, such as Leaving Atlanta. Based on the true story of the Atlanta child murders from 1979-80, the three narrators in this book will break your heart. Jones’ writes in the transparent manner I love –calling no attention to itself, while wrapping words seamlessly around the story with clarity, precision and beauty. Describing a scene of traumatized children, she writes “All of the kids wore weird expressions, like their eyes had been reversed and they were all staring inside their own heads.”

When we can read page-turning work, learn about history, and drink in great writing, that seems like a good deal to me — especially if we can pull away from ghettoizing writers at the same time.

This post was originally published on The Huffington Post and Word Love. Reposted with permission of the author.

(Visit author Carleen Brice’s blog, Welcome White Readers! for many ideas on this topic. Carleen’s work includes novels Children of the Waters and Orange Mint and Honey.

Randy Susan Meyers is the author of THE MURDERER'S DAUGHTERS, published by by St. Martin’s Press, a Target Club Pick, named one of the Massachusetts Book Awards Top Ten Fiction books, and a 2010 pick from Daily Candy, Elle France, Boston Herald, The Winnipeg Free Press, The Daily Forward's Sisterhood List, Book Reporters, Goodreads and Author Exposure, The dark drama of Randy Susan Meyer’s debut novel is informed by her years of work with batterers, domestic violence victims, and at-risk youth impacted by family violence.