Write a Novel Synopsis for Your Querying Package

Gina Kammer Author

The synopsis is a representation of your novel in miniature. In hints and subtext, you need to relay the full experience of your novel in 1-2 pages.

Write a Novel Synopsis for Your Querying Package

When you’re drafting up all your various materials for querying, the process might start to feel a little redundant. Your query letter will give a quick pitch for your novel, your opening pages will quite literally show an agent or editor some of your story … and now you need to provide a synopsis of your book too?

Each of these querying package components serves a slightly different purpose, even though they’re all aiming toward one goal: convincing an agent to represent your novel. And it’s best to have each piece at the ready—and as polished as possible—even if not every agent asks for all three up front.

So let’s make sure you can get started on a tight synopsis that does its job (convincing an agent to represent your book) as well as it can!

Note: What follows is adapted from a lesson in The Querying Course! If you want step-by-step guidance through every part and phase of the querying process, from crafting the documents and sending them out strategically to knowing what to do based on the feedback you receive (or even the lack of feedback!), you can enroll in this self-guided course. And if you want support and expert eyes giving you feedback on your work? Join the Enchant Your Readers program and add The Querying Course at checkout for full coaching through the process PLUS the self-paced course!

What Is a Synopsis?

A synopsis is a summary, but distinguish a synopsis for querying purposes from the "synopsis" you may have written for yourself in brainstorming your novel ideas or from play-by-play summaries. It's not even a beat sheet, although those are becoming more popular for agents to request. The synopsis in a submission package may contain any or all such elements, but it has to do so much more.

At its basic level, the synopsis stands in for your manuscript. For all purposes that agents need to know your manuscript, assume that it's only the synopsis that is important (for now). Pretend that is what you're selling. Because, until you get to the manuscript request stage, you are.

The synopsis is a representation of your novel in miniature. In lieu of having time for checking a full manuscript for fit and marketability—and, importantly, that you know how to write a solid novel—agents rely on the synopsis as a way to get an accurate picture in about five minutes.

So, basically, in hints and subtext, you need to relay the full experience of your novel in 1-2 pages. Think of the synopsis as just as much of a product as your manuscript for this purpose.

What Should You Include in a Synopsis?

Your synopsis needs to show the full story arc. This includes both the plot events and how they affect and matter to your character. It should note the character's ultimate transformation (as contained within this book—don't let other books in a planned series or anything like that distract you here).

But the synopsis also needs to make internal sense—it should read like a story in its own right, except that it will be a lot more telling rather than showing and won't include much detail or subplots. What you introduce should conclude or wrap up within the synopsis itself. So add nothing extraneous—add nothing that fails to demonstrate your ability to write a tight story.

And, like your story, the synopsis should not get meta about itself nor comment on how it works, where it fits in the market, or reference its structure. Let your ability to tell a solid tale show those things for itself.

In other words, add none of your own thoughts in your synopsis. Rather, pretend your synopsis is your book. Your book wouldn't comment on itself (unless you're doing something literary or avant-garde, I suppose—but even that's not really a pass for this querying task). It would simply show the characters grappling with the conflict in their lives in a logical sequence of events. 

So, too, use in-the-story transitions to give a clear picture if it would otherwise not make sense in the cause-and-effect flow: Meanwhile, Jane was investigating her own problem (and then continue with this other point-of-view character, or this other, concurrent timeline, and try to show their correlation/how they matter to each other).

What Makes a Synopsis Good?

However, that doesn't mean you can't still make your synopsis sound enticing through letting your storytelling panache shine through. Your submission package should be nothing but professional from query to sample. But that doesn't mean drab or uninspired for writers.

Draw on your skills as a storyteller to make even your synopsis a gripping reading experience (minus all the wordy parts and things like dialogue and description). You can do that best by establishing character motivations (layer in a dose of the character's internal conflict to show how plot events matter to that character), which will make the plot matter to the readers (agents in this case) by proxy. Just don't confuse writing a gripping synopsis with writing it as marketing copy.

While you may be using your synopsis to "sell" your book, it is not the back cover copy (or blurb) that intrigues readers. You're giving away your ending, after all, and not doing anything unprofessionally gimmicky to try to make agents reach out to you to find out what happens because you withheld it from them. (They will not be intrigued or amused, but they will use it as grounds for a swift rejection.)

Save that high-stakes premise style and language for the query letter. Entice agents with the query, then grip them through the synopsis with an accurate representation of your manuscript and a masterful command of story.

Show them exactly what they're getting in your manuscript through the synopsis. But don't tell them about it. (Not to add further confusion, but brevity does mean your synopsis will be a whole lot of telling instead of showing. However, your synopsis as a whole will serve to show agents how well your story works, how it fits in the market, etc. by nature of accurately representing your story.)

The easiest way to write a synopsis that can achieve such accurate yet compelling representation of your story is to start with a summary. You'll find out more about the full process and steps in The Querying Course. For full professional coaching and support through the process, join the Enchant Your Readers program and add on The Querying Course at checkout for an exclusive discount!

Categories: editing, manuscript stages, novel drafting, novel planning, writer mindset