It is a sad but true fact that few writers can get a novel published without first writing a synopsis of it. Crafting a synopsis requires you to do the impossible—squashing hundreds of pages of lovingly created characters, plot and setting onto just one piece of paper or even a few paragraphs. And if you fail, your beautifully written book may never sell.
Novelist Wen Spencer talks more about the importance of a synopsis in her article, Query Letters, Critiquing & Emotional Trauma: A Novelist's Guide to Selling That First Book. Liz Williams and Lyda Morehouse kindly share some of their successful synopses with us.
Writing a synopsis for a first novel can be particularly difficult. Liz said she sent a cover letter and three sample chapters with the synopsis of her first novel, Ghost Sister. The major difference between the synopsis for her sixth novel, which has sold, and her first is that she has "more leeway" now.
"There is only a very brief sketch now," Liz said.
Examples From Liz Williams
Example From Lyda Morehouse
Other examples of synopses can be found in the book, I Have This Nifty Idea edited by Mike Resnick (Wildside Press, 2001). The book includes synopsis that authors like Robert Silverberg, Joe Haldeman, Charles Sheffield and Katharine Kerr used to sell novels.
On a related topic, a good article on writing query letters by Lynn Flewelling, The Complete Nobody's Guide To Writing Query Letters, is available on the SFWA site.
