Writing Articles

Got a great idea for a book? Then two roads are open to you. One is to spend six months or longer writing your book, then send it to a publisher and cross your fingers. The other is to sell the idea first with the aid of a synopsis. There are at least four advantages to the second method.

[More:]

(1) It will save you a lot of hard work and disappointment if it turns out no-one is interested in publishing a book on your chosen subject (and you can then try another topic instead).

(2) If the publisher likes the idea of the book, he may have some suggestions on how it should be written.

(3) If the publisher is very keen on your idea, he may offer you a contract which guarantees publication if the manuscript meets the required standard. You will also, in most cases, receive an advance on royalties.

(4) If you have a contract, or at least an expression of interest, from a publisher, it will help motivate you to finish the book – especially if the publisher has also set you a deadline!

So what is a synopsis? It is basically a summary of what your book is (or will be) about. In the case of non-fiction books, a synopsis is normally submitted to a publisher as part of a proposal, along with a covering letter and one or two sample chapters. If the publisher likes the proposal, he will hopefully commission you to write the book itself.

The first requirement of a synopsis is that it should be concise: no longer than two pages, and preferably just one. The style is probably best explained with an example, so here is the synopsis I submitted for my first published book, How to Find Your Ideal Partner (published by Imperia).

[I]This book is aimed at unattached adults, for whom it will provide a practical guide to finding a partner in life and love. Although written for all age groups, it is envisaged that it will be particularly relevant to second-time-singles in their thirties and forties, for whom meeting a partner can present particular problems.

The first part of the book, Take It From Here, looks at the individual him/herself. It makes the point that, to find a compatible partner, you first need to ‘find’ yourself. Through a series of exercises, readers are guided to a greater understanding of themselves and the partner they are seeking.

The second part of the book, The Great Pursuit, examines the many methods that exist for meeting a partner – from nightclubs to introduction agencies, parties to personal advertisements. Finally, part three of the book, Getting It All Together, takes readers from that all-important first date to building a long-term relationship.

The book concludes with an ‘Ideal Partner Action Plan’ to help the reader create his or her own strategy for finding a partner. An Appendix gives details of singles clubs and organizations, introduction agencies, magazines publishing personal ads, singles holidays, and so on.

Case studies are included throughout the book. These are based on real-life couples, explaining how they met, and illustrating the points made in the text. The total length is around 70,000 words, divided into sixteen chapters.[/I]

There are no hard-and-fast rules about the style in which synopses should be written. Here are a few personal recommendations, however.

(1) Write the synopsis in good grammatical English, not note form. A synopsis is one of your first opportunities to impress a publisher with the quality of your writing, so you may as well take advantage of it. Conversely, if you write the synopsis in note form, the publisher will have no way of knowing whether you can write good English or not.

(2) Write it in the present tense, not the future or conditional. In other words, write ‘the book examines’ rather than ‘the book will examine’ or ‘the book would examine’. As well as being more concise, this helps plant the idea in the publisher’s mind that the manuscript is readily available (even if you haven’t yet written it!).

(3) Keep the tone of your synopsis upbeat and confident. You must sound as though you know what you are talking about and are competent to write about it. On the other hand, avoid putting things into the synopsis you know that you will be unable to deliver in the finished book.

(4) In a synopsis you inevitably have to be selective, so choose the information you put in carefully. Aim to make your book sound exciting and original, not dull and derivative. While you should avoid any suggestion of hype (‘this brilliant book will blow apart the world of publishing’), you should sound as though you are enthused by your book’s concept rather than simply going through the motions.

(5) Avoid cluttering the synopsis with information about yourself and your qualifications for writing the book. This information belongs in the covering letter, not the synopsis. Likewise, put any reference to competing books (and why yours is better) in the covering letter.

Submit the synopsis to your chosen publisher, accompanied by a covering letter. As indicated earlier, it is also a good idea to include one or two sample chapters, so that the publisher can assess your style and the quality of your writing. I would suggest submitting the opening chapter and one taken from later in the book.

Can you also sell a novel by this method before you have written it? Well, maybe. You do occasionally hear of novels sold on the basis of a few lines scribbled on the back of an envelope, but this is very much the exception that proves the rule. For the most part, a publisher will not buy a novel from an unknown new writer until he has seen the entire manuscript.

That said, if you have a really original idea, there is no harm in trying this approach. Again, write the synopsis in the present tense (‘Peter meets Angela for a drink after work, and they realise they have more in common than they first thought’) and submit it with one or two sample chapters. It can also help to include a chapter list outlining the contents of each chapter.

Be aware, however, that if a publisher likes your proposal, they will expect you to be able to come up with the novel itself quickly. If you’re not sure whether you can do this, it may be best to complete the novel (or most of it) first. You can then submit a synopsis and sample chapters to your target publishers, and ask if they are interested in seeing the full manuscript.

For further advice on writing synopses for publishers, take a look at the excellent Writing World site at http://www.writing-world.com/publish/index.shtml. There are several useful articles here, but I especially recommend Patricia Fry’s piece, ‘The Nonfiction Book Proposal: Put Your Best Foot Forward’. As well as advising on how to write a synopsis, Patricia goes into some detail about the other components of a proposal. Also on this page of the Writing World site you will find a link to a helpful article on how to write a novel synopsis by Marg Gilks.