Happy Not to Write A Synopsis

Just pretty flowers with which to illustrate the post!

One of the things I'm very happy about as an independently published author is that I never have to write a synopsis again. Blurbs, yes, but that's another story and not this week's topic...as other Whores have noted in their posts, writing the synopsis for your novel is a challenge. Do I say too much, do I say too little, do I give away the whole plot, do they need to know about this minor character in Chapter 30....lots of time and effort.

I have written them, back in the day when I was subbing to some trad publishers and ebook publishers. I must have done ok, since Carina Press published my first two ancient Egyptian fantasy romances. I can't even find the one I wrote for Priestess of the Nile but I did locate the one for Warrior of the Nile, and it seems to have been a pretty bare bones recitation of the plot highlights. It did generate a revise and resubmit letter from Carina, and I made a lot of changes and then the book was acquired. I wrote one for Mission to Mahjundar which was good enough to get a request for a full from another publisher but then they passed on the book itself. That turned out ok for me, however, as they soon after went out of business and I eventually self published the book.

So that's kinda my entire experience with writing synopses. And I can't really generate any advice for you from that.

As a contest judge for unpublished manuscripts I've also seen some short version synopses that ranged from telling the entire backstory before the book itself would begin (not too helpful) to a really good explanation of the main characters, what's at stake for them and the outcome (enticing).

I think Linda had a lot of good suggestions and links in her post this week so you might go check it out again if you missed it. Loved her term "synopsi". KA Krantz also had some good specifics in her post. Not to slight Jeffe, James, Marshall and Michelle!!!

Here's a terrific, concise excerpt from a Bob Mayer class (I have great respect for him), some good sound bites:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmF3Zr3L2tI   He talks fast though!

And in other news, I was notified that Magic of the Nile won the Hearts Through History Romancing the Novel Contest! WHEE!