Writers Tricks of the Trade ISSUE 1, VOLUME 9 | Page 39

H OW TO W RITE A N OVEL S YNOPSIS
J ANE F RIEDMAN
P HOTO BY REAMYDE / F LICKR
Jane Friedman has 20 years of experience in the publishing industry, with expertise in
business strategy for authors and publishers. She’s the co-founder (with WU’s Porter Ander-
son) of The Hot Sheet, the essential industry newsletter for authors, and has previously
worked for F+W Media (home to Writer’s Digest) and the Virginia Quarterly Review.
Note from Jane: The following post is an old favorite that I regularly update. (Republished with permission)
T HE S YNOPSIS
I
t’s probably the single most despised
document you might be asked to pre-
pare: . The synopsis is sometimes re-
quired because an agent or publisher wants
to see, from beginning to end, what hap-
pens in your story. Thus, the synopsis must
convey a book’s entire narrative arc. It
shows what happens and who changes,
and it has to reveal the ending.
Don’t confuse the synopsis with sales
copy—the kind of material that might ap-
pear on your back cover or in an Amazon
description. You’re not writing a punchy
marketing piece for readers that builds ex-
W RITERS ’ T RICKS OF THE T RADE
citement. It’s not an editorial about your
book.
Unfortunately, there is no single “right”
way to write a synopsis. You’ll find conflict-
ing advice about the appropriate length,
which makes it rather confusing territory
for new writers especially. However, I rec-
ommend keeping it short, or at least start-
ing short. Write a one-page synopsis—
about 500-600 words, single spaced—and
use that as your default, unless the submis-
sion guidelines ask for something longer. If
your synopsis runs longer, anything up to
two pages (again, single spaced) is usually
acceptable. Most agents/editors will not be
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S PRING 2019