How to Write a Synopsis (The Writers' Rooms)

As you may know, I'm the Director of The Writers' Rooms, a literary organization focused on providing a free, safe environment to all writers, no matter their experience, income, gender, etc. The specific "Room" I lead is The Violet Realm, which is our Sci-fi/Fantasy group. What's a Room, you ask? It's a two-hour session with a literary lesson during the first hour and then free writing/sharing the second hour. We have a plethora of groups ranging from poetry, romance, LGBT, all-genre, with more coming soon! The community is wonderful, and I'm thankful for every person who brings their story to us. Best of all, the Rooms are free. 

Tonight, we talked about how to write a synopsis. I thought I'd share it with you so you could get an idea of the information that The Writers' Rooms has to offer, and also provide some tips on how to prep a synopsis for querying an agent. 

What is a synopsis? A synopsis is, in short, the summary of your story. You’ll need this if you’re querying a traditional publisher. But, this is also a great way for you to figure out the main plot of your story! 

Rules of thumb: 

• Only name your MC and main villain (typically only 3 characters at most). Briefly outline their roles so you can refer back to them throughout the synopsis. The first time you list the name, write it in all caps.

• A good synopsis should only be about 500 words. Any longer, and an agent may toss it out the window, or you may realize you have some work to do.

• You must tell the whole story, including the ending gasp! The agent has to know where the story’s going, and so do you!

• Focus on the main plot, not any of the subplots. The subplots are for the book.

• You need to know what your characters want and make the plot out of that. What are their ultimate goals?

How to Set Up the Synopsis

You may remember from a previous session that we talked about the Beat Sheet to set up your entire story. Making your synopsis is very similar. Together, we’ll take a look at an amazing resource called “How to Write a 1-Page Synopsis”  with a little flare added. Source is at the bottom. 

• Set the Scene: Create the stage for your world and your characters. We need to know what genre/timeline you’re focusing on. Fantasy? Show us the castle. Science Fiction? Show us the ship and the world. Enchant us with the very first line.

• Introduce the Protagonist: Bring in your Main Character (in all caps). We want a couple descriptive words to say what he/she wants, and to help us identify him/her. Blacksmith? Banker? Butler? Let us know!

• Inciting Incident: Yes, we’re taking a trip to Freytag’s Pyramid. What event, decision, or change prompts the main character to act? Is it a death in the family? A murder? A young boy buying a robot with a hidden message?

• Plot Point #1: This is where we get into the first big change in the story. What’s the first turning point? What does the MC do to change the book’s direction? This is the point where your heroine might start out on her journey to travel to a different planet or go on an epic quest.

• Conflict and Other Characters: Your character enters a new world/environment. What new life experience does she have? How does she meet the antagonist/villain? This is also a chance for you to bring in, say, a love interest. But again, only include important characters.

• Midpoint: This is the point when the MC may have to make a 180 degree change or emotion in the story. Once she crosses this line, she can’t go back. She makes a decision that changes everything. Or maybe her cowardly nature turns to heroism.

• We’re Winning! Whoops, No We’re Not: Reveal when your MC thinks she has the upper hand but then the antagonist swoops in to ruin everything. Maybe a magical item gets stolen, or an escaping ship gets shot down. For once, the villain has the advantage.

• Darkest Night: This is when your MC has hit rock bottom. She has to fight through it both emotionally and physically. Maybe the villain has trapped her. Maybe she’s had everything taken away. How does she find the strength to enter the final battle?

• Climax: Battle time! What happens when the MC and the antagonist come head-to-head? Yes, we do need the conclusion.

• Resolution: How does the climax end? Does everyone live happily ever after, or are we doing a Shakespearean ending and killing everyone? How do you tie up loose ends, and loose romances?

• Closing Scene: What’s the last scene you want to leave your reader with? Has the MC won or failed? Is there a future waiting? We want to know!

Prompts: 

1. Take your story and write a synopsis. Use the outline above to separate out each important moment from your plot.

2. Think of a new story and use the outline to plot it out.

How to Find a Literary Agent: 101

Ah, literary agents. Those elusive, mystical creatures that you can only find at the end of a double rainbow. Or at least, that's what it can feel like to a new author. After the excitement of completing your book has worn off, it's time to take the next step to find an agent (if you're planning to go the traditional route). Yes, you can still query certain small presses and publishing houses directly without an agent, but you have a better chance of getting your foot in the door if you have someone praising your book. 

So, where do you start? 

Books:

• Favorite Books: Look at your favorite books that match the genre of the manuscript you're trying to publish and take note of the publisher. From there, you can do a search online to see what agents work with that publishing company. If the agents accept similar books, they may be interested in taking a look at yours.

  • Some publishing houses don't require you to have an agent. DAW, for example, accepts unsolicited fantasy and science fiction novels. So if you don't want to take the time to find a literary agent, that's another way to go about trying to get your book published. 

• Guide to Literary Agents 2019: This book, along with those in years past, can help you select an agent. It guides you in preparing a query letter and introduces you some of the current agents who are seeking submissions. 

• Writer's Digest: Whether it's in magazine form or online, Writer's Digest always has a plethora of information about the writing world. They even have their own section on locating literary agents and will sometimes promote particular agents in their printed magazines (which I highly recommend). Not only that, they provide great advice on how to prep yourself to query agents/publishers/editors. 

Query Tracker and #MSWishList

• Query Tracker: This free site is a great way to scope out publishers and agents. Not only can you see who is or isn't accepting queries, you can categorize what fields you're most interested in (fantasy, YA, romance, etc). You have to sign up to do a specific search for an agent, but again, it's free. The people on this list are considered legitimate agents as well, so if you hear about an agent who might be a good match for you, run their name through Query Tracker first. 

• #MSWishList: This site shows the manuscript wish lists of agents and editors and also provides advice on writing query letters. An editor is a good route to go as well because they may be able to connect you with an agent. Scroll through and see who's interested in your genre and click on their names to learn more about them and what literary agency they represent. Also, make sure to put their names through Query Tracker for additional information. 

#Pitchwars and #Pitmad

• #Pitchwars: This is a Twitter mentoring program that happens once a year.  Published/agented authors, editors, or industry interns choose one writer each to mentor. The mentors then help the writer perfect their manuscript to prepare it for an agent showcase. Participating agents review the lists of books and will make requests. This year's Pitch Wars mentee application window opens on September 25th and will stay open until September 27th, so get those manuscripts ready! 

• #Pitmad: This is a "pitch party" on Twitter where writers pitch their completed, polished, and unpublished manuscripts in tweets they share throughout the day. Agents and editors make requests by liking or favoriting the pitch, which means you can query directly to them. Keep in mind that you have to be unagented to participate. #Pitmad happens quarterly, and the next one is actually this Thursday, June 6th! To learn more, check out the site, or you can read my past entry, Brace Yourselves: #Pitmad is Coming. 

Make Literary Friends

• Whether in person, through twitter, facebook, or instagram, try to make literary friends. Sometimes the best way to find agents is by learning about them from other writers. You can also follow agents on twitter and see when they're looking for manuscripts to represent. And believe me, most of them are nice and won't bite ;-). Just be yourself, and don't harass the agents about reviewing your manuscript. Be patient. Just like you needed time to write it, they'll need time to read it. 

Important: Before you even begin reaching out to agents, keep these things in mind: 

• Look for an agent who represents your genre.

• Take note of the agent's submission requirements, because everyone has something different. 

• Make sure you have your manuscript polished and ready for review. If they make a full request, you don't want to have to tell them that you're not done. 

• Book summary: complete

• Pitches: complete

• Query letter (without the personal info directed to the agent): complete. 

I hope this helps you take the next step to getting your book traditionally published. Remember, you're not alone, and I believe in you. 

Traditional Publishing 101

Ever since finishing two of my books, I've had to ask the tough question of whether I want to go indie or traditional with publishing. Well, I don't like making decisions, so I decided to be a hybrid. While I'm indie publishing The Purple Door District in December, I'm also trying to go the traditional route with my other book Dragon Steal. 

But what does it take to publish a book traditionally? I had a friend ask me this question recently, so I thought I'd toss up my own thoughts on the whole process. Keep in mind, this is just based on what I've learned through my own journey and studies. If you have advice about publishing, feel free to post it down below. 

Warning! This is going to be a longer topic. I originally wrote this for The Writers’ Rooms, and I’ve expanded upon it for my readers here.

Pros and Cons of Traditional Publishing

• They know their stuff. Traditional publishers are in the business, so they know how to get the job done. They have a team of people who can do all the little fiddly bits (covers, back matter, editing, marketing, legalese, rights, taxes…) so you don’t have to do it on your own. It saves you a huge headache. 

• Legitimacy. Because of the gatekeepers, people know that if a book is good enough to be published traditionally there’s a certain expectation of quality--or at least of whatever quality the publishing house is known for. (Note: this does not mean that indie publishing is not legitimate. There's still a stigma against self-publishing, but it's dissipating day by day).  

• Marketing. You don't have to do your marketing alone! A team will help you, though you will still be expected to market your story somewhat. 

• But… They take whatever they think is marketable. This can mean a distinct lack of freedom for your writing, since they’re less likely to take “risky” work.

• But… Publishers are ultimately in it for the money, and will drop writers for the slightest reasons. Even well-established, upper-mid-range authors will find themselves struggling sometimes. Or, a publishing house could drop an author partway through their series and battle over the legal rights of the original books. 

• But...It takes FOREVER to publish your book. For YA, sometimes a book that’s acquired doesn’t come out for two years. By then, the hot market could have moved on and you'll have missed your "hot topic" window. 

First Step: Query Letter, Pitch, and Synopsis

• Query Letter: This is essentially a sales pitch to an agent to get them interested in your book. It’s a brief piece that describes the story, provides word count, relates the book to other familiar genres/books, and gives a little background about the author. This is often one of the hardest things to write asides from your story. Make sure you find a good guideline example to follow and adhere to anything an agent requests in the query letter. You can check out my blog post all about writing query letters here. 

• Pitch: The pitch is your elevator speech. You want to wow the agent, editor, publisher with a 5-second pitch, 30-second pitch, or 1-minute pitch. Think of it as 1 sentence, 2 sentences, and a paragraph about your story. Throw in something unique that is going to catch the listener’s attention. A great way to get practice is by participating in pitmad on twitter, which happens quarterly. You put your pitch on twitter at the same time agents and publishers are looking for the "next best thing." If they like your tweet (or contact you directly), it means they're interested in your piece! The next one is on December 6th, so get those pitches ready! 

• Synopsis: Your synopsis is basically a long summary of your story. In about two pages, double spaced, you have to introduce the agent to your protagonists, antagonists, your world, your plot, and everything that's unique about the story. This includes (gasp) the ending! They want to hear it in your voice, not just a simple retelling. This piece is vital, because it may make your break your chance at getting to talk to an agent. If you're interested, I can write a blog post about constructing a synopsis. Let me know below! 

Additional Resources:  

Tactful Ways to Say Awkward Things in Your Query Letter, Medium.com

The 10 Dos and Don’ts of Writing a Query Letter, Writer’s Digest

7 Tips for Pitching to an Agent or Editor at a Conference, Writer’s Digest

Step Two: Finding an Agent/Publisher/Editor

• Research: Look for Agents who are requesting your genre. One easy way to do this is to find out the agents of some of your favorite books that are similar to yours. Books like “Guide to Literary Agents 2018” can help you not only find agents, but develop your query letter too. Don’t just query to a random agent. They need to be looking for the thing you’re selling. You can also check out Query Tracker to see what agents are looking for. Once you do find an agent, model your sample chapters, query, and pitch to their standards. Also, by no means should an agent ask for money up front (but we'll get into that in the red flags section). 

• Response: Response time can take a very long time, even 6-months to a year. You can query to multiple agents, but if an agent accepts you, you’re responsible for letting other inquiring agents know that you’ve accepted an offer. Typically, if an agent is interested, they’ll request a few chapters or the full copy of your book. Query Tracker is great with indicating response time for agents as well. 

• Rejection: Everyone is going to get rejected at least once. J.K. Rowling was rejected by multiple agents before she found one. If a rejection says something more than, “I’m not interested,” consider that a success, because it means the agent thought enough about the story to write you a longer response. If you want a better idea what it means to receive rejections, take a look at my blog post here. It might help you out a bit. 

• Acceptance: When an agent accepts your piece, it’s up to the agent to take the book to an editor and a publisher. She will try to sell the book to a publisher through an act called acquiring. Once a publishing house accepts it, the agent, publishing house, and editors will work with you to perfect your book. Keep in mind, an editor may require heavy changes to your book, so be open minded.

Additional Resources:

Guide to Literary Agents, Writer’s Digest

Step Three: Contracts

• Contracts: A book contract is a legal-binding agreement between the author and the book publisher that outlines rights, obligations, and money earned. In a traditional agreement, the author retains the copyright and the publisher purchases the right to distribute the book in many forms (paper/ebook/audio, etc). The contract is usually dictated by the the literary agent on behalf of the author. Make sure you get everything on paper and you retain the rights to your book.

Things to Consider About Contracts

• Rights: How long do they keep rights to publish your book? Is it for a year or several? Will they relinquish the rights to your book if their company goes down?

• Series: Is your contract for a single book? Is it for a series? Will they reprint your previous books when the new series comes out? Do they have the right to cancel the contract halfway through the series?

• Non-Compete Clause: This clause says that the author can’t write another book with the same subject or name during the life of the contract. While this may not matter to you, it’s something to keep in mind.

Additional Resources:

What is a Book Contract?, The Balance

Five Publishing Contracts Red Flags, Alina Popescu Writer

Red Flags in Traditional Publishing

• Contract Publisher Retains Rights: Sometimes when a publishing company likes the idea of your book, and has had a similar one already suggested, they may ask you to write the piece, but all rights remain with the publishing company. If you’re more interested in royalties than having your name credited to you, this is fine, but if you want to retain rights to the book, this is something to watch out for during the contract phase.

• Publisher Requires Money to Publish Book: Back away. You should not have to pay the publisher to publish your book. You should receive royalties, and you will work with a literary agent to figure that out.

• Literary Agent Who Charges Upfront: Literary agents do not receive payment until the book is published. They will receive a portion of the book sales.

• Promised Publication: Some websites will promise to publish poetry, books, essays, etc. if they’re submitted to the site. These are generally not places you want to submit your work to. While they might, indeed, publish it, they will ask you to pay for a physical copy of the piece and will publish it to other locations.

• Agent/Artist/Editor Problems: Sometimes the relationship between the author and the agent, artist, or editor does not work. Authors have pulled back from agents before because either the agent failed to uphold their end, or the relationship just was not positive. Some artists who design covers may not have the author’s best interest in mind and may produce work that does not jive with the book. On the flip side, an author may express distaste in a book cover that the artist created (I'm looking at you Terry Goodkind), but the publisher will print the book anyway. And sometimes authors and editors bump heads. Do what’s best for you and your book.

After that, you will work with the marketing team to get your book out in bookstores and in libraries. You'll set up tour dates to do readings and signings. Interviews both online and on television will become your new best friends. But keep in mind, the marketing team won't do all of the marketing. You'll have to do some of it yourself. For more tips on marketing, check out my post here. 

Like I said, this was going to be a long one. Hopefully it'll help get you started on your path to publishing your book. And if you're going to try out for pitmad, let me know! I'd love to cheer you on. 

Happy writing! 

Accepting Rejection

It's bound to happen to all writers. You write a piece for a contest, anthology, or agent. You're excited. You really feel it has what it takes to get published. You send that e-mail off along with your hopes and dreams. A few weeks later (sometimes just a day later) you get a one-word response that shatters all of that. 

Rejection. 

Okay, so maybe this sounds a little over dramatic, but, as writers, we're all faced with rejection. Even the greats endure it (Rowling was passed up at least 7 times before a publishing company took on Harry Potter). That doesn't make it sting any less. Here you presented your heart and soul to someone and they broke it with a single e-mail. 

What are you supposed to do? 

First, let's address how you feel and what to do about shelf care.

• Breathe: Take a breath and remind yourself that everyone gets rejected. Just because the contest or agent didn't accept it doesn't mean it's bad. 

• Feel: Allow yourself to feel mad or sad if you need to. I know this may sound silly, but if you can get your emotions out, you can go back to the rejection, and your piece, with a clearer head. 

• Don't take it personally: Easier said than done, I know. But don't take this as a rejection of you or as a personal attack. As with every "contest" in life, some people win, and some don't. This is NOT a reflection of you or your self worth. Keeping going forward and do what you love. 

• Step back: Step away from the piece for a while. You probably just spent a bunch of time working on it and it's too fresh in your head. Take a few days to relax then get back to editing or submitting. You don't want to rush in and send it to a contest that doesn't quite fit the piece. 

• Get back to work: After you've had a moment to collect yourself, sit back down and get back to work on your piece or your other stories! 

Second, let's take a look at that rejection letter, because sometimes there's something there you might not notice in the heat of the moment. 

• Generic Response: This is the auto-generated, "Thank you for the chance to read your piece. Unfortunately you were not selected." If you get this kind of response without any additional information, then let it go and move on. Prep your piece for another contest. 

• Personal: Sometimes you may receive a more personal rejection letter. Someone may have seen something in your piece and decided to take the time to respond back to you. These e-mails or letters will be signed by the person you queried and likely contain more than the typical "you were not selected." In this case, consider writing a very short thank you letter back. It's a good way to keep connections open. 

• Personal Feedback: These are my favorites. The queried person not only responds with a personal letter, she also provides feedback. Use this as constructive criticism to revise your work, not as an offensive response. This means she's taken the time to help you with your work. And if she mentions wanting to see your writing in the future, make sure you keep that person in mind! Definitely send a thank you letter back. 

The final question is, what do you do with your rejected piece? 

• Submit again: In some cases, try again without revising. Maybe the piece wasn't right for that particular contest. It doesn't mean your work is bad! Go ahead and send it somewhere else. My rule of thumb is I wait for three rejections before I touch the piece again. 

• Consider Revising: If the contest provided some feedback, you may consider revising. Take another look at the story. Are there ways to revise it? Can you make it sound better or tighten up the language? Did you miss one of the contest requirements? It doesn't hurt to look it over.

• Blog it: Sometimes if you can't get a piece published, it doesn't hurt to either blog it or post it on Wattpad. There's nothing wrong with sharing your work on another platform!

There's nothing wrong with getting rejected. It helps you grow as an author and prepares you for sending out some of your larger pieces. Rejection is all part of the process, and the best thing to do is to learn, grow, and keep writing!