Uuuugghhh. I can't get the next query out until I revamp that stinking synopsis YET again to tailor it to yet another set of submission guidelines. I refuse to flub "3-5 paragraphs" to the entire page it is right now, but sometimes (after a 9-hour workday, just for instance), following the rules gets exhausting.
Don't go thinking six or seven revamps is ever enough, either. Sure, you might have a 3-5 page synopsis, a one-pager, a 3-5 paragraph one, and the query itself, but some agent you crave-crave-crave to impress is going to turn up asking for one seven pages long, or one TWO PARAGRAPHS long. It's not their fault there's not industry standard!
Or is it ...? :)
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3 comments:
My publisher asks you to give three synopses for them to use after publication: back cover blurb, a one paragraph summary and one sentence for people you need to impress very, very quickly.
It's a useful discipline.
Worryingly, I just read a review which gave a one paragraph synopsis which was noticably better than my own.
I've read your work and reserve the right to skepticism that someone else's synopsis was better than you'd do. :)
As to the discipline - absolutely true, but oh what a discipline to get into, after a 9-hour day of work and during a period of cluster migraines! I might like it a lot better if someone who'd bought The Ax and the Vase was asking, though!
I think synopses are evil.
I can come up with a paragraph, a pitch, a log line, hell I can give you a killer title but a synopsis, they should go the way of cigarettes in church, outside and up in smoke.
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