Class

Can You Sum That Up? How to Write a Synopsis for Queries

You finished your manuscript! The hard part is over… or is it?

It’s time to write a synopsis.

Synopses are a necessary evil in the world of publishing, used for pitching at conferences, querying agents, submitting for awards and residencies, marketing your book, and more. It should be easy—you know what your book is about—but some writers find writing these summaries more difficult than writing the manuscript itself. Synopses are also useful if you’re struggling with your manuscript and need clarity on what your story is about.

In this class, we’ll delve into the four types of synopses—loglines, two-paragraph, one-page, and marketing copy. Looking at summaries from published authors, we’ll break down what works and what doesn’t. Then we’ll start crafting our own. Feedback is optional, but available to those who would like it.

This class is suitable for anyone with a completed or close-to-completed prose manuscript.

Writers won’t have time to complete all these summaries, but they will leave with a solid logline and at least a draft of a two-paragraph summary. They will have the know-how to continue working on a one-page summary and marketing copy. They will leave with the confidence that they can boil their work down into whatever type of synopsis they need.