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  • Telling your story in shorthand: the synopsis

    You’ve got a query letter. You know what to put in your author bio. You’ve even looked up how many pages of your manuscript this particular agent you’re querying wants to see with your query.

    What’s missing?

    That’s right.

    Laura Mosko, Novel and Short Story Writer’s Market Editor, has outlined the basics of writing a synopsis from literary agent Marshall Evans’ The Marshall Plan for Getting Your Novel Published on Fiction Addiction.

    eHow, of course, has instructions on formatting a synopsis.

    Fiction Writer’s Connection of Albuquerque has a useful synopsis checklist.

    Writing World’s Marg Gilks wrote a nice, chatty piece on writing a synopsis back in 2001.

    Pearl Luke offers a good, succinct synopsis for her novel Madame Zee.

    The Absolute Write forum thrashes over contradictory synopsis advice.

    And I have to include this one not because it is helpful in any way, but because the answer A: made me laugh: WikiAnswers.

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Clients’ Books


Bhaichand Patel is the author of two nonfiction books: Chasing the Good Life (Penguin Books India, October, 2006), and Happy Hours (Penguin Books India, October, 2009). I edited Patel's debut novel, When the Streets Were Dark and Cold.

In 2009 I edited two nonfiction essays for my friend Lucia Orth. (Many years ago, my contribution to Baby Jesus Pawn Shop was simply a peer critique and participation in a standing ovation.)

The poet Chris Ryan is the author of The Bible of Animal Feet (Farfalla Press, 2007). He has recent stories in Pank, Anemone Sidecar, and A Cappella Zoo. I edited Ryan's novel The Ishmael Blade and worked with him on his debut novel Heliophobia and WIP Pogue.