Question about a Fiction’s query format.

[Jonny Ryan Mac]

I was wondering, many people in the Share Your Work thread have suggested that a brief, two to five paragraph synopsis is a good thing in your query letter. Now my editor friend at work says that I may want to trim my query letter down to a few short sentences. I have a good log line, will that hook someone into reading the synopsis. Isn’t that the idea, give them a taste and then let them read about the actual plot in the synopsis, or do I have this terribly wrong?

Your thoughts?

[kbax]

Well, I haven't started submitting yet (still have to edit a couple dozen times...yay...) but I've read a lot, as much as I could find, about the process.


Here's where I think you might be confused:
a brief, two to five paragraph synopsis is a good thing in your query letter.

In submissions, a synopsis and a query letter are two different things. The query letter is a few paragraphs that describe your book and yourself, with a good hook in there if you've got one. If they like that, they'll read the synopsis, which usually they'll ask you to send w/ the query, although not always, from what I've seen.

For some good examples of synopses, check out Miss Snark's blog in December or so--she went through about a hundred of them and stated what was wrong and what was right. Find the ones that are right and follow their lead.

For a good example of a query, go to the Nelson Lit Agency's site (http://www.nelsonagency.com/faq.html#6). Miss Nelson also has started an interesting blog. (http://pubrants.blogspot.com)

Gotta love the 21st century.

Good Luck,
-kbax

[stormie]

You should have a good hook in a query so that they want to ask you to send a partial or full manuscript. Keep it short and to the point.

kbax has some good links for you.

[crosseyed reader]

Your query letter is strictly an introduction of you and your book. This is where you put your hook and two-sentence description of your book. Always keep in mind that you're selling yourself, so be sure to give reasons as to what makes your book worth reading. For example, is your story a social commentary on our education system that readers will find revolutionary or poignant?

This is the type of thing that catches an agent's eye. They understand that the ultimate result is publication and huge sales. To do that, you need to give short, concise reasons as to why your book is special and why you were the perfect person to have written it. Chances are that an agent won't be impressed if you wrote a book about solving the world's ills through the ingestion of peanut butter if you're a plumber.

Save your longer synopsis for your actual submission.

And, above all else, follow the agent's submission guidelines to the letter. Their round files and Delete buttons aren't overworked without reason.

[Jamesaritchie]

I'm a firm believe in including one or two paragraphs of synopsis in your query letter. If you don't, why should an agent ask to see the novel?

Now if you can, in the very first paragraph, truthfully say that you've been widely published in several prestigious magazines, nothing else you say will matter much.

But if you can't say this, then you'd better include enough about teh novel, written in an interesting manner, to make the agent want to read it. When possible, it's best to include both a cover letter and a full synopsis, and this is precisely what many agents and editors expect to see.

But if all they ask for is one page, you'd better make full use of that page.

[maestrowork]

Two-paragraph synopsis is the best in a query letter. Should be brief but enough to hook the agents: "I want to read more." That leaves room for the other stuff (info about the ms. -- word count, genre, etc. -- your publishing credits, etc.).