Pitch or Synopsis Can Be One & The Same

A pitch -- notice it has PITCH -- is in fact a verbal synopsis of your novel, but there is no rule that says a pitch can't be the synopsis and visa versa. A pitch/synopsis can be seen as precisely the copy you'd want to see on the backflap of a hardcover or backside of a paperback. The one with your title and name on it.

The synopsis-pitch is the most important short-short you will ever write - the story of your story and a sales pitch for the book. Not everyone is comfortable with a "bragg" of any sort on their own books, but done professionally and cleanly, it does not have to sound filled with hubris.

Most published works have backflap copy written by a copyeditor who can be more objective and direct and write in the voice of a cheerleader that touches on Who, What, Where, When, How or Why or all six Journalistic requirments. That is main character (whose story is it anyway?). Zero in on precisly WHO is central to the story, who is the fulcrum around which all satelite characters orbit, and then speak of him or her by name and occupation. Follow up with setting, time, what's the main storyline or goal or obstacle or a combination of these - the how and the why of it.

And it needs be about as short as my remarks here, if not shorter. Check out descriptions on ebooks for samples where many have been done by Indie authors and not copy editors, and do the same with paperbacks at the local drugstore. Ingest and own the style of the copyeditor who knows how to say MORE with far LESS than most of us. Finally, get hold of my Dead On Writing for all manner of issues in publishing, about craft, and ebooks as well as paper.



Robert W. Walker
Dead On Writing (Amazon Kindle & Wordclay.com  for POD)

Gearing up for NaNoWriMo with an Outline by Morgan Mandel

I don't know how I'm going to juggle this into my schedule, but I'm gearing up for NaNoWriMo anyway. In the next few days, I'll get some posts ready ahead of time for my blogs and schedule them, so I'll be able to concentrate more on getting a new novel of 50,000 words done in one month's time!

Sounds daunting, but it's a challenge. I'll see how far I can get. If you care to join in the challenge, here's the link: http://nanowrimo.org/ You can sign up to be my buddy also. Just look for MorganMandel.

Anyway, for this NaNoWriMo thing, I'm going to get an outline and synopsis ready, with major characters, plot points, conflicts, anything else I can think of included, so when it's time to write, hopefully I can do just that.

I usually don't have to worry about deadlines and the boring necessity of an outline or synopsis, but I've got to do as much as I can ahead of time. I can't wait for inspiration to strike me, since it may happen in December and not November, which won't count for this undertaking.

I've got to ask. How many of you use an outline or synopsis, or do you just rely on inspiration?

Back to my outline now. I'll let you know how things are going.

Morgan Mandel
http://www.morganmandel.com/
http://morganmandel.blogspot.com/
http://makeminemystery.blogspot.com/

WRITING The COVER LETTER, the AUTHOR BIO, & the SYNOPSIS w/EXAMPLES - FOR FICTION BOOKS by ROBERT W. WALKER

Cover letters, synopsis, author bios – how much is enough when a new author is facing the daunting marketplace in fiction books? Writing fiction books, novels, short story collections is the fun part; the most difficult writing for most new authors and many older ones is writing about oneself and one’s “baby” – the fiction book itself.

I’m going to walk you through it using my wife’s first novel, a suspense thriller entitled The Wishing Well . . . think creepy wishing well.

LET’S begin with the cover letter. This is a business letter and should get to the point and have all the salient points, and today often, surprisingly or not so surprisingly, editors are accepting the query letter itself via e-mail. I’m going to speak of it as a hardcopy here:

First at the top left or right (be consistent), all your contact information below your name along with the type of fiction book – say Mystery and the number of words, be it 80,000 for a fiction book or 7500 for a short story. After this comes the date—centered

June 20, 2007

Dear SPECIFIC NAME*,
Please! Send your manuscript to a person with a name, not Sir, not Madam, not Editorial Director. Do a spot of homework and learn the name of the editor at XYZ Publishing who handles your type of novel.

First paragraph:


For seventeen years I have worked in medicine as an RN with a degree in psychology and a minor in sociology, and most recently I am employed by the West Virginia State Bureau of Medical Services. Medicine and medical procedures are like breathing for someone of my experience, and I have the imagination of a writer of intrigue and suspense. Now I have combined these skills to a thriller novel, The Wishing Well (approximately 85,000 words). This Megan McKenna mystery compliments my background, as the unfolding story involves medicine, state government medical services, foster care, police, and law enforcement. These realms are rendered in dramatic terms as FBI Agent McKenna is faced with difficult personal and professional choices even as she gives chase to the maniacal Wishing Well killer whose victims are found in remote, eerie wells in and around Baltimore.


Paragraph Two:

I have had the manuscript professionally edited and it has been rewritten and polished. Still, I remain flexible to input and ideas—such as more sex, sin, and violence (lol). Below this letter, please find a brief biography and a full description of the novel as it might appear on the back-jacket copy. I would be happy to forward the entire manuscript for The Wishing Well should you request to see it in its entirety.

Thanking you in advance for your valuable time,
Miranda Phillips Walker

Next is an example of ONE WAY to lay out your synopsis or “brief” overview of the novel as you may wish to set it up as your ideal of what should appear on the back of the book in the way of a description. A good practice—write your ideal copy for your fiction book.

See Below for Pitch\Jacket-Copy:


The Wishing Well
by Miranda Phillips Walker

The Wishing Well Killer is terrorizing Charm City – Baltimore, Maryland. His victims are cropping up all over the area with two things in common: They’re wrapped like garbage and thrown down a well shaft, and each is in some bizarre way connected to an unfolding investigation of a Maryland foster care agency. The killer himself is a deformed Quasimodo type, plagued by a voice in his head, and he cannot take the slightest insult from any quarter. Anything can set him off.


The heroine FBI agent Megan McKenna and retired decorated police dog, Max, who she uses as a sounding board and friend, are faced with the most important case of her career. She’s hunting down a killer whose victims (ranging in age from pre-teen to adult) are in some bizarre fashion connected to a foster childcare agency operated by a pair of disreputable lawyers out of a former school called Our Lady of Peace. A marksman’s eye and a wicked sense of humor help Megan during her most stressful moments. She is tenacious and eager to prove herself, as her last case has left her scarred and vulnerable. Helping Megan are former lover and Agent Reese DiTrapano, a psychological profiler, and Phil Jenkins, a veteran Baltimore Police Detective who has eyes for Megan. In fact, both men harbor strong feelings for Megan, and through a sweltering summer of 2007, this trio tracks a madman only to learn he is someone from Megan’s past, someone all too willing to taunt her and place her in mortal danger.


The scam: As McKenna and law enforcement throw out a net to catch the maniac, they uncover an insidious under-the-table scam in the Maryland State foster care system, and a link between it, a pair of lawyers, and the killer. The fraud places foster care recipients in danger. The pace of the story is fast and as furious and twisting as a rollercoaster gone haywire. Not even Megan or her dog Max can predict what happens on the next page, nor will readers until the last wickedly humorous and wicked clue is uncovered.

Author Biography:

Miranda Phillips Walker is uniquely qualified to pen The Wishing Well as both a suspenseful mystery and an expose of the corruption and graft in the underbelly of our Nation’s foster care system. Walker, an RN, has a psychology degree with a minor in sociology and has been a registered nurse for over seventeen years. Her life in medicine has been far more exciting and colorful than any program on TV such as ER or Grey’s Anatomy. Walker has a wealth of knowledge that she brings to bear on the writing of a novel of aberrant behavior and the ins-and-outs of the agencies that abuse the foster care system. She currently works for the State of West Virginia as an RN for the Bureau of Medical Services. She has four children and is married to a professor of English, who is also a prominent author. She currently resides in the Charleston, West Virginia. Miranda says of The Wishing Well, “I understand the demons that drive Crusher, the killer, and I have insights into the Child Protective Services that few possess. Going into the writing of this novel, I was armed with the right tools to make it work. I trust that the reader will agree.”


Everyone has to write his or her own bio, back-copy or synopsis, and cover letter, but hopefully this example from one in your shoes will be of help if you are facing this most difficult task. The hardest but most important story—and the shortest—that you will ever write is the story about your story. That which has the purpose not of entertaining but enticing someone to read your novel or short story collection.


Rob
www.robertWalkerbooks.com -- new site
Interview in the Charleston Gazette --
http://wvgazette.com/News/200806120572

The Lure & The Teaser - Writing a Winning Synopsis to Catch an Editor's Eye by Robert W. Walker

Hard won lessons in the trade by Robert W. Walker

Synopsis. What the devil is it? Some call it your platform these days, others refer to it as the pitch or the logline. I submit that it is what you want to see on the back of your novel or on the flap in hardcover—the COPY.

Let’s take a hard look at what I had proposed as my Flap-Jacket Copy for my next novel, DEAD ON due out in 2009. Read it and note the dissection after each paragraph.

Atlanta PI Marcus Rydell is out to reclaim his hold on life. Dr. Kat Holley seeks a fiery revenge on a maniac who has destroyed both their lives. Together, hero and heroine, hunters, come to respect and understand one another, and to share a bond that colors this suspenseful thriller filled as it is with bright touches of romance, light banter, and laugh-out-loud humor alongside terror. And as in any good noir mystery-thriller, there figures a black dog; this one’s named Paco.

At once, in sentence one, I name the two principal characters and set the location, and in same sentence I touch on the major thrust of the book—that it is a revenge tale. Not to mention that both characters are flawed—their lives destroyed. Sentence two, I tell you they are hunters who come to respect, understand, and care about each other on this journey of vengeance. Finally, you learn that there is humor and romance interspersed with the serious mayhem, along with a dog named Paco. Now let’s have at paragraph two written to entice an editor to read the book and love it!

Just when disgraced Atlanta cop-turned-PI Marcus Rydell prepares to eat his gun, a kid in trouble, a call to duty, and a dirty blonde named Kat Holley stop him cold. Kat Holley pulls Marcus from a suicidal depression, and his soon-to-be demolished apartment building—only to make him face a past he cannot come to terms with on his own. But not before she leads him on a deadly hunt deep into the blackest forests of the Red Earth State. Near the Georgia-Tennessee border in the breathtaking Blue Ridge Lake countryside, the pair witness a safe paradise become their death trap, as their prey is no ordinary man. They seek to destroy a local legend, a cave-dwelling ex-marine who happens to be a multiple murderer. In fact, their prey is a monster whose instincts and military training have allowed him to survive in the wilderness for four years, eluding the Feds as well as the Atlanta PD.

You are wooing an editor, so a little judicious repeating of the facts and going into more detail here is a good thing. The setting is brought more into focus along with the fact that it does not remain static and nor do the characters. Here to the villain is introduced and given some shape. Let’s see what paragraph three of the synopsis as sales tool brings us:

However, the hunt for the evil torturer and executioner, Iden Cantu, pivots. And now Cantu comes for them, leaving the dead in his wake. In the end, they must duel with this psychotic deviant, who is equipped with night-vision, a high-powered Bushman, and a cruel intent to kill by means of mental and physical pain.

In this final paragraph the conflict is ratcheted up as our heroes have the tables turned on them in this high stakes game of cat and mouse, and while that may seem a cliché, you want to find a clever and fresh way to say it’s so. This paragraph also brings the killer even more in focus as he represents the threat that Marcus and Kat have to confront. Both the good guys and the bad have to measure up and be large enough and interesting enough to make the conflict of interest.

In all of the synopsis I’ve answered the five questions required of all journalistic writing and sales pitches –Who is it about, What is it about, Where is it about, When is it about, and Why is it of interest? And How is it accomplished? Easy and Simply: PI Marcus and Dr. Kat versus the evil, psychotic marine serial killer Iden in the North Georgia woods in a modern day tale of vengeance and courage strained to the limit—a dark duel that keeps Marcus from spiraling into depression. He learns that hunting humans is cathartic! Kat reminds him of this lost passion. And along the way, they discover one another. The Who, What, Where, Why, and How of it are your synopsis and platform all rolled into one as they are all present in your sales pitch.

Writing the synopsis is writing the most important short story you will ever write. It is best to read twenty or a hundred back flap or back copy descriptions of other books in any and all genres to acquire a knack for doing it yourself, but you, my friend, YOU know your book better than anyone. It is just a matter of taking off your crafty, creative writer’s hat and donning your even craftier salesman’s hat and rely on the old journalistic principles of telling a story within a paragraph or two. Just make sure every ‘i’ is dotted and every ‘t’ is crossed for you are first judged not on your novel but on your synopsis and cover letter.

Happy Marketing Guys and Ladies,

Robert W. Walker

www.RobertWWalkerbooks.com

www.myspace.com/robertwwalkerbooks