Tag Archives: how to write a synopsis

How to Create a (very) Short Description of Your Book


Remember my blog about the “elevator pitch“, You Never Get a Second Chance…the 30-60 second description of your book? Writing a very short synopsis of your book is almost the same task.

Author Mike Wells

“If you’re like most authors, summarizing your book in a couple of sentences is a daunting task. However, if you’re going to sell your book, it’s simply something you have to do.

If you choose to go the traditional route, agents and editors alike are bombarded with so many queries that if they find themselves having to do much mental work to understand the gist of your book, they will simply pass on to the next one.

The same goes for self-publishing–all the retailers and distributors require short descriptions of your book.


Actually, what I’ve just written above IS the two sentence synopsis which will work for any story, no matter how complex the plot or characters may seem. Another way to write this compressed synopsis is to move the goal into the second sentence, in form of a question: Hero finds herself stuck in situation from which she wants to free herself. Can she achieve goal, or will villain stop her and cause her to experience disaster? All you have to do is identify the elements and plug them in to create the most basic two sentence synopsis for your own story.”




Hyper Smash


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