Help!!!! Having a mental breakdown.

For query think of "Inquire" you are inquiring if they are interested in your story. A synopsis is a summary of the story you are asking about.

I'd put a paragraph or two (No more) covering the essentials of each chapter, try to capture the flavor of the novel as you do.

Query?

Are you sure they're not asking for a query letter and synopsis? Sometimes they ask for 2 or 3 chapters as well.

Query/synopsis

Stuffedtoy said:

I really need to know the difference between a query and a synopsis. And if both are requested... how much of the book is displayed in the query?

Click to expand...

It's done many ways, but generally a query letter contains information about the writer, and asks whether or not an agent is interested, etc. I query letter also usually contains a very brief synopsis of the story.

A pure synopsis, however, contains only information about the story.

Just as general guidelines, synopses come in different lengths. There's the one or two paragraph synopsis that's part of a query letter, the comes the one page, the three page, and the five page synopsis, all single spaced.

Always check the guidelines to see what length an agent or editor prefers.

Hi, StuffedToy --

Let's back up a bit. Where are you in the process right now? Do you have a finished manuscript and you're looking for an agent or publisher? Or has an agent or publisher already shown interest?

Nothing in this business is fast. Let's discuss what's going on.

A query is a letter asking if they want to see you work in question.

Synopsis is a summery of the story.

Shawn

Query is a cover letter, describing your ms and why they should read it. It can be submitted on it's own or with the bio and synopsis.

You ms. should always be double-spaced with 1" margin, whether it's 1 chapter, 3 chapters or the whole thing. Some publishers/agents request Times Roman or some other font. When in doubt, go with courier.

There are many sources for learning how to write a query. Google is your friend. However, just think of it as a cover letter. Something to introduce and hook someone to your novel, done as a business letter.

Stuffedtoy said:

Perhaps this might help...
3) Format your Manuscript as follows:

1" margin all around.

Indent the first line of each paragraph EXCEPT the first line of each chapter and the first line of each new
scene.

First thing that has me scratching my head is... what is the one inch margin??? I have a ruler over my pages, but I'm not sure how to read it in those terms.
Secondly... The indents. I get the first paragraph thing, but then it says EXCEPT- does this mean not to indent them as well? Or 'to' indent them? Most guidelines I've seen state double spacing, but this one does not.

Click to expand...

Go to the sticky in Novels and read the Index to Uncle Jim thread until you find what you're looking for. It's there, I promise.

Okay ....

If they don't say otherwise, doublespace the manuscript. (If you told us which wordprocessor you're using, someone could tell you the step-by-step instructions.)

The font shall be Courier 10 (unless the guidelines say something different).

One inch margins means the text starts one inch down from the top of the paper and ends one inch up from the bottom of the paper. The margin on the left is one inch from the edge of the paper to the start of the type. On the right -- same thing. One inch from the end of the typing to the right edge of the paper. One way to do this is set the left margin to one inch, and set the line length to six inches.

The lines are justified left (not fully justified). This is sometimes called "ragged right."

The indenting is pretty standard. The thing with no indents at the start of chapters and after line breaks is odd -- but those are their guidelines, so go with 'em. Just go through, find the starts of chapters and such, and remore the indent on the first line.

You may want to keep a copy around with the indents at the starts of chapters, in a backup file somewhere.

May one ask which publisher you're looking at?

More on formatting manuscripts here and here and here.


(Happy endings aren't required.* What is required is a satisfying ending.)

====================

* Unless the guidelines say they are.

Synopsis link

Hi stuffedtoy. I'm the one working on the Index to Learning Writing with Uncle Jim. If you're still curious about the synopsis I just arrived at a description in the aforementioned thread. I'll be posting that section of the index soon but here it is.

Oh, and the post just below Uncle Jim's has a link to an example synopsis so don't pass that one up either.