Successful Queries

Old Hack

Such a nasty woman
Super Moderator
Absolute Sage
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 12, 2005
Messages
22,454
Reaction score
4,956
Location
In chaos
If I may ask another question... I rewrote the query according to the advice you gave me, and I think it's much better now. But I am having trouble with the synopsis. The guidelines I read say I need to cover the major plot lines of the book, plot twists, and character development, and I have two pages to do so. I actually managed to condense my whole book into two pages, taking up literally every space on each of the two pages except for a tab to open new paragraphs. When I pasted it into the email body, and back onto Word, the auto formatting made it 2.5 pages, not two. So I think I need to rewrite it, but how do I do all that they're asking me to do in two pages? I don't know what to cover and what to leave out. And I have six main characters and two that are minor but still important. Do you have any advice you might give me? Thanks in advance for your help.

Spend some time critiquing others' works in our Share Your Work sections and once you've got fifty posts or more, post your own work for critique. Don't skimp on the critiques you give as that's the best way I know of working out how to improve your own stuff.
 

Aggy B.

Not as sweet as you think
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 28, 2008
Messages
11,882
Reaction score
1,557
Location
Just north of the Deep South
Derimed, I sent a PM with two different versions of a short synopsis I used while querying a novella this past year. Hopefully that will help you answer some of your questions about what's important.

For synopsis I always start long and then pare down. For the short summary of the book that goes into the query letter, I start short and then expand. I've written several posts about my queries for the novel that snagged my agent on my blog. (I think there's still a link in my sig, and once there you can look at the word cloud partway down the page on the right and find "query". It will show you the posts I tagged as such.)
 

Daggilarr

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 4, 2017
Messages
154
Reaction score
14
Location
Devon UK
If I may ask another question... I rewrote the query according to the advice you gave me, and I think it's much better now. But I am having trouble with the synopsis. The guidelines I read say I need to cover the major plot lines of the book, plot twists, and character development, and I have two pages to do so. I actually managed to condense my whole book into two pages, taking up literally every space on each of the two pages except for a tab to open new paragraphs. When I pasted it into the email body, and back onto Word, the auto formatting made it 2.5 pages, not two. So I think I need to rewrite it, but how do I do all that they're asking me to do in two pages? I don't know what to cover and what to leave out. And I have six main characters and two that are minor but still important. Do you have any advice you might give me? Thanks in advance for your help.

I have just been challenged to summarise my book in one sentence no longer that 25 words. Now, I'm at the beginning of the process of writing a query and a synopsis, but what I understand is that one page is the goal and that you should never mess with margins, fonts, or spacing to squeeze more in.