I also hate the word "synopsis," moving on.
By the end of December, I finally got a query I was pretty happy with, but, after days of trying, no synopsis worth a damn. So I queried agents that didn't require a synopsis (a temporary solution), and, lo and behold, I get 2 partial requests (YAY!), both of which wanted a synopsis (BOO!). So I sat down and wrote one in a night, and it's horrible as I knew it would be, but it works. I wrote a much funnier, wittier one, but it was seven pages long. My rule of thumb is that you can go on for as long as you're entertaining, but that no one is as entertaining as they think they are, so keep it short. Seven pages, while entertaining (to me, at least), was not short. So I chopped it and made a 3 page version, which is terrible, but might just get the job done.
This let me query a whole glut of new agents. Right now I've sent queries to about 1/2 the people on my agent list. If they all say no, I guess I'll just go find some publishers who take unagented submissions. This feels like horrible failure to me, but I really love this book. I love the characters so much, I couldn't stand sticking them in the drawer. So I'll keep trying, for their sake if not mine.
But we've only had 3 rejections to date, so there's still plenty more to go!
2 comments:
i'm with you on the synopsis thing. i don't know what i'm doing. argh! i'm not querying until later this month. anywhere that you talk about your novel on this blog (the story)?
it's great when you fall in love with the characters / world / story you've created. good luck!
sounds like you are getting a great response from agents!
Wow, thanks for the nice comments!
I'm with you, synopsii are ridiculous. I've yet to read one that makes a story sound anything like what it actually is.
Good luck on your agent search!
Post a Comment