How to Write an Effective Book Synopsis?

Have you ever faced a situation where you feel something is missing to define a critical piece of your writing? Of course, an effective book synopsis is the summary of your entire book. When a book is fully written, edited and polished with perfection, you are ready to pitch in front of agent, but find a tough task to provide a gist about it. It means you are not prepared with the synopsis of your whole book. Eve after burning the midnight oil, you are not able to describe it properly. You don’t have any idea how to approach it again to write a new book. Luckily we have the answer about the synopsis of a book.

What is synopsis?

In general terms, a synopsis is a decent summary of a book that familiarizes the reader with the plot and how it unfolds. However, these kinds of summaries are available on the pages of School books reports and Wikipedia.  Your novel synopsis consists of two things, it should convey the content of the book and secondly, it should be fascinating.

You must have a brief hook at the beginning of the book and a sense of urgency underlying the text that keeps your reader going with any break and write a perfect synopsis for a book. It should make potential agents want to devour your whole manuscript- even though they are already knowing what will happen.

While writing a synopsis make sure that it includes:

• A complete narrative
• Your own story and unique elements of your story
• The ending or resolution

You must be thinking, what is the ideal length of synopsis, it varies from project to project, some authors recommend keeping it to about 500 words, while others may follow to write 1000 words. But the biggest question that becomes hurdle for many authors, how to write a perfect synopsis for a book? Further in the blog, we will discuss about writing a synopsis for a book.

How to write a synopsis? 4 comprehensive steps pen down synopsis!

• Get the basics down first

When it comes to writing a synopsis, you have to be very precise and comprehensive. No matter how seriously and clearly you have described your book, an agent will not address any piece that doesn’t demonstrate a fully fleshed-out plot and strong narrative arc. So it stands to reason that as you begin your writing you should focus on the basic things of your writing.

1. Start with major plot points:

Generally, you need agents who can understand your story’s major plot points. So the best possible way to summarise your story is to create a list of plot points including the enticing incident, rising actions, the height of action or climax and the resolution of the ending. 

• Highlight the unique things

It's time to add some flavour to your synopsis by emphasising its distinctive features. Agents want to discover what makes your book unique, as well as whether it is unique enough to draw readers to it.

1. Voice

The tone of your novel is communicated through your writing voice, which is also one of the most crucial elements in making your work stand out. But given the confines of the area, it's also one of the hardest elements to conjure.

1. Plot twist

Every reader seeks to have a juicy plot and twist, however, it is one of the oldest tricks to engage a reader in the story, but it still makes an impact. If your novels contain more than two twists, especially in the climax part, make sure while accentuating the synopsis. but keep in mind, that you don’t have to hint too much at the twist.

• Point of view

Another aspect that might set a perfect synopsis for a book is a distinctive point of view. As you need to give your synopsis in the third person, you can limit this inclusion to an introductory sentence.

• Edit for clarity and excess

Avoid making your summary mysterious; agents who are merely trying to learn what happens in your book will find this highly annoying. With that in mind, it's time to edit for clarity after you've written the bulk of your summary.

1. Editing for clarity

Always scan for sentences that are vague or unclear, especially towards the beginning. Many writers don’t have an idea to enhance the clarity of sentences which may break the flow of a novel. Therefore, the introduction must be quite intriguing.  

1. Edit excess words

If your synopsis is longer than a couple of pages, at this point you need to make it short and comprehensive. Go through every sentence you have cultivated and reduce the run-on sentences or subordinate clauses.

• Make sure it flows

When you're done, your synopsis ought to resemble the summary of a fantastic book review, or at the very least Spark Notes. This entails not only hitting every crucial point in a clear, succinct manner but also reading smoothly and emphasising the crucial moments and distinctive features we've addressed in the proper quantity.

Every author has to pass through this stage and must adhere to the Book Synopsis Format to design it properly and doesn’t miss any single detail. Your synopsis is one of the biggest deciding factors in whether an agent wants to see more from you or not. The bottom is that this summary tells agents what they need to know, what your book is about and what makes it unique and different from others.