by Beth K. Vogt, @bethvogt
Today, I’m wrapping up my series on writing a book synopsis. Previous blog posts included:
Writing a Synopsis Part 1: The Overview Paragraph
Writing a Synopsis Part 2: Understanding the Different Types of Synopses
Writing a Synopses Part 3: What Do You Include in a Book Synopsis
Here are a few tips to make your synopsis shine:
- Look for opportunities to include your writer’s voice in your synopsis. Yes, a synopsis is the opportunity to tell an editor or agent what your book is about. But it’s also an opportunity to showcase your voice. Don’t miss it! If you’re book has humor in it, weave some wittiness into your synopsis. Are you particularly good at writing dialogue? Add a bit of conversation between your main characters into your synopsis.
- Ask someone to read your synopsis. Just like jolly old Saint Nick, you’ve checked your synopsis twice—if not three or four times. Now hand it off to someone else – a fresh pair of editorial eyes. Ask them to have at it: look for formatting, punctuation, grammar, spelling and yes, ask them to read through your sample chapters too.
- Check the submission guidelines. This should have been step one of your synopsis-writing process. Go back and double check the publisher’s or agent’s website for what they require in a synopsis to ensure you didn’t forget something.
- Watch out for the red squiggles. Notice those words in your document with a red squiggly line under them? Don’t ignore them. Those squiggles indicate an error of some sort. Think spelling or spacing or grammar or punctuation. An unusual character name, like Ziggie, can be a reason for a red squiggle too, which is when you click on the name and “Add to Dictionary.” Viola! The red squiggly line disappears!
- Check out other resources for writing a book synopsis. There are other blog posts about how to write a book synopsis available on Learn How to Write a Novel – just put “book synopsis” in the search box. Also, if you’re part of Novel Academy – a wonderful investment in your writing career – the course “The Novel Proposal” by bestselling author Susan May Warren covers developing a book synopsis and much more.
The award-winning Thatcher Sister Series by Beth K. Vogt, published by Tyndale House, is described as a “Little Women gone wrong” collection of novels highlighting complicated sister relationships in the style of This is Us. NYT bestselling author Lisa Wingate said, “With tenderness and skill, Beth Vogt examines the price of secrets, the weight of tragic loss, and the soul-deep poison of things left unsaid.” The series includes Things I Never Told You, Moments We Forget, and The Best We’ve Been. Unpacking Christmas: A Thatchers Sisters Novella, was released in November 2022 by Never Door Press.
Beth K. Vogt is a non-fiction author and editor who said she’d never write fiction who now writes both romance and women’s fiction. She’s the wife of an Air Force family physician (now in solo practice) who said she’d never marry a doctor—or anyone in the military. She’s a mom of four who said she’d never have kids. Now Beth believes God’s best often waits behind the doors marked “Never.”
Beth is a 2016 Christy Award winner, a 2016 ACFW Carol Award winner, and a 2015 RITA® finalist. Her novel Things I Never Told You, book one in her Thatcher Sisters Series published by Tyndale House, won the 2109 AWSA Golden Scroll Award for Contemporary Novel of the Year. Other books in this acclaimed “Little Women gone wrong” series include Moments We Forget and The Best We’ve Been. Her novel, Somebody Like You, was one of Publisher’s Weekly’s Best Books of 2014. A November Bride was part of the Year of Wedding Series by Zondervan. Having authored 14 contemporary romance novels or novellas, Beth believes there’s more to happily-ever-after than the fairy tales tell us. Connect with Beth at bethvogt.com.