Friday, June 29, 2012

Friday Night at the Question Emporium

My question regards the query and the synopsis. I'm querying a fantasy novel, and in my query letter I use a few sentences to highlight the world and show how it's different from other books and how it sets up the plot. My question: when requested to also submit a synopsis, do I have to reiterate these details (necessary to understanding the plot) about the world and use up some of my limited space, or can I assume the agent has read the query and write the synopsis without restating anything.




The query and the synopsis need to be independent of each other. Thus, yes you should include plot points mentioned in the query in the synopsis. It's entirely possible a second reader will have only the synopsis and the pages, not the query to read.
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2 comments:

  1. Bill Scott7/1/12, 6:23 PM

    Is it a given that at some point between the agent and publisher phases you will have to have a synopsis? Or if the agent only wants the query letter and pages can you make it through without the dreaded synopsis?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Janet Reid7/1/12, 7:11 PM

    Synopses are of the devil and I hate them but you want to have one. You never know when you'll need it.

    ReplyDelete

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