Writing a Synopsis

Your book is done. Hundreds of pages of carefully picked words combined to create a story. Your query letter is finally ready and you’re about to send it out to Literary Agents but quickly realize you’re not quite prepared. You come across some agents that not only want a query letter but are also requesting for a Synopsis of your story. So you take a shot and start writing your first draft and you realize it’s not that easy.

Writing a synopsis can be frightening to some, but remember it’s not an impossible task.

Here are a couple of sites that I found to be helpful.

http://misssnark.blogspot.com/2005/10/synopsis-flopsis.html

http://absolutewrite.com/novels/writing_a_synopsis.htm

Book trailers: What, why and when should we have them?

Book trailers/book previews/book screenings are like movie trailers. They are supposed to create excitement and intrigue to readers, and make them want to buy and read your book.

So when should we have them? Before or after a book is written and edited? Before or after you’ve signed with a Literary Agent? Before or after your book is already published?

Will book trailers help those that haven’t found a Literary Agent, find one?

I did a quick search online and found no definite answer. Some writers had them even before their books were fully written and edited, some had them without signing with a Literary Agent, some had them only after their books were published, and some refuse to have them at all—so which one really is it?

Here are some links to some book trailers I found online.

http://bookscreening.com/

http://booktrailersforall.com/

http://vabbler.com/

I’m thinking of creating a book trailer for my first novel, but am curious to see what other writers have done and are doing.

Do you have a book trailer? Do you think a book trailer can help or hurt your book?

National Book Week

It’s National Book Week and I only remembered because I went on Facebook (my commercial break from writing) and my “friends” have posted random sentences from random books. The rule is to grab the closest book to you and turn to page 56 and use the 5^th sentence as your FB status, without mentioning what book it came from.

So I flipped through the book closest to me and turned to page 56, checked out the 5^th sentence and thought it was too vague, so I grabbed another book and then another and another. Whew. Okay, I didn’t really follow the rules of using the closest book to me, but I felt better using the sentence from the one I finally chose. So I thought I’d post it here too.

This was what I picked:

“‎He said he’ll come back,” adds Lisa, vanishing toward the stairwell.

There’s actually something pretty amazing about reading random sentences from random books and not knowing where they came from.

From one sentence alone, a new world opens up. It intrigues us and leaves us wanting to read more. From one sentence alone, an emotion is revealed. A writer is introduced. And words made it all possible.

This is why books are so amazing and this is why I write.

What’s your sentence?