If you are submitting your book to publishers or literary agents, you will need a 300-500 word synopsis where you sell the vision of your book. You should use this as your opportunity to explain your book’s unique selling point – how will it captivate readers in a saturated market?

Do:

• Describe what the reader benefits and takeaways are (non-fiction)
  • What problem does the book solve?
  • Why is it unique / different?
• Outline the plot to the very end – don’t leave us hanging. If you want us to publish it we need to know how it finishes, and why readers will care
• Explain the character journey and how they grow/change (fiction)
• Submit a table of contents or outline TOC (non-fiction)
• Write in the third person
• Sum up the book in one catchy sentence
• Include a brief author bio to accompany your submission – brief being the operative word – a paragraph or two to summarise a key point of who you are and why you wrote the book. Something more detailed might be required later, but for now keep it short and simple, and 100% relevant to this book.
• Now carefully edit to make the submission concise, punchy, and compelling
• Check it over carefully, show you care about your submission, and what the recipient can expect from your work

Do not:

• Fill it with hyperbole unless you can back it up. You may describe it as amazing, but only if you can say why?
• Say the book is for ‘everyone’, no book ever is
  • Who is the core type of reader for this book? Describe them.
• Write too much – if you can’t say it briefly enough – re-write. Editors commissioning a book don’t have time to read a short book about your book.