The Problem with Synopsises?…Synopsi?…Synopses?

Ok so to start out I thought that the first actual post will deal with the synopsis of the book I am currently working on.  I thought that this would be a good way to relay what the book I’m working on is about and to discuss the troubles in self-publishing.  First, let me give you the synopsis I’ve created and then I’ll relay to you my doubts and anger!


The Faithful: Hands of the Watchman

2 Women.  1 Company.  The 1 revenge that spawned countless deaths.

Beau and Lucy are two ordinary twenty-somethings working for a well-known company doing boring sales and marketing assessments across the U.S….wait no, that’s wrong.  That is the lie they tell their families.  Lucy and Beau actually have a very horrifying job.  Their job?  Killing monsters.  Traveling the U.S., while on the payroll of the illustrious and powerful Oracle Foundation, they have fought countless beasts, ghosts and devils.  They are among the ranks of The Faithful, an elite group of professionals that hunt the supernatural.  Their lives are secrets.  A secret job kept from their families, the secret existence of the supernatural kept from the public, and a personal secret kept from their coworkers and mysterious employers.  And it is this secret that will lead the pair home to face their pasts, the reasons they now work for the Oracle Foundation, and the dark, and often bloody, subject of revenge.

Ok now that is what I have come up with so far for the book’s synopsis. The above is a product of me thinking and worrying for the past two months.  I think that the synopsis of a book is so very, very, very, very, extremely, very important.  And this matter brings me to the crux of a self-publishing authors dilemma.  A self-published author is not simply a writer.  No. They have to edit, market and promote their work.  So we must be able to attract the reader with an attention grabbing cover and have them purchase it with an intriguing synopsis.  It is not the plotting of my novel that keeps me up at night, its this subtle art of intrigue used to lure people into this world I’ve created.

So the way I see it, there are a few things that you should consider when creating a synopsis.

1. You need an attention grabbing tag line.

    - Pique their curiosity or they won't even read the synopsis

2. You need to describe the plot, but...

3. You can't give too much away.

    -  Got to leave them wanting more.

4. You can't be too vague.

    - Keep the synopsis in context.

5. Keep it succinct!

     - Cut out any unimportant details.

This synopsis took me so long to write because I need it to make a person WANT to read my book.  There has to be a perfect balance in this synopsis.  I need to leave out enough information for curiosity to be peaked but not leave out too much that it causes confusion.  And that being said I am still upset with this synopsis, if only for one reason: I really don’t know how people will respond to it.  So my fellow bloggers, what do you think?  Is it too vague?  Too short? Too long? Too (insert comment here)?... Well it's a work in progress.