Comments on authonomy Blog | authonomy writing community: Reining it in: Summaries and Synopses

Hello Jason! Thanks for this great piece. Very t...

2009-06-26T09:22:23.149+01:00

Hello Jason!

Thanks for this great piece. Very timely for me as I just joined Authonomy ten days ago.

My book has rocketed up in the charts (don't know if that's normal or not) so of course I'm sitting here wondering what my next (logical) steps are.

Super information.
Cheers
Cath Rathbone,

EMMA BROWN
http://authonomy.com/

Personally I wouldn't put my synopsis on autho...

2009-06-23T21:11:24.967+01:00

Personally I wouldn't put my synopsis on authonomy because it's totally public access. Not so much because I'm worried about someone stealing it -- plagiarism would be too easy to prove -- but because Google indexes the site and that's a huge pile of spoilers for my potential readers to find.

(A quick Google for the name of the real historical person on whom my

Thank you for this very helpful blog. I thought it...

2009-01-23T20:41:00.000Z

Thank you for this very helpful blog. I thought it was quite useful and gave some good advice that will, hopefully, be advantageous as I try to sell my book.

Best wishes,

Karen
www.karenjordanwrites.com

Thanks, Jason, and I very much appreciate your can...

2009-01-21T16:49:00.000Z

Thanks, Jason, and I very much appreciate your candor. I posted on my blog about how publishers could use the new technologies out there to publish more authors and escape the "big book" mentality that has brought many of them to the brink of bankruptcy (and caused book sales to plummet precipitously). Big changes are required but will corporate publishers evolve in time? THAT'S the question...<

Well, traditionally the half-page summary is the f...

2009-01-21T16:08:00.000Z

Well, traditionally the half-page summary is the first thing you ever send an agent, as part of a one- or two-page "query letter;" if you don't already know, that's basically a random letter you send to a random publishing executive saying, "Oh, won't you please take an interest in this book I just wrote? Here's why you should!" Since you've already sent this as the first step of the process, if

My experience so far with one book is exactly as J...

2009-01-20T22:52:00.000Z

My experience so far with one book is exactly as Jason described: the first 40 pages or so, then the chapter-by-chapter outline. The acquisitions editor wants to see if I can hold a narrative through to the end, and if he concludes from the outline that I can, I presume he'll request the full manuscript. I did not go through an agent, either. Right to the publisher, and a fair-sized publisher at

Hi Jason - very useful advice. Thanks! I always f...

2009-01-20T20:48:00.000Z

Hi Jason - very useful advice. Thanks! I always find it difficult to understand the differences between the UK and USA in this regard - if indeed there are differences. Also - if an agent or editor doesn't specify which kind of synopsis they want - should we default to the half page summary or the 2 - 6 page one?

Please keep in mind that "cold sells" (unagented q...

2009-01-20T16:28:00.000Z

Please keep in mind that "cold sells" (unagented queries and submissions) go to a low-level staffer, some assistant of an assistant editor, and their views really don't carry much water as far as most senior editors are concerned.

And let's be honest here: how many "cold sells" actually make any impact, regardless of how well a query letter is composed, how cogent and literate? These