If you write a novel and want to sell it, you'll need a good synopsis to hook a literary agent. A synopsis, simply put, is a long summary of your fictional story, detailing the events and characters.

At a recent writers' conference, I critiqued several synopses from amateur writers. When I met with the writers, I found myself repeating the same things over and over regarding formatting, content and length. I'll try and relay some tips in this post, so writers don't follow in their footsteps.

      - First of all, synopses have a specific format. They begin on a new page and should have all your contact information in the upper left corner of the first page. Just below your contact info, centered, should be the book's title, its genre and your name. 
      - The body of the synopsis is double-spaced.
      - Use dialogue sparingly, if at all.
      - You can get to the point, meaning you can say if a character is "a hopeless romantic."
      - Starting on the second page, there should be a header at the top of all pages, looking like this: Author/TITLE/Synopsis. That should be pushed left while the page number should be pushed right.
      - Synopses should be as short as you can make them. The average length is 7-8 pages. A general rule is to have 1 page of synopsis for every 25 pages of your work, but remember—the shorter the better.
      - Things must be explained. You can't say a character has "psychic powers" or "finds a surprise around the corner" without saying what these things mean. I find that writers, when questioned about confusing details, will often say, "Well that's explained in the book." Then I say, "OK ... but an agent won't read the book if they're confused by the synopsis. Make sense?"
      - Try to stick with main plot points and characters. This will help cut down on confusion. Ideally, an agent won't get any name/character confusion because the synopsis doesn't detail needless subplots or minor characters.
      - When characters are mentioned for the first time, CAPITALIZE their name.
      - I read somewhere that a synopsis should read like you've summarizing a story for a 12-year-old. This is good advice. To practice, read a novel. Then explain the plot and characters of the story to a child as if it were a bedtime story. Tell the tale from beginning to end in 5-10 minutes. That's a synopsis.

On Thursday, I catch an early flight down to Atlanta on my way to Athens, Ga., for the Harriette Austin Writers' Conference. The conference is held on the University of Georgia campus.

I apologize in advance for the blog posting frequency this next five days. There may be nothing for a while, and then BLAM - five posts in an hour. You'll just have to see.

If, per chance, you're headed to the conference, I'll see you there!

Firebrand Literary, a relatively new literary agency based in New York, has a new literary agent: Ted Malawer.

On children's writer Verla Kay's message board, Ted recently gave a great introduction of himself as well as what kind of submissions he's interested in. I have pasted a lot of his post below.

Good luck submitting!

      "I'm Ted Malawer, a new agent at Firebrand Literary.  I wanted to say hello to all the members here and introduce myself, as I am actively looking to build my client list. As many of you know, Firebrand loves books for young readers. I am looking to build upon our success with YA fiction (recent sales include novels to Random House, Simon & Schuster, Penguin, and Flux) and also expand our middle grade, chapter, and picture book list.

For YA, I am really looking for books that walk the line between commercial and literary. I like high concept novels with great 'hooks,' unique premises, and great humor. I also enjoy lyrical fiction, as long as it has an authentic and compelling voice.  I'm a huge fan of mysteries, smart historicals, and urban fantasy about original topics (no vampires, please). I'm not so much into the snarky 'chick lit' voice, but great writing trumps everything...

For middle grade, I am drawn to unique coming-of-age stories.  I like stories that make me laugh, but if you can make me cry, even better. I like projects with fantastical/supernatural elements, too, and action/adventure plots. 

I love fun and exciting chapter books, especially with multicultural characters. I'm always on the lookout for the next amazing picture book, but I'd rather not consider anything over 1,000 or so words, and I'm not interested in bedtime or food stories. Additionally, I do a select amount of adult books, so if you write in both genres that's not a problem for me.

      Writers interested in querying Ted should check out the Firebrand Literary Web site. Ted and his co-agent, Nadia, work very closely together and often review submissions together. Therefore, a "no" from Ted is a "no from Firebrand."

News hat tip: Nancy Parish

Want more on this topic?

• Footnotes: 6 articles on building a platform.
• Buy Christina Katz's book on platform, Get Known Before the Book Deal.
  
• Platform and the debut of your book.
  
• Confused about formatting? Check out Formatting & Submitting Your Manuscript.
• Read about What Agents Hate: Chapter 1 Pet Peeves.
• Want the most complete database of agents and what genres they're looking for? Buy the 2011 Guide to Literary Agents today!

GP: J.K. (Rowling) forgot to mention me in her acknowledgements page again? Hell hath no fury, I tell you. So we were whispering sweet nothings and watching some "Late Late Show" together. All of a sudden, the gal got one heck of a hankering for a "cookie dough blast." I was like, "Baby, I gotta go into Jersey to pick that up. One hell of a trek from NYC and I ain’t got no E-ZPass."

      Apparently Brits don’t fancy E-ZPass and she had no clue what I was talking about. Quarrelling ensued. Next thing I knew, I was pleading on bended knee for her not to leave. "Jo, honey bun," I whimpered. "Don’t go! I thought I was your agent in shining armor! Your muse!" But she stormed off anyway. I heard "wanker" in the distance. A shame.

      I was so broken-up that I decided to halt being an agent for a bit; i.e., abstaining from all selfish acts of selling. Instead, I’m making sure that (Linn Prentis Literary) runs smoothly—swimming through slush and assisting with newer titles by our most established authors. I’m making sure our bread and butter remains ... buttery. Speaking of our established authors, Patricia Briggs’ third installment of her bestselling Mercy Thompson series (horror/fantasy) will be released in January 2008 and is titled Iron Kissed. Also, the final book of Kage Baker’s series, "Sons of Heaven," was just released early July. Kirkus digs it. 

GLA: When you are taking submissions, you actively seek humor. What sets a successful humor book proposal apart?

GP: Two things:

1. A fresh ‘n crispy Benjamin paper-clipped discreetly to the second page of the proposal.
2. Let's change the question from "successful" to "great," because success is a weird thing. People forget not all humor is nonfiction, so I review just as many manuscripts as proposals (and wish fiction was more salable). Like "shows about nothing," humor written purely for entertainment is fine as long as it’s damn funny. God knows how many hilarious yet hollow and gimmicky books crowd my shelves at home. But I’m such a sucker for humor with substance, with some weight. Instead of raunchy fratire and chick-lit and 69 Ways to ________ (just fill in the blank with the dumbest thing possible), I look for Buckley novels—comedy with purpose—to get me going. How could a comedic writer not itch to be a social satirist during times of such corruption, such calamity (times of splendor if you’re a psychotic optimist)?

GLA: When submitting a humor book, does platform (outside of being a celebrity) factor in?

GP: Absolutely. If I had a penny for every time I said this: It seems as if publishers/agencies nowadays care more about the marketing scheme behind a book than the actual content of the book. It’s a shame. I’ll stop here because I could rant about how "art is dead, it’s all a business" for another 724 pages until my manifesto is complete. Colleagues tell me I’ve been listening to a little too much punk rock lately.

GLA: What can writers do to craft better book proposals?

GP: Check out some web samples or simply ask an agent. Wow agents with your words; otherwise, your proposal will, in time, become a coaster. Get a knowing and reliable comrade to read through your proposal, even if your ego’s convinced you that you’re a genius.

      When it comes to humor, I see writers trying way too hard to be funny. They blather on, not knowing when to stop and don't know how to cut their work. (The way I answered the first question of this interview is a perfect example of going a tad overboard.) Pretend you’re paying for each word that goes into your proposal and samples. Be as concise as possible. Most importantly, hone your own style! And don't use so many exclamation marks assuming they’ll make your punch line more hilarious!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks to a tip from another WD blog, Poetic Asides, I heard about a good article on the Writer Beware site addressing how big-name literary agents never accept poetry submissions. Here's a snippet from the article:

      "Listen up, poets. Apart from celebrity projects and writers who are already well-known, successful literary agents rarely represent poets. Even in the best of circumstances, poetry collections are a tough sell, and the poetry market, which is dominated by small presses, simply isn’t lucrative enough to make it worth most agents’ while. Poets generally get their start by selling individual poems to reputable markets. Once they've built up a track record, they can submit their collections to small publishers on their own. Beware, therefore, of literary agents whose guidelines say they represent poets or that they're seeking poetry collections. Nearly always, they’re unscrupulous operators looking to charge a fee, or amateurs who know nothing about the realities of the business. Most have no track record of sales to paying publishers of any kind." Check out the full article here.

Basic Agent Info:

About 99 percent of what literary agents represent is novels and nonfiction books. Some agents specialize in handling plays. Some will represent collections of short stories, but such collections are a hard sell, which is why very few agents do this. Poetry is even worse, with almost no literary agents accepting poetry submissions. And, of course, literary agents do not represent magazine or newspaper writing. Poetic Asides and other sites will tell you much more about how to legitimately get your poetry published, but I will tell what I know - and what I know is that writers should stay the heck away from Poetry.com. (By the way, the Poetic Asides blog was recently declared "Blog of the Week" by the Institute of Children's Literature. Coolness.) 

Here's what's going on around the other Writer's Digest properties:

On her blog, Writer's Digest Editor Maria Schneider shares news of an exciting new contest for literary nonfiction writers.

Poetry bloggers Robert Brewer and Nancy Breen, editors of Writer's Market and Poet's Market, respectively, have posted plenty of new material in July. If you're a poet or interested in poetry, check out the blog.

The Writer's Digest Forum continues to grow, with thousands and thousands of visitors each week. Joining the forum is a great way to get writing feedback from peers, network with other scribes, and just stay in touch with the writing world.
      Hot forum topic, according to WD staffer Brian A. Klems: Prologues. What's the deal with them and why are there so many these days?

If you want to know who agented a particular book, there are a variety of ways how to discover the individual literary rep who made the deal. Here are three ideas for starters:

1. Simply check the book's acknowledgements. Sometimes, it will be as simple as a writer saying, "And a special thanks to my agent, Randy Masterson."

2. Use search engines. Try Googling the book's title (or author) and the word "agent," and see what you come up with.    
      Also, lots of times, authors will have their representation listed online. So if you want to know who the agent was for Joe Smith's book, The Neptune Paradox, find Joe Smith's official Web site. Check the bottom of the home page, and then the "Contact" page. The site may say, "Joe is represented by Randy Masterson Literary Agency, 245 Manhattan Road, New York, NY."

3. Worse case scenario, you can call the publisher. If you see that Knopf published the book, for example, call Knopf's main line and speak to the operator. Ask for the editorial department; better yet, if you can, explain your goal and request to speak with the editor who worked on The Neptune Paradox. The operator will say, "Oh, that's Judy Smith. I'll transfer you." You won't talk to Judy, but rather her assistant. No matter. Ask the assistant if Judy did indeed edit The Neptune Paradox. When the assistant confirms Judy's involvement, kindly request to know who the book's acting literary agent was. She'll be happy to tell you.

In his interview below, agent Jim Donovan of Jim Donovan Literary stressed that writers who want to sell a nonfiction book would do well to have several (or, better yet, many) articles published in magazines. Writing for magazines, as well as newspapers, will help a writer better their craft—and it will also prove to an agent that you can write.

So how do you get published in magazines to help your chance of getting an agent? I could spend hours on this (and many smarter people have written books on it). A simple option is to pick up a book on how to sell magazine articles; there are good books on this subject published by Writer's Digest Books and good books published by other houses. However, the must-have book is easily Writer's Market; the book is essentially a gigantic directory of magazines that accept freelance material from writers.

So now you know about WM. But what else can you do? Well, if you're a new writer, then you'll want to seek out new magazines. The reasoning is simple: New magazines do not have a stable of freelance writers, and these magazines usually do not pay as well as bigger publications. Because of these reasons, new magazines are more likely to buy articles from writers—and that's music to a new scribe's ears.

Here's three sites offering free newsletters that notify writers of new magazines:

1. Absolute Markets, www.absolutemarkets.com
2. Writer Gazette, www.writergazette.com
3. Writer's Market, www.writersmarket.com

Good luck!