I've decided, before publishing Nothing Ventured online in November; to send it out to a few literary agents to see if I can get anyone interested in the novel. That means I've had to start work on the dreaded synopsis. I hate writing these things, trying to summarise a whole novel that you've put your heart and soul into, down into a few short paragraphs.

I wrote so many versions of these when sending my first novel out. You really have to treat it the same way you write your novel - pour everything you've got into it and then keep editing and coming back to it until you're finally happy.

Most agents want a synopsis of one page or less. I found this hard enough to do for the first novel and Nothing Ventured is 35,000 words longer!

Yesterday I managed to get one down to one page but it wasn't easy. It's difficult to get a version that is a summary of the story but that also sells it to the agent.

Articles will tell you that the synopsis should just tell the agent what happens in the story following the first three chapters that you've sent them but some agents may look at the synopsis first before reading the chapters. If you've sent a mediocre sounding synopsis then they may not even read the chapters no matter how brilliant they are. These are busy people with hundreds of other submissions to get through as well as working for the clients they already represent. You've got to capture their interest in the manuscript, cover letter AND the synopsis.

Rejection letters are never a pleasant experience so why try again when my first novel failed to find an agent? No, I'm not a sadist; I just truly believe that an agent is the best way forward for a writing career.
That's why I'm facing up to this synopsis again with a smile on my face and a song in my heart...Yeah that bit's not true. It's probably best if I'm not around people right now.