Here are the synopses I used to sell three of my books.

A lot of writers will tell you they hate writing synopses. Well, I’m here to tell you that they probably don’t hate it as much as I do. Their hatred is a sad, weak thing compared to my hot and powerful hatred. I hate writing synopses. Why? Because it feels like homework. Because it focuses on the story rather than the telling, and the telling is the fun part. Getting across a sense of your style in a synopsis is a pain in the ass. If I had a thousand asses, it would be a pain in all of them. Nonetheless, I have managed to sell books based on a synopsis, so I thought it might be helpful to post mine as examples.

None of these are intended to show the way to do it, bur rather one way to do it. For another approach, take a look at Harry Connolly’s excellent blog post on the subject.

To put these in some context, the synopses for Kid vs. Squid and California Bones were each preceded by a query letter, sent by my agent to an editor, who then requested a detailed synopsis and a the first few chapters of the book. The Boy at the End of the World was sold as the second book in a two-book contract with Kid vs. Squid, and was designated as to-be-determined. That means that the publisher bought two books from me, but I still had to pitch the idea for the second book so they could decide if that book was the one they wanted to publish. I did write a synopsis for Norse Code, but that was after the fact once the book was already sold based just on sample chapters. My agent thought it would be a good idea to have a synopsis anyway for sales and marketing purposes.

Most of you know this, but just in case, whenever you submit to an agent or editor, always, always, always check their submission guidelines. They may want something entirely different than what you see in my examples.

Also note that the books in their final published forms differ quite a bit from my synopses. Character names and plot threads and plot outcomes changed quite a bit by the time the books were on the shelves. Okay? Okay. I hope this is helpful to you.

• Kid vs. Squid
• The Boy at the End of the World
• California Bones