Ah, the time has come to test the cover letters and one page summaries you've been practicing. Announcing:
The Buried Editor's Cover Letter/One Page Summary Contests
There will be 2 categories for this contest with one winner in each category. They are:
- Picture Book Manuscripts:
To enter this category you will need to post a cover letter for your manuscript on the forum board set up for this contest. The cover letter needs to be just like a cover letter you would attach to the top of a manuscript submission.
Prize: The winner will receive a free critique of the manuscript mentioned in the cover letter.
- Chapter Book/Middle Grade/Teen Manuscripts:
To enter this category you will need to post a cover letter and one page summary of your manuscript on the (separate) forum board set up for this contest. Again, this should be exactly like the cover letter and one page summary you would include as part of a submission.
Prize: The winner will receive a free critique of the first 3 chapters of the manuscript mentioned in the cover letter.
Rules:
- You can only enter one manuscript in one of the categories. So, pick your best cover letter!
- This is not the time to offer feedback to each other. You'll be able to see other entries, but do not comment on them.
- This is open to all manuscripts including ones that have been rejected by CBAY in the past. The only manuscripts that cannot enter are the ones that are currently under consideration by CBAY. This is 8 picture books and a few other projects. If in doubt email me, or submit a cover letter for a different project.
- I will not be picking the winner. I will choose my two favorites in each category, and then we will vote on this blog.
- Finally, I'll be picking the two for voting based on the quality of the cover letters/summaries not on whether or not the book is right for CBAY. This is unrelated to CBAY's wants or needs and will not result in any kind of publication. The prizes are literally just critiques.
Best of luck!
A long, long time ago (as the song says), I posted about one page summaries. What I said then is still true now.
A one page summary, or book synopsis, is a one page third person short story of your novel. It's one of those few times that you can tell a story without a single scene, and obviously since you have one single-spaced page, in as few words as possible. Your summary tells the entire plot and subplots of your novel, introduces all major and possibly a few minor characters, and introduces the major thematic elements. Like your one paragraph summary in your cover letter, it also needs to be illustrative of your writing voice and give the editor/agent a sense of how the manuscript will read. Not quite as difficult as a one paragraph summary (because you have more words), these can still be hard to write. It can be hard to figure out what is important enough for the summary. I find that the easiest way to write one of these is to make an outline of your novel with all the major plot markers listed. Then you'll know what you have to include, and you can make choices from there.
More than any other part of a book proposal, the one page summary is where you really get to know your manuscript, where you can really evaluate what does and does not need to be in your novel. Do you find you have 12 subplots and can't fit them into the summary? Then it might be time to reevaluate the necessity of all those twists and turns.
For the rest of the week, we're going to practice the one page summary. Since Facebook did not have as sophisticated of a discussion board as I had expected, I have set up a new forum over at ProBoards: The Buried in the Slush Pile Forum. It's not as pretty as the Ning forum was, but this one is free, and Ning no longer is. I know. Bummer.
I have already started the one page summary board. All you have to do is start a new thread in that group, and then paste your summary in. (Don't worry about the character count. You get 60,000 characters which is roughly 32 double spaced pages. You are aiming for around 500 words which is around 5000 characters.) To leave feedback, just reply to that particular thread. This way no one who wants to participate will be overlooked. (I missed one yesterday, and even once I knew about it, I still had trouble finding it. Hence the switch in forums.) As always, general rules of critique etiquette apply, and on this forum, I have the power to remove comments and ban members for bad behavior. This has never, ever been a problem in the past, but I will exercise that right if necessary.
Finally, a note for the picture book authors: I'm sure you noticed that I kept referring to a one page summary of a novel. Obviously trying to write a one page summary for a picture book would just be silly. However, you can still participate if you like. Feel free to use this time to perfect your one paragraph summary, and then take the additional space on your page to really explore your characters and get to know them -- their motivations, their wants, needs, etc. Granted, very little of that will actually make it into your manuscript text, but it will help you to know these things. For example using Becky's Don Quixote picture book wip, if the little boy's main motivation is to get Mommy's attention, then learning this would help Becky decide if the activities he participates in are helping him try to achieve that goal or if they are just silly for silly's sake. When you're done, feel free to post your paragraphs (and maybe a sentence or two about what you've learned if you like) on the forum. Just be sure to prominently feature Picture Book Practice at the top so we won't be try
This year, I'm running a one page summary contest. All entries should be a one page plot summary of a manuscript you have written. The top 5 entries will be posted and discussed on this blog (pending author approval of course). The top fantasy/sci fi/adventure/mystery summary will have its full manuscript requested for consideration for publication by CBAY Books. The top summary in any genre will have its full manuscript requested for consideration for publication by Blooming Tree Press. Since neither press is taking unsolicited manuscripts, this is a great chance to potentially have your work looked at.
To enter, email your summary to [email protected] by 11:59PM (PST) Tuesday, November 17. Obviously this is a special email that I have set up specifically for this contest, so you don't have to worry about your entry being lost amongst my normal email chatter. Also, that means that you should title your email the title of your work. Please then place your summary in the body of your email. Do not attach anything. If you submit your summary as an attachment, I will delete it without opening and reading it. Also in your email, please before your summary include a one sentence line telling me the genre and age group (chapter book, midgrade, or YA) that the book is intended for.
And finally, here are the rules. Please read them all:
- This contest is open to any one page summary written for a fiction chapter book, midgrade, or YA novel.
- No non-fiction.
- Your summary must be for a work that you have already completed. If you win and I ask for your manuscript, you must be able to supply it immediately.
- Your summary must be a plot summary. Do not include teasers.
- Plot summaries must not exceed 300 words.
- I know I said this above, but NO attachments. I'm serious.
- All entries are due by 11:59 PM (PST) Tuesday, November 17. No exceptions.
I hope to be able to notify the top 5 by this Friday, and then run one summary a day next week. The top two winners will be announced on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.
Any questions? Put them in the comment section here, or message my profile over at
Get Me Out of the Slushpile!.
Tip of the Week: To get your one page summary started, try writing a single sentence for each chapter that highlights the main event.
Trying to write a summary for your own work can sometimes be a daunting task. This is a simple way to get yourself started if you hit a roadblock. It can also help you determine if you've missed something in your plot.
Like I said yesterday, a one page summary divulges the entire plot of your novel. Another word for it would be a plot summary. So, to help people understand what I mean by plot summaries, I went and found a few good ones on the web.
The first one is the plot summary for Madeleine L'Engle's A Swiftly Tilting Planet. You can find it on wikipedia here. Just look at the part of the page labeled "Plot Summary," not all the other things on the page.
This summary does a good job of detailing out every major plot point in an interesting manner. Granted, it contains lots of spoilers, but that's exactly what an agent or editor wants in a plot summary. They want to see the entire plot arc.
Now because this book is one in a series, the plot summary does not have to introduce the main characters. It's assumed that the reader, in this case random wikipedia readers, are already familiar with the characters in question. If you are pitching another book in a series to an editor who is familiar with your characters, then you can also be as brief about your characters. Otherwise, you would want to tell a sentence about each major character.
Another great source of plot summaries are any of the study guides designed for students. As an example, I've linked to SparkNotes plot summary for Treasure Island. You can see the page here.
These plot summaries are designed for students who do not have time (or desire) to read the assigned books. In a short summary, SparkNotes, Cliff Notes, and the like tell the reader about key characters and all major plot and subplot points. These are the same things an editor or an agent needs to see when they are trying to determine if they would like to read a certain work.
So, keep practicing on those summaries. Remember, the best will have their manuscripts requested.
