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This is number 127 in the blog series, “My Life in Erotica.” I encourage you to join my Patreon community to support my writing.
READ THE DAMN REQUIREMENTS!
I’m going to give some instructions on writing a typical synopsis as required by a typical agent, publisher, or contest sponsor. But before you DARE to submit your novel for consideration, read and understand the actual requirements spelled out by the place you are submitting to. Most will require a one-page synopsis and sample chapter or ten to twenty pages. That’s not a lot. In fact, your synopsis may be shorter than the description described in last week’s post.
In nearly every instance, a publisher, agent, or contest will have ‘submission guidelines’ that spell out exactly what they want in a submission. The first and foremost rule in submitting a novel, memoir, or even non-fiction book is to follow that entity’s submission guidelines.
Too many aspiring authors develop their own approach to the topic and don’t understand why they receive a rejection so quickly. Did the agent even read your manuscript?
Probably not. If a submission doesn’t follow the guidelines, it is usually automatically rejected. It’s a harsh reality, but it’s reality.
First off, what is a synopsis?
A synopsis is a short summary of the plot, characters, and significant events in a book, including the ending. That makes it very different than the description. In a description, you want to tantalize the reader and not give any spoilers. But the people who read the synopsis want to know you can actually end the novel.
This is often written after your novel is finished and you are ready to circulate it. It needn’t be. You can write the synopsis up front, but expect it will change by the time you write ‘The End.’
The purpose of the synopsis is to show the reader that you know your story and understand its plot and characters. It is not a ‘marketing piece’ in the sense the blurb and description are. It is not targeted to a casual reader, but to a writing and publishing professional who will decide if your story is ever exposed to a buying reader.
The typical submission requirements for a synopsis are that it be one page, with one-inch margins on all sides. It should be in Times New Roman typeface, 12-point type, double spaced. All paragraphs should be indented half an inch. (Metric measurements are a near adaptation.) This amounts to roughly 375-400 words. Some agents and contests request 500-800 words, which allows extension to two pages. I have personally never seen a submission requirement for more than that.
It should include the inciting incident (delay of Bob’s spaceship), the events illustrating his opposition (needs to keep show running while also fighting trafficking), the climax (Bob and Lacey free 10,000 captives in a single night), and the resolution or concluding state (how the story ends).
To avoid the risk of a spoiler for something you might read, let’s take another look at the imaginary book I might write in November, The Year I Lived. If I had written the book already, the synopsis might have looked like this:
Lowell Thompson had lived a completely ordinary life until the one temptation he couldn’t resist. Now he is divorced, unemployed, homeless, and hopeless. Things can’t get worse for Lowell, but they do. A police sweep of the area removes all homeless people from the street. Even Lowell’s old car, for which he can’t afford gas or insurance, is impounded and Lowell is arrested for vagrancy and panhandling.
During the roundup, Lowell witnesses Alliya Carver being sexually assaulted by one of the officers and intervenes. He injures the officer and escapes with Alliya to the edge of the city. With nothing but the clothes on their backs, the two attempt to make a life out of their bleak prospects.
Lowell and Alliya find temporary work and food at a small company just outside of town. Both are willing workers and soon attract the attention of other homeless people who seek help from them. With their limited funds, they establish a community, work to keep people off drugs, and get them employed. Some leave, but others join the effort to improve their lives.
At great risk to himself, Lowell fights against an ordinance to remove homeless people from the streets of their community, but he shows those people to be genuine contributors to the community.
Even when they are assaulted by a gang, Lowell stands up to the oppression and is hospitalized. Unable to pay, he is released quickly, but one of his employers steps up to get medical aid for him.
With the new-found fame, resulting from the beating, the police officer from the sweep identifies him as his assailant and he is arrested again. This time, Lowell argues his case in court with an army of the unhoused to back him up. Noting his exceptional sales ability in the courtroom, a corporate executive offers Lowell a job that is perfectly ordinary and gets him and Alliya off the street. When temptation comes with the job, Lowell resists and resumes his new perfectly ordinary and uneventful life.
Here we have an example of a one-page synopsis of about 340 words. It is in present tense, begins with a statement of how the story starts and ends with a statement of how it ends. Between there are events that contribute to the outcome and the climactic courtroom scene that establishes Lowell as a salesperson if nothing else. Coupled with the first 20 pages of the story (which I haven’t written) this would make a reasonable submission for consideration by an agent or a cover for a contest entry.
There are so many things in writing a novel that aren’t actually sitting down and writing the novel. We’ll consider more of them next week as we discuss ‘Categories and Keywords.’
This is a special edition in the blog series, “My Life in Erotica.” I encourage you to join my Patreon community to support my writing.
AS WE NEAR THE END of “Banned Books Week,” I’m pleased to note that none of my books have been banned in Florida or Texas, though some probably should have been. In fact, all my Devon Layne books (at least those published since I figured it out) contain this note on the copyright page:
This book contains content of an adult nature. This includes explicit sexual content and characters whose beliefs, actions, and comments may be contrary to your religious, political, or world view. The content is inappropriate and in some cases illegal for readers under the age of 18.
And in fact, if a reader cannot respect divergent views on religious, political, and world society, they have no business reading ‘adult’ content. It’s too bad, we don’t have a classification for those juveniles. I list all of my books, both Nathan Everett books and Devon Layne books as “Adult Trade Fiction.”
But none of my books have been banned that I know of.
Why?
Because people tend to self-select their reading material. That includes children. If a child is interested in explicit sexual content, he or she will seek it out. Just like an adult will. If the topic is not of interest, the child will ignore it. Unfortunately, most adults lack that capacity.
And so, when I read a notification that removing books from children’s shelves in a library is not the same as banning, my first response was “Bullshit.”
The argument is that the book isn’t ‘banned,’ it’s just taken off the shelves. It is still available at public libraries and bookstores. Books are only flagged for removal when parents determine the book contains explicit sexual material or content detrimental to children.
It sounds good, but that’s not the way it works. Over 850 demands to remove some 2,300 different titles were received last year. Because parents are concerned about their children. Many of those books did not contain any such material, but the mere mention of a person who is LGBTQIA+ in a book, or the mention of the struggle of a person of color, or the mention of a union, or the mention of a non-Christian is enough to land a book on this list. Most people submitting these lists have not read the books in question, but have a list of books supplied to them.
And even though I consider them stupid, I admit the right of a parent to monitor and restrict the reading material for their children.
I do not, under any circumstances, recognize their right to restrict the reading material for ALL children. The books requested to be removed are largely considered Adult Trade Fiction already and are not on children’s shelves. To Kill a Mockingbird, It, The Handmaid’s Tale, etc. Those which are considered children’s literature mostly lack explicit or obscene material and simply don’t match the parent’s prejudices. I'm afraid I know many people who gasp in shock and horror and scream "pornography" at the mere mention of sex in any context!
That is not to say that none of my books have been banned! Twelve of my books have been blocked officially or unofficially by Amazon. I was shocked when the first one was rejected. I uploaded all nine volumes of Living Next Door to Heaven 1 & 2 at the same time. Book 7: Hearthstone Entertainment, was blocked. I tried to fight it and was sent a message that there was a problem with the cover and some inside material. When I asked for more details, I was told that if I persisted, Amazon would review all my titles to determine if others should also be blocked.
If you look at all the covers, you'll find it hard to guess which cover was deemed inappropriate! Amazon offers no ability to mitigate the problem. Once blocked, I can’t even remove it! I responded by offering Hearthstone Entertainment for free at Barnes and Noble, ZBookStore, and on my own website.
I received a notification from Amazon a year ago that my book Art Something was blocked seven years after it was published! It came about because of a reader complaint. One. The three-book Strange Art series doesn’t make sense without the first book. It has been released on Barnes and Noble, ZBookStore, and on my own site, and will be released as a single volume Signature Edition paperback in 2026.
On January 30, 2019, during the release process, I received notification that Double Take had been blocked. It’s a science fiction story about a man sent to his 14-year-old body, but it is in an alternate timeline and parallel universe. Though Amazon did not give any reasons, I did lose a lot of readers who were upset that a character they liked turned out to be trans. Once again, with the first book in the series blocked, there was no sense in releasing the other four. They are available on ZBookStore and my own website. They will also be released as individual Signature Edition paperbacks in 2026.
In case it is not clear, I am opposed to censorship, book banning, and stick-up-the-butt parents who think they can set the rules for everyone. We have people who are professionals in that area. They are called Librarians.
Enjoy Banned Books!
author Devon Layne (aroslav), aka Nathan Everett (Wayzgoose)
This is number 126 in the blog series, “My Life in Erotica.” I encourage you to join my Patreon community to support my writing.
“HE WAS TALLER than I am by a couple of inches, weighing a little over 200. He had sandy hair that stuck out like he’d slept on it when it was wet. No, a little longer. I’d say his face was a little rounder than that, but not fat. Just shaped like a balloon. Thin lips. Nose was sort of flat, like it had been hit a few times. He squinted all the time, like he wasn’t used to the light. Yes. That’s it.”
“Based on your description, we have brought in five suspects. Could you take a look at these five men and tell me if any of them was the man who assaulted you?”
“Well, he was about the height of number three. The eyes were like number five. I think number one is too short…”
Now, if you were describing your novel, would a reader be able to pick it out of a lineup? That’s the next step in selling your novel. The logline is an eye-stopper. The elevator pitch sparks interest. The blurb makes a person open the listing to see what it’s all about. But the description is what causes the nickel to drop. Or the $5.95, as the case may be.
Do you recall the blurb I presented last week for an imaginary novel I might write in November? Here it is.
“What if your whole life was condensed into a single year and everything important in it happened that year. For fifty years, Lowell has lived in the memories of his life in 1979. As the song goes, ‘I’ve been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn, and a king.’ And Lowell was all those things in just one year! These are his memories of that one incredible year.”
When you post a book for sale, you typically have two different boxes for describing it. The first is the blurb (less than 400 characters) and the second is the description (less than 4,000 characters). The description is the author’s opportunity to finally convince the reader to buy his book. Here’s what I created for The Year I Lived.
Lowell’s life was nothing but ordinary from the day he was born to the day he died—except that one year from the summer of 1979 to the summer of 1980. That year gave him enough memories to last a lifetime. In fact, for the past fifty years, he’s been caught in a loop, reliving all those memories.
When he tells people what happened to him, they assume he’s just telling stories made up from a reasonably long life, but no one believes they all happened in a single twelve-month period, give or take a few weeks. And those who have known him for any length of time can’t believe they happened at all. But from June 1979 to June 1980, Lowell lived an entire life’s worth of adventure and excitement.
He didn’t start off rich or noble, nor did he end rich or noble. He was caught up in an extraordinary adventure and was left just an ordinary guy. Of course, there were changes. Life before the year, he was on one course, certain that he had his career, family, and spirit set on a permanent trajectory. Life since the year, found him also on a course with a career, family, and spirit set on a permanent trajectory. It was just a different one than before the year.
Of course, you’ll need to know a little about his life before the year—a topic Lowell has always avoided—in order to understand how extraordinary that one year was. His totally unremarkable life was coming to a depressing end as his divorce was finalized. He was completely unprepared for what came after. (1467 characters)
The purpose of the description is to draw the reader into the story just far enough that he or she wants to know what happened. The reader has invested two minutes at this point and is ready to invest a few hours learning about Lowell’s life.
I’ve been spending most of September preparing the Signature Edition of my three-volume work, Bob’s Memoir: 4,000 Years as a Free Demon. It’s scheduled for release November 1, 2025. The book (Signature Edition is only available as a hardcover print edition) will sell for $49.95. The most expensive book I’ve ever produced. Who would ever buy it?
I don’t really care. I created it so I could put it on my bookshelf of Signature Editions. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t thought everything through about the book. Why do I think it’s worth it?
“Hi! I’m Bob and I’ll be your demon tonight.”
So begins the adventure of a free demon, loosed on the world by an inept adept some 4,000 years ago. But Bob is not your ordinary demon. He was not imbued with any traits of evil when he was summoned and as a result is rather benign. He’s just your everyday, slightly horny, happy-go-lucky (mostly lucky) demon.
It’s a romp through the annals of human history from a unique perspective. A little bit spooky. A little bit sexy. A lot funny.
That 395-character blurb is what truly inspired me to write the three-volume series, all combined in a single book for the Signature Edition. But if anyone is going to look further than the blurb for a $50 book, they’ll need to have a little more to go on. Here’s the description:
This Signature Edition of Bob’s Memoir: 4,000 Years as a Free Demon contains all three volumes of Bob’s seminal work on the history of the world for the past four millennia. It has been designed in a way that seems appropriate for the work of an immortal sharing his insights on the development of humanity and inhumanity. Bob has experienced all aspects.
It was a difficult thing for a poor defenseless demon to endure, especially finding how terribly wrong the history books and religious teachings and scientific writings have gotten the story over the years. It is his attempt to set the record straight. He’s done everything possible to make the work simple and understandable, stopping short of labeling chapter and verse all the way through.
As a Signature Edition, this volume includes a digitally signed photo of the real author, Devon Layne, and an interview. Devon (me) wishes to assure you that he is not a 4,000-year-old demon, no matter what his ex-wives might say. He has merely acted as the intermediary for Bob, who introduced himself as Devon was driving on US Route 95 through Idaho, in search of inspiration and groceries.
Bob introduced himself politely as if he were a passenger in the cab of Devon’s truck, and told him he would be dictating his story and as soon as Devon was conveniently settled in front of his computer, the story would begin. And thus, it began.
As Devon sat naked in front of his campfire that night, fellow nudist and story consultant Doug showed up to share a beer and discuss the latest story. Devon told him about Bob’s arrival on the scene and a little about what he’d been told so far. Doug nodded, downed another beer, and stared into the fire.
“I get it,” he said. “Bob is just your everyday, slightly horny, happy-go-lucky—mostly lucky—demon.”
“That Doug,” Bob whispered in Devon’s ear. “He shows up every century or two. He gets it.”
And so, it proved to be. Of course, Doug was only a little of the story Bob told when compared to the many, many women who crossed Bob’s path—some of whom, came to stay.
So, I, Devon Layne, have endeavored faithfully to record Bob’s story, even when it seemed disjointed and to extend into a future not yet seen. Enjoy!
The description sets the tone of the story and encourages the reader to shell out the funds necessary to read it. Personally, I’ve read it at least a dozen times.
Of course, the three normal eBooks of Bob’s Memoir can be purchased from ZBookStore for just $4.99 each or the set for $12.00. An all-new second edition of Volume 3 will be released on October 12 and is unavailable until then, and as always, my works can be read online for free at SOL or at my own website. The current edition of Volume 3 will remain at SOL until next Sunday when I'll begin replacing it with the 2nd edition.
Next week, I’ll discuss other important tools and documents you might be asked for in attempting to publish your book. The synopsis, the outline, the first twenty pages, keywords, and categories remain to be covered. Starting next week.
This is number 125 in the blog series, “My Life in Erotica.” I encourage you to join my Patreon community to support my writing.
“WHAT IF YOUR WHOLE LIFE was condensed into a single year and everything important in it happened that year? For fifty years, Lowell has lived in the memories of his life in 1979. As the song goes, ‘I’ve been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn, and a king.’ And Lowell was all those things in just one year! These are his memories of that one incredible year.”
The most important thing an author writes to promote his or her work is the blurb. The earlier you start working on it, the more useful it will be. It should fully encapsulate exactly what the story is while piquing the interest of the reader to open the book. It should also inspire you to write the work! When you read your blurb, you should clap your hands together and say, “I can’t wait to write this!”
If it doesn’t inspire you to write it, it’s not likely to inspire a reader to read it.
In 2015, when I decided to write a story in the ‘Damsels in Distress’ universe, I first read all the stories I could find that were set in that universe. The heroes were overwhelmingly former military men, trained and experienced in combat and survival. They’d been through war and were upright men with honorable character. Much like most of the retired servicemen I have known.
But I am not ex-military. Writing about characters in the military and their experiences is not in my ‘wheelhouse,’ as my dental hygienist put it this week. I had to consider what other things went into the making of a hero and when I came up with a theatre student who saves the lives of his niece and sister-in-law, but is crippled by the act, I knew I had a hero. I went to work on describing him in the blurb for Sleight of Hand.
Crippled while saving his niece and sister-in-law from a drunk driver, Lincoln has struggled five years to 'never give up' at their encouragement. When his friend and magic tutor Seth is suddenly killed on Chaos, though, Lincoln is forced to consider that the stories his mentor told him were more than a LARP. But what kind of hero could a guy in a wheelchair become?
And, indeed, when I came up with this blurb, I couldn’t wait to start writing the story. It’s short as compared to most of my novels. Just eight chapters. But in it, Lincoln gets to Crossroads where his paralysis is healed and he learns to become a different kind of hero, using his magic tricks and theatrics to rescue the damsels in distress.
Sleight of Hand and the entire Hero Lincoln Trilogy are available in eBook from ZBookStore, and as a single volume paperback at online retailers.
There are some key things to remember when writing your blurb. First is to identify who your story’s protagonist is and what type of person he or she is. Then put the protagonist in the key conflict of the story—what does he have to do or overcome? And finally, how did the protagonist get in this predicament?
Many blurbs also include how the protagonist completes his goal, but that is not as necessary as the other three ingredients. Later, however, that will become critical.
Brian was the geekiest shrimp in his class—frequent target of neighborhood and school bullies. But his next-door neighbor, “Heaven,” was watching over him, keeping him safe and protected—until the day Brian became the protector. Brian Frost, would-be chemist and aspiring cook, loyal enough to his friends that they become fiercely loyal to him. All because Heaven told them a fairy tale.
First, who is the protagonist—the person the story is about? Brian, a little geek who is often picked on. What does Brian have to overcome? He has to change from a weak person who is being protected to a person strong enough to protect others. How did it all happen? Heaven, a protector, told a story to Brian’s friends that brought them closer to Brian.
This blurb is 388 characters long. Most of the places you will use a blurb have a character limit. It may vary, but the most prevalent is 400 characters. Use as many of them as you can, but only include essential information. Don’t try to tell the whole story in the blurb. Get those details out that will inspire you to write the story and will sell people on reading what you’ve written.
Go to the story links page at Stories Online. Read the blurbs for the stories posted today. Some are extremely short. Some come close to the full 400-character limit. But which are the ones that make you think you’d like to read them (or write them)? Look at what turns you off of other books.
Of course, your personal interests will affect your interest in the story as well. The author can’t do anything about that. In fact, I want the blurb to warn you away from my story as well as attract you to it.
Part of the motivation for this series of posts was an email I received from ‘Johnny’ who pointed out the number of blurbs that contained poor writing. That included poor English, punctuation, spelling, and word-choice. He said, and I agree, that readers are often turned off from reading a story because the blurb is poorly written. I have to agree, but I’m not going to post any of the ‘bad examples’ he forwarded to me.
The blurb should be an example of the best of your writing. I believe the problems with most of the bad examples were the result of being treated as an afterthought. The person posting the story—and this is just as true of people publishing an eBook or paperback through one of the major vendors—seems often to forget they will need a blurb until they are in the process of posting. So, they hurriedly jot something in the text box and move on.
The blurb should not be an afterthought!
It should be planned, written, and edited in advance. Don’t start posting a story until you have given thought to the blurb. (I believe you shouldn’t start writing the story until you have given thought to the blurb.)
Write your blurb with the care of a Madison Avenue advertising exec intending to sell a million copies. Those sales will all be based on this 400-character blurb.
Of course, the blurb is not the only tool you have to sell your story. Most distribution sites for your eBook or paperback also include the opportunity to give a longer description. We’ll talk about the description and synopsis next week.
This is number 124 in the blog series, “My Life in Erotica.” I encourage you to join my Patreon community to support my writing.
“IT’S AN INTELLECTUAL THRILLER with high stakes and fast action, but a low body count.”
If you look at this and have your interest piqued, it’s a successful logline. It means you are one step closer to reading the story. If you just keep scrolling, it was not successful. The purpose of the logline in today’s world—it changes over time—is to stop the reader from scrolling. If we are being unkind, we can also call it click-bait.
A lot of the time, it is all a reader will see as they are scrolling through titles. You have literally an eyeblink to capture their attention.
Consider what happens when you look through an onscreen directory of movies to find something that matches your mood at the moment. Here is all you see:
A CIA decoder hunts for his wife’s killers, his intelligence serving as his ultimate weapon.
Did it make you stop scrolling long enough to watch a preview or read a longer description?
A pretty, popular teenager can’t go out on a date until her ill-tempered older sister does.
Hmm. I think that’s a modern adaptation of a Shakespeare play. I’d check it out.
Amid cosmic clashes and interplanetary politics, an heir must harness mystical powers and lead a rebellion against an oppressive regime.
I think I’ve seen at least half of those movies, so I’ll probably look to see if I’m interested in this one, too. If you are upset that I’m not telling you what movie any of these loglines are for, then they were obviously effective. They made you stop and want to check out the movie a little more.
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