Plot Summary vs Plot Synopsis | What's The Difference & How to Write Both

If you’re pitching your novel to agents or editors, you’ll need both a plot summary and a plot synopsis. However, while summaries and synopses have a lot in common, they also have some very key differences. You’ll want to have both ready, and make sure you’re sending the right type of pitch at the right time.

TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - Intro
0:33 - How to write a plot synopsis
5:40 - How to write a plot summary

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RESOURCES:

[timoburke]

This is an amazingly valuable vid, packed with the specifics for creating each of these items

[milestrombley]

I like the one-page plot synopsis. It helps me plan my story quickly.

[jackhaggerty]

Making the Synopsis *pop* is a winning phrase. Drawing a distinction between Summary and Synopsis is invaluable 'legal counsel'.
As a reader of novels my needs are quite different from the submissions editor who has to make tough decisions on behalf of her publishing house.
I know quickly if the novel I see in the bookshop is for me. Yet the process is too mysterious for analysis. I read unclassifiable literary fiction.
Recently I reread *These Same Long Bones* by Gwendolyn M Parker & *A Crime in the Neighbourhood* by Suzanne Berne, 1990s novels.
Hard to say why I knew these novels were for me but the publishers knew. The same with *The Door* by Magda Szabo, *Ghost Story* Toby Litt.
The process is so mysterious that it can feel fated. Did Ruth Gilligan write *The Butchers* just for me? Or Helen DeWitt *The Last Samurai* ?

[thesamuraiman]

Thanks for the advice. I always mix them up.😂
💜⚡️

[xensonar]

What's the difference between a summary and the main body of a query? Other than the additional info you include after a query (number of pages, bio, comps, etc).

[cismontane]

I’m a little confused. Is the summary the same as the blurb, or are those different?

[mrplatink]

Would it be an instant query rejection if I did my summary in 2nd person?

[organboi]

Many great points. Brava. But there are too many jarring edits here in the video. I actually had to abort viewing. I'll come back when I'm more patient and relaxed.

[u_t_d_s_h-_a]

Isn't plot synopsis same as story outline?
New terminology to me...

[SteveJubs]

Imagine writing a novel for just pennies