BFLA OPEN WEEK: Writing a Cover Letter and Synopsis

Written by Sian Ellis-Martin

I have the pleasure of assisting agents Isobel Dixon and Kate Burke with their wonderful authors, but alongside this I am starting to build my own list of books across both fiction and non-fiction. As a new agent, it’s been so interesting to consider submissions that authors have made directly to me.

I’ve also been lucky enough to take part in one-to-one sessions with authors, where I provide feedback on their submission package (i.e., their cover letter/introductory email, synopsis and sample chapters). As well as advising these authors on editorial work for their novel, we’ve also had some interesting conversations about writing a cover letter and synopsis. Here’s some advice on how to do both those things.

Cover Letter

The main goal of your cover letter is to make an agent want to read your sample chapters and to convince them of the marketability of your book. All agents handle their submissions in different ways, but I always read the cover letter/email first. If that convinces me that this book might be what I’m looking for, I’ll turn to the sample chapters. And if I like those, I’ll open the synopsis (or proposal, if it’s non-fiction) and see how the book pans out.

Start your cover letter with your pitch. This is usually one or two lines to grab the reader’s attention. In fiction, you could say who the main character is and what they face. In non-fiction, we want to know what unique perspective you’re bringing to this topic. Throw in some title comparisons at this point too – which books do you see yours sitting alongside? Feel free to branch into television, film, etc. comparisons too! This all helps us place your book into a genre.

Now move on to your blurb. This is a slightly longer summary, like you’d see on the back of a book, which draws the reader into your story. Think about who your main character(s) is (are), what it is they want and how they overcome any obstacles they face. Blurbs usually don’t give too much away, so feel free to end it on a cliff-hanger!

Finish off your letter with a little bit about you as an author. You don’t need to tell us your whole life story, but a small amount of background is great! You don’t need to have previous writing or publishing experience, but it’s always good to know if you do, especially if you’ve been published or a shortlisted for a prize before. If you’re writing non-fiction, tell us why you should be the one to write this book – what’s your level of expertise on the subject? What do you do that relates to what you’re writing about?

 Top tips:

• Do your research! If an agent’s bio says that they don’t consider YA, historical or fantasy, don’t send them your YA historical fantasy novel.

• Read the submission guidelines for each agency carefully and follow them.

• Tailor your submission email to each agent – don’t copy/blind copy in lots of people!

• Don’t be negative about other books in your submission letter – it’s not a good look.

• Don’t overthink it – we don’t mind if you sign off with ‘Best Wishes’ or ‘Kind Regards’, or whether you use Times New Roman or Calibri. As long as your letter is clear and professional, that’s fine!

• Tell us how far along you are with writing this book – have you finished the MS? If non-fiction, have you written anything beyond the sample chapters?

Synopsis

The most common mistake I see in synopsis writing is that people treat it as a blurb, designed to entice the reader rather than tell them exactly what happens. As agents, we need to be able to see how the story develops, how you trace that narrative thread through the novel, and the full character journey.

 A synopsis should detail the core narrative of the book, introduce us to the main characters, and tell us the setting, from the first chapter to the last, including spoilers. Agents want to know the beginning, middle and end of your story!

 Top tips

• Ideally your synopsis should fit on one page (although don’t worry if you go slightly over or under).

• Start with the basics – who are the characters? What is the inciting incident? How do the characters react to this (i.e., the main action and plot)? How is this resolved?

• Ask someone who hasn’t read the book to read the synopsis – do they get a clear idea of the story?

• Don’t overcomplicate it – we don’t need to know every tiny detail of what happens and you don’t need to name every character, just the main narrative thread and principle characters.

• Focus more on the story itself than the themes/metaphorical meaning of your work.

Now that you know how to draft your cover letter and synopsis – it’s time for you to submit! If you’d like to submit to me, please see below for what I’m looking for.

What I’m looking for

The main thing I want when I start reading fiction sample chapters is to be completely drawn into the world of the novel, to jump into the character’s life and be swept into the narrative as if I’ve been there all along. I love stories that explore big ideas and themes – mental health, sexuality, love, grief, coming-of-age, gender, class and race – through the smaller, everyday moments that define our lives. I’m drawn to complicated and flawed protagonists who you can’t help but root for. I’m not afraid of expressions of darker themes and feelings, but I’m also a sucker for a good love story or a happy ending.

I’m a big television fan too and am often inspired by the things I watch. I’d like to read a sweeping family saga in the style of ‘This is Us’, a heart-warming and heart-breaking story like ‘It’s a Sin’, and a punky portrayal of female fearlessness and friendship à la ‘We Are Lady Parts’. I’d also like to find an upmarket crime series with a female at the forefront, someone like Saga Norén from ‘The Bridge’ or Stella Gibson from ‘The Fall’.

I’m also looking for illustrated and narrative non-fiction and memoir. I’m keen on books that make complicated or niche ideas more accessible. I’d love to find cookery and food books too, and am open to lots of ideas there, and am especially drawn to simple recipes suitable for those on a budget, those who are time starved and those who just can’t be bothered with cooking half the time!

I’m particularly keen to read all kinds of books by authors from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds. Importantly though, the stories don’t need to be issue-led or connected to the trauma that may be associated with this underrepresentation.  

Some fiction books I’ve enjoyed recently:

I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters

Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams

In Every Mirror She’s Black by Lolá Ákínmádé Åkerström

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

The Break by Marian Keyes

Milk Fed  by Melissa Broder

The Mothers by Brit Bennett

Some non-fiction books I’ve enjoyed recently:

Conversations on Love by Natasha Lunn

In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

The Trauma Cleaner by Sarah Krasnostein

The Good Immigrant by Nikesh Shukla

Group by Christie Tate

The Salt Path by Raynor Winn

The Five by Hallie Rubenhold

I’m not currently taking on projects in these areas: young adult or children’s, science fiction, or historical novels set before WW2.

Agents Don't...

Partly inspired by a twist on Richard Charkin's recent talk and his 'Don'ts for Publishers', we've turned this on its head and instead put together a list of ‘Agents Don't…’, intended to debunk some common myths about agents, or help explain how and why we agent!

 Agents Don't…

1. Publish your books. We seek a publisher for your book, and ensure your work is in the hands of a great editor and their team of marketers, publicists, digital experts and sales people.

2. Earn anything until you do. We work on a commission basis, so we only get paid when our authors do! This ensures that it's in everyone's best interests to take a book that's in the most appealing shape possible, to publishers, and why we might spend a lot of time honing your manuscripts and proposals before they go out on submission to editors.

3. Know the tastes of other agents. Strange to admit, but other agents are either our friends, our competition or both! We might know them socially, and know a little of their list of authors, but when it comes down to it representing a book is a personal business and we don't always know what floats another agent's boat. So that’s why we are very rarely able to recommend other agents if we turn your book down. Agency websites are most helpful; go and look at an agent's list and their bio, for the best information on what they're looking for.

4. Have any time to read during office hours. It's a common fallacy that we're to be found at our desks, feet propped on stacks of manuscripts, thumbing through our authors' newest deliveries and reading at our leisure. I WISH. Sadly there is no time to read during the day; we're busy negotiating deals and the resulting contracts, chasing payments and checking royalty statements, forwarding requests for our authors' appearances at festivals and events, meeting editors and listening to what they're looking for, liaising with publicity and marketing teams, catching up with colleagues on sending out our books for translation and media sales, and pursuing potential new authors. Very occasionally we might be able to squeeze some editing in on a Friday afternoon, but usually all reading (and editing) is done outside work hours.

5. Have the time to reply to submissions with detailed feedback. Unfortunately we simply don't have enough hours in the day to feedback our thoughts on your three chapters or proposal. And, if we want to be businesslike about it, it’s not in our interests to spend time editing a book we’re not going to work with! However, if we think a book is good enough to consider despite its flaws, or that it could be very interesting to us after a good edit, we will always say so. Equally, if the writer has talent but this book is not for us, we’ll say so.  And no book comes to us in perfect shape!

6. Appreciate rude or persistent writers, whether that's someone calling up the agency reception at regular and increasingly agitated intervals, or barging in on a conversation at a Fair or Festival. We know you're anxious to hear from us and, trust us, if you've a great book or idea then we will definitely be in touch. However, if you've a great book but have been rude to our receptionist or in chasing emails, we won't want to work with you. Polite and professional is the best way for us both to be!

7. Choose brand over book. It has to begin with a great novel or book idea, not just with one hundred million followers on Twitter (however helpful that might be further down the line!). Writers seem to worry a lot these days about their ‘profile’, and it can’t be denied that this is a concern to publishers sometimes too. However, we all need to be convinced that there’s a good, publishable book in whoever we represent (we would always hope that there are many good, publishable books ahead for an author), so the best introduction to us and to a publisher is with a winning idea and strong writing. Not every single author we work with is social-media savvy. I’d personally recommend using Twitter as it’s a LOT of fun and a brilliant place for talking to other writers and sharing writing experiences, as well as a valuable peek into the publishing industry via agents and editors, but it’s not essential.

8. Give up on an author after just one book. As mentioned above, we usually take on an author with a view to them having a long and fruitful career. This is why good writing is important; you could have one great idea, but then… nothing. But if you’re a good writer then we’ll keep chatting with you about potential new book ideas. And if your first book doesn’t sell, we’ll talk to you about pursuing something else. We’re in it for the long term!

9. Chase trends. Because a) we couldn’t possibly predict them (who saw FIFTY SHADES coming? Pardon the unintentional filthy pun) and b) we couldn’t keep up – most books benefit hugely from several months of editing, marketing and publicity, by which time the reading public is going crazy for the next trend: whatever happened to vampires?

 10. Go to lunches and parties just for the free booze. Yes, we know there is the popular belief that we are carousing every night, quaffing cheap party wine and canapes, but actually we go to these kind of social events (much less so now than a decade ago, too) to fit in catching up with editors and their colleagues, hearing about what they’re publishing and using these friendly occasions as an opportunity to pitch our books. And if we can munch a tiny quiche whilst we talk about our fantastic authors, so much the better.

11. Have to read just their own authors’ manuscripts and the submissions pile, but also a wide variety of newly-published books to keep up with competitors and publishing tastes. I try to cram in one non-‘work’ book per weekend, so I’m up-to-date with the books that are appealing to editors and readers alike. Why did everyone rave about The Fault in Our Stars? Best way to find out is to read it…

12. Only make deals.  It’s all about career planning and thinking strategically, looking ahead to try and shape an author’s career in the long term. We’re also sounding boards for our writers, who might come to us with new ideas and their plans for their futures; we maintain a continuous conversation about how we’re going to develop an author and their books, and how best to get them to where they want to be. This is becoming especially important in an ever-evolving publishing landscape, with new platforms, formats and models to explore with our authors.

13. Like telling their clients about rejections.  It hurts the agent too: they’ve taken the client on because they admire and love their work, and have a genuine and unswerving belief that a book should be published. Rejections are rubbish for everyone, and don’t get any easier!

 14. Exist in a vacuum.  We’re all actually human (strange as it might seem) and while reading and editing seeps into every moment of our supposedly spare time, we do occasionally have to have time off, do something else, to maintain perspective. (I don’t think we ever REALLY switch off, but a bit of fresh air can do wonders for new inspiration…) Just as writers are advised to put a book to one side for a little while once they’ve finished the first draft, in order to edit with a bit of new perspective, we all benefit from a break.

15. Sit behind our desks ignoring submissions, feeling superior or polishing our keys to the gates of publishing. (In short: take everything you read about publishing in the newspapers or similar, with a LARGE pinch of salt.) We're desperate to find good books and great authors; we comb our submissions pile as frequently and as thoroughly as we can, and are always happy to meet new writers, whether on Twitter or IRL. It's important for us to be accessible and excitable! And we never get bored of finding that next incredible book. 

By Juliet Pickering

Carole Blake at ChipLitFest: Pitch the Agent

Originally published as a blog post by Emma Lee-Potter, author of three novels, a children’s book and five novellas. She has been a Costa Book Awards judge, has driven across the equator in a Land Rover and interviewed Richard Branson 40 thousand feet above the Atlantic! Emma writes about news, education, books and family and you can visit her website here: http://www.emmaleepotter.com/.

Carole Blake is the doyenne of literary agents. She has worked in publishing for 50 years, started her own literary agency in 1977 and has a star-studded list of clients that includes the likes of Peter James, Barbara Erskine and Sheila O'Flanagan.

She’s also the author of From Pitch to Publication: Everything You Need to Know to Get Your Novel Published, a must-read for writers. Carole is currently writing an updated version, due out in 2015.

At this year’s Chipping Norton Literary Festival Carole teamed up with Wannabe a Writer author Jane Wenham-Jones to present a literary-style Dragons’ Den event. The session was entitled 'Wannabe a Writer – Pitch the Agent' and challenged aspiring writers to submit 1,000 words of their novels for Carole to critique. Five brave individuals were shortlisted and Carole gave her verdict in front of a live audience.

Carole is second to none when it comes to giving advice and guidance to authors and the audience scribbled feverishly as she spoke. Writers agonise about their synopses when submitting work to agents but Carole said that she always reads the chapters first “to find out if someone can write.” She emphasised, however, that a synopsis must include the ending of the novel.

As she talked about the shortlisted writers’ work a host of dos and don'ts emerged along the way. Here are some of them:

•  “If you are a genius you can break all the rules but be sure that you are a genius before you break them”
• Beware of using coincidence as a key part of your plot
• “We don’t necessarily need a shining, sparkling hero but we need to admire him rather than think he’s a twerp”
• “You need a bit more drama and a bit less melodrama”
• “Characters are more important than plot”
• “If you try to please too many people you will end up with something that doesn't appeal to anybody at all”

The session ended with Jane asking Carole for one key “nugget of wisdom to take away.” Carole, who receives up to 25 submissions from writers a day (including Saturdays, Sundays and even Christmas Day) didn't hesitate. Do your homework, she said, pointing to the wealth of information on literary agents’ websites about what they are looking for. Carole herself takes on few new clients these days but states on the Blake Friedmann website that she is interested in “good quality commercial and literary fiction, contemporary or historical.” The guidance couldn't be clearer yet writers still persist in sending her everything, from children’s books to science fiction.

“Given how easy it is to find out information these days do a lot of homework first,” she said. “There is nothing more guaranteed to get a fast rejection than if you enrage the agent.”

Emma's latest book, LOVE AND LAUGHTER, was published in November 2013 and is available here. 

For New Screenwriters – Making the Right Impression

Our Media Department's Ellen Gallagher talks scripts, submissions & selling yourself short. The first of our weekly blog posts from authors, agents and assistants (serious alliteration skills here). 

A wise woman once said “if I see another submission addressed to ‘Dear Sir’, I’ll scream”. That woman was me, and I’m using the word ‘wise’ with a healthy dose of poetic license.

My point here can be distilled into a fairly simple maxim – a writer ought to remember that their relationship with an agent will be a close working partnership; it’s business, yet not ‘one size fits all’.

So it does get a little exasperating to receive blanket query letters which have clearly been copied and sent to all the other agencies in town, especially when they’re not even addressed to an individual agent by name. If you don’t really care who at each agency sees your work, you’re sending the message that getting an agent (ANY agent) means more to you than approaching a long-term writing career in a smart and businesslike manner. Which immediately puts you at a disadvantage, as agents are looking for serious writers who have thought carefully about their future career.

As a writer, it should matter to you WHO represents your work. Hoping that a scatter approach to querying will cover more ground is understandable up to a point; but in the long-run, it’s a risky strategy. If your script ends up with an agent who recognizes that it’s well-written, and so takes you on as their client, but doesn't 100% know what to do with it, it could end up gathering dust in a drawer instead of gathering interest and advancing your career.

Does the agent have a vested interest in the area(s) of writing in which you want to work? Does their list of existing clients strike a chord with you, do you think they’ll ‘get’ your work and thus be great at ‘bigging it up’ in a room with producers? Will they have strong, established working relationships with those producers in your field and genre, with whom you want to work and who are likely to reciprocate that enthusiasm?

If you do your homework before approaching an agent, you can ultimately save yourself (and us) quite a bit of time. If you approach an agent whose stated areas of expertise are horror and crime with your family comedy, you might not get far and will seem somewhat ill-prepared and naive.

Truly great writing will out – if the agent you sent it to can’t take you on, but your script is awesome, it’s not the end of the road. At Blake Friedmann, we will pass scripts to one another if we feel the writer would be suited to another agent. You needn't send it ‘to whom it may concern’ in fear of choosing the wrong agent to directly address. But do be sure to send it to an agent whom your research suggests is likely to respond well to a script such as yours. Otherwise, it will possibly be rejected outright as unsuitable, or pushed into a towering general reading pile from which it will take some time to be read and noticed.

So let’s say you've got one really, really great script written. You've hammered out that first draft, redrafted it a few times and you feel it’s now the best it can be.

Chances are, this isn't enough - yet.

You probably need to write some more before you’re ready for an agent – if an agent or producer likes your work, one of the first things they’re likely to ask is ‘what else have you got?’ If the answer is ‘nothing’, you risk losing their interest. Give yourself the best chance of retaining their attention by having at least one more really polished project with which to dazzle them. You don’t want to seem like a potential ‘one hit wonder’.

So you've written a few things now, and are feeling confident in their quality. You've made the decision you’re ready to submit, and you have carefully chosen the agents whom you want to approach. There are still a couple of things to bear in mind…

With so many submissions coming in at each agency, it’s understandable that writers want to make themselves stand out from the crowd. This is good, as we’re looking for stand-out writers too. But it’s extremely important that you stand out as a talented and professional writer – ‘zany’ submissions aren't the way to go. Here are just a few examples of what not to do, gleaned across my career so far:

• Don’t start your query letter with DEAR MONEY-GRABBING B*STARDS. Yes, I did actually receive one like this. I think they were going for a memorable effect – they achieved that, but this submission didn't lend itself to being taken seriously.
• Don’t douse your submission with perfume or aftershave. This happened once and set off someone’s allergies, which was a bit annoying.
• Don’t pepper your submission with self-deprecation – I once received one which continually asserted that we ‘probably wouldn't be interested’ – don’t do that to yourself. Be sure that we will be interested, then be quietly confident – that’s the best way to appear professional.

Ways to make yourself stand out include having some credits or performances of your work which you can put on your writing CV. Perhaps you could stage your work somewhere and invite reviewers, pick a positive quote from one of the reviews to include in your query letter.

Maybe try entering some industry-linked competitions to see if you can make the shortlist or even win (such as the BBC Writers’ Room, the Red Planet Prize, the Ustinov Prize and others – a list is kept by ScriptAngel Hayley McKenzie here.

Why not arrange a rehearsed reading of your script – you can find out who the newer agents are at each agency, who might be looking to build their client lists, and invite the ones who might respond well to your work. They might not all be able to come, but it’s worth a try if you can make it happen – the added benefit for you is getting to see your work read aloud, which is hugely helpful in determining what does and doesn't ‘work’ in performance as well as on the page. Do some research – is there a fringe festival or theatre group in your local area through which you could get your work performed?

Anything you can do to get your work out there and generating some hype can only be beneficial, rather than leaving it to sit on your PC’s hard drive (or Mac, let’s face it, you write scripts – there’s a fair chance you’re a Mac person). This shows an agent that you’re proactive and motivated – remember, even when you do have an agent, the onus is still on you to make connections, be creative and excite people with your ideas. If you've got a writer’s CV with a few things on it (a play production, a competition shortlisting, a short film review perhaps), you’re immediately looking like a ‘new writer’ as opposed to an ‘aspiring writer’, which is a step up the ladder.

An agent can open some doors for you, but only if you’re driven enough to push yourself through them. So if you courteously get your work out there in front of audiences, readers and reviewers who can vouch for you, you make yourself seem like the sort of person who isn't going to sit back and wait for success to come to them. Then, you could be making a better impression than those of your peers who don’t make that effort. I’ll repeat that word though – courteously. Do always be polite, as you would in any professional situation. You might be surprised how many people forget that.

So in summary - give your submission the best shot at being appreciated. Draft it, redraft it, make it the best it can possibly be, get something to put on your writer’s CV – then don’t screw up your chances by making an overly hasty, ill-prepared impression upon submitting.

…and we've said it before, but it bears repeating – PLEASE READ AN AGENCY’S SUBMISSIONS GUIDELINES before submitting to them. Most agencies have these guidelines on their website - don’t submit if you don’t fit their criteria, or if they’re not accepting submissions. Your script won’t be read and you’ll seem strangely incapable of reading – a bit of a problem for someone wanting to make a good impression as a writer! For instance, Blake Friedmann are only able to consider submissions from screenwriters with produced screenwriting credits.

Similarly, please don’t telephone to ask how to submit if the guidelines are right there on the website. I’m sure you’ll understand how frustrating that can be for the person answering the phones if they have to repeat information, which is already publicly available, multiple times each day!

Of course, this is NOT a set of orders, instructions or a guarantee that following this advice will get you represented. Often, an agency is simply not taking on new clients at the time you submit, or isn't looking to expand their list in the genre in which you've written. If that’s the case and you do receive the odd rejection despite being super pro-active and talented, don’t despair – keep on searching for that perfect agent pairing. Remember, legend has it that William Golding’s LORD OF THE FLIES was rejected 20 times before it found its home. Rejections are part of the deal, accept them and look elsewhere.

The best of luck with it!