alanmt

My agent has requested a plot summary to include in her proposal. After many attempts, this is what I have come up with. Obviously you haven't read the manuscript, but please give me your impressions of the summary. Is it interesting, effective, and does it make you want to read more? Or is it overly cliched, movie trailer-ish, or confusing?

WriterJohnB

You might want to ask your agent in advance if this is what he/she wants. Usually a synopsis is required, not a summary. A true synopsis must have the conclusion of the story, so they will know if it's a flat ending or not. It should also be quite detailed - 2 pages or so.

If you don't resolve the conflicts in the synopsis, it's more of a blurb. A blurb is designed to attract a reader, where you don't want to give away the ending.

Look at synopsis tip #8 at writers.com's link. Tips About How To Write a Synopsis from Fiction Writer's Connection -

Seems a bit odd that a male would be one of the virgin acolytes of the goddess of love and beauty. For one thing, how can they prove a male is a virgin? Just asking.

Hope that helps,

JohnB

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Nicco

I can't speak from a publisher or agent's POV to know if this is the format they want (I guess you should look into it like JohnB suggested), but it sounds like you created an exciting world in your story!

One thing that does confuse me though is how the curse put on Valens and his friends by the slave works into the rest of the story. I'm sure it makes sense in the actual book, but maybe that paragraph should be omitted entirely so the summary is more straightforward? Also, I think you should just stick to calling him Valens (rather than Val) throughout the summary. It will reduce the chance of confusion. There are a few other things I would change that make it easier for me to follow it. I'll PM them to you, and you can see if you agree with any or not.