The process of querying and writing the synopsis, as difficult as they were, improved my novel and my writing. I am truly grateful for the process and I encourage everyone to take it to heart and see if it strengthens your story or exposes any weaknesses in your writing. You may be amazed like I was.

Hugh Addison

I knew a strong query letter was needed along with a compelling synopsis. One piece of advice I read said not to wait until you complete your novel to write the synopsis. If I had read that earlier it would have saved me a rewrite. Even with a strong outline, it wasn’t until I was writing the synopsis and trying to sell my story to agents that I realized I had glossed over my main character’s flaw of being a thief. It’s a big deal because my main character recovers stolen artwork, and yet he is a thief. As much as I loathed writing the synopsis, the process crystalized this character flaw, and somehow that it got lost in development. The rewrite took a couple weeks and the story became that much stronger.

I started to look for other ways I could strengthen my story. What if it was my main character’s being a thief is what led the death of his wife? What if he promised to never steal again and yet the story tempted him to steal over and over again? What if he promised to never love again, yet one of the characters tries to seduce him and he falls for her? These are just some of the examples where writing the synopsis gave me ideas that strengthened the overall story.

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After developing a compelling synopsis and a few more rewrites, I was able to put together a strong query letter, and that’s the feedback I have received. Had I considered self-publishing, I doubt I would have as strong a novel. Having seen the difference querying agents has made, I must admit, I believe the process serves an important purpose–it forces writers to produce their best work.

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