Summaries
“What is your book about?”
I hear that question and the first thing I think is, “about seventy thousand words.” That isn’t what the asker wants to know, of course. The asker wants tell a whole seventy-thousand-word story in fifteen seconds or less.
Worse, you have to start talking immediately. Take a moment to think, and the opportunity to interest a potential reader is gone. That person has moved on, perhaps with a comment they consider encouraging.
The question itself takes many forms. The industry term “elevator pitch” has become common enough that even some readers who have never tried to write a book or a film script will say, “Give me the elevator pitch.”
However the question comes, whoever is asking it, you need an answer. You need an answer for publishers. You need an answer for agents. You need an answer for random potential readers. But most of all, you need an answer for yourself.
On one level, you need that answer because if you don’t have one, and someone asks, you sound like you don’t know what you’re doing, which can make you feel like you don’t know what you’re doing. Most writers already have too many esteem issues around writing without that kind of uncertainty coming from outside.
On a deeper level, you need an answer because it will help you understand your story. A novel is a tremendous undertaking. A writer can become sidetracked by subplots, give too much attention to minor characters, and otherwise wander away from the original story. In some cases, that might be a good idea –while writing you might discover that the original plot led to an inferior story compared to one you found in a subplot.
Having a quick summary, an elevator pitch if you can handle industry jargon, can keep you on point and focused on telling the story that matters to you. But you only get that benefit if you come up with the summary while drafting, or even during the pre-writing phase.
If you already have a complete draft and are ready to revise, the summary gives you a litmus test for content: does this scene serve the story you have summarized? If the answer is no, it belongs in a file of text you cut*. If the answer is yes, whatever revision it might need, at least you know you are on the right track.
I am only just learning how to answer the question. I forgot about it entirely until I was in the middle of the second revision of my thesis novel. I’m still trying to get my answer just right, but it’s getting close. If you’re just getting started on it, here are a couple of places you can look to see how others have done it:
- Back covers: the back cover blurb covers more than you can in an elevator pitch, but it will get you thinking along the right lines
- TV summaries: whether from TV Guide or your local cable/satellite provider, these can show you how the approach is applied to films and television programs
- Online: publishers’ websites will have summaries for their books, as will sites like Amazon, Barnes and Noble and others
The potential rewards of a good quick summary of your novel are many, but they boil down to one: if you give someone a brief, compelling summary of your story, they will want to read it.
*I don’t believe in deleting.
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Submissions update: I’ve been deep in my thesis lately, but since the last time I posted I have submitted to Shimmer.
