sorry for the belated response.

Unfortunately I don’t have an answer to your question. There’s no harm in having both a short snappy hook (the elevator pitch–a quick and interesting description of your book short enough to be delivered between floors if you were caught in an elevator with an editor or agent who wanted to hear about your novel) and a synopsis, which is more useful to helping people decide whether to see the complete novel.

The most important thing to have, of course, is that complete novel.

Is there a definite way to go here?

So I have four paragraphs for the plot summary of a trilogy. Ha. I wrote a one-paragraph (12-sentence) plot summary for the whole thing, because many agents say on their web pages: one paragraph only! Of course, they also say: one book per query only. But I realize now that I definitely should NOT have one paragraph on the trilogy, or the agent won’t have any idea of what to expect from the first book.

Anyway, thanks again for taking the time to explain to a naive first-time author why the number 350k should appear no where in her query. ;o)

Cheers,

Anya

I would structure the query something like this:

The Blah-thing Series Title

[a couple of sentence blurb about the series perhaps]

Book 1, The First Book Title, takes John Hero…
[a couple of well written, fascinating ideas, including some kind of closure - even if it is "the fellowship starts out on the road to Mordor"...] (Complete, 110K words).

Book 2, The Second Title, finds Jasmine Heroine…
[a couple of well written fascinating good ideas, including
how this volume fits with volume 1 - time gaps, story arcs, etc. and some sense of closure] (Complete, 110K words)

In Book 3, The Third Title, John and Jasmine….
[give the great payoff] (Complete, 130K words)

This subordinates the word count to the fascinating ideas, which is how it should be. But these word counts are golden for these days, even if they (and you) know they’ll change with editing. Editors really do love series.

But then, this is just what I would do.

In any case: Read editor/agent submission guidelines thoroughly and adhere to them for each query and submission.

If the guidelines say send a two-page synopsis, do a two-page synopsis for the first book, and 1-2 pagers for the follow-on books. As you have them written, you don’t have to be as vague as those of us proposing books we haven’t written yet. Put the word count after each individual synopsis, rather than in the cover letter.

If you are writing traditional fantasy (like what Kate and I write), be aware: Both my editor and my agent say that first time author sales in traditional fantasy (as opposed to urban/contemporary/crossover romantic dark fantasy) are very tough these days - but it happens (you know who they are!) You just have to make your submission as clean as possible, giving your particular target as little reason as possible to reject you without actually reading your work. Be honest, aboveboard, and smart. And keep writing!!!

Good luck,
Carol

OK, so I should pitch the trilogy, but only mention the word count of the first part (=110,000)?

Or should I name the word count for the three parts separately, like: The three parts are: *title1* (110,000), *title2* (110,000), *title3* (130,000).

P.S. It’s the tenth or so draft. And I have been cutting and tightening with a vengeance. It used to be 400,000 words! But there’s no way I can cut it down to one book. I just have to hope that some people in the publishing business share my love for trilogies, and that I’ll be able to find them.

Ah, who needs suspense novels? There’s enough suspense in real life. ;o)

http://kateelliott.livejournal.com/60566.html

and there is some excellent discussion going on, if you’re interested.

Anya, to clarify, the benefit of having a complete trilogy is that you present it as a complete trilogy (which is what I meant by presenting it as a complete novel) — that is, it’s finished already. So it “stands alone” as it were, but you present it to the publisher in its constituent parts, as Carol said. Publishers like trilogies, really, they do. And they like series.

Also, the benefit of having all volumes complete in first draft (were the books to be picked up, you’d likely have to revise, of course) comes with publishing schedule. Forex, Naomi Novik was asked to complete the first three books of her Napoleonic dragons series so they could be released in quick succession and establish her name and the series right out front. That’s a strategy publishers are taking more frequently these days.

A couple of things - I wouldn’t write 350,000 words anywhere within reading distance of an agent or editor. Much better to pitch Book 1: …much excellent stuff… approx 150K, Book 2:…clearly excellent stuff… approx 150K… and so forth. If the story is strong enough, they’ll see the importance of taking the three. They DO still like series, but they are very jumpy about word count. Chain bookstores are squeezing publishers to make books shorter (note this is not readers squeezing the publishers.)

As for the Lighthouse books, I pitched a standalone. It got complicated and I had to go back and say…two books. That was tetchy. Pitch the three together.

For the series I just sold, — whoopees here — I wrote a five page synopsis of the first book, and progressively vaguer, one pagers for second and third.

What Laura described works, too. That’s what I did with Transformation. I wrote it as a standalone and only at the end did I come to see the continuing story ready to unfold. The reason this can work is not that editors want standalones or that they sell easier, but that they want a strong, rich story. Starting out to write a trilogy, just because fantasies are often trilogies can lead to bloat or spreading a plot idea too thin. You want a “fat narrative” as Kate says.

And yes, leave yourself wiggle room in worldbuilding when writing a series or potential series lead-off. If you overspecify every detail before you’ve written the follow-on books, you may find yourself needing a religious ritual that uses fire or a new limitation of magic to close off an alternative for a beleaguered hero.

For those writing synopses, you might want to look at Pam McCutcheon’s book Writing the Fiction Synopsis. I know a lot of people who have gotten great insights from it.

Carol

I think that editors first have to fall in love with the characters and world in a stand-alone project; once that happens, they get more excited if it has the potential for being a series.

My agent tried to sell a stand-alone fantasy of mine in 2004 that was also the beginning of a series (I had drafts/plans for 2 follow-on books). It received good comments, but it just wasn’t right for anyone at that time. In 2007, she started submitting my first science fiction novel. I wrote it as stand-alone and this time, I was NOT thinking about a series. Only toward the very end of editing and polishing, I thought “maybe I should have some wiggle room for carrying on this story.” Surprise! As my very first contract, I got a 3-book deal from Ace/Roc! The contract specified that all the books be based upon that character and world.

Note that in the beginning, I had no idea this world/character had the potential to start a series. So I think the lesson here was: “Pitch a good stand-alone project, but stay flexible and don’t write yourself into a corner.”

thanks.