What is the format for a synopsis?

Question:

What is the format for a synopsis?

It is for writing to a literary agent.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I'm a novelist, and I teach creative writing to graduate students.

Here are the essential things you need to know about writing a synopsis:

1. Write in the present tense. "John meets Mary at a party and tells her that he, too, has been looking for the missing files." Your novel is probably written in past tense, but for the synopsis you use present.

2. Hit just the highlights of the plot. You can leave out sub-plots or even whole chapters of action since the point of the synopsis is to reveal the action.

3. Don't play for suspense. That is, tell the story all the way through. Don't tease the synopsis reader. You will write the novel strategically and suspensefully, but the point of the synopsis is just to convey what happens from beginning to end.

4. Single-space. Yes, I know it sounds crazy when you've learned to double-space manuscripts, but for the synopsis, the convention is to single-space. (But still only one side of the paper!)

A synopsis can be anywhere from two to ten single-spaced pages. If you are sending the synopsis to a particular agent, you might write first to ask how long she would like the synopsis to be.

If you sell the novel, the synopsis will be used by many people at the publishing house to familiarize themselves with your book without having to read it, so make it good!