Synopsis vs Blurb

Happy Thursday, beautiful readers of my blog! Today we're gonna go over a couple of words and what they mean. I'll be focusing on the words synopsis and blurb and what each means. Grab those pens and notebooks and let's get going!

The definitions!

Synopsis:
A brief summary or general survey of something.
An outline of the plot of a book, play, movie, or episode of a television show. 

Blurb:
A short description of a book, movie, or other product written for promotional purposes and appearing on the cover of a book or in an advertisement.

When you write your query letters, most agents want a summary or synopsis that includes spoilers (the whole plot in a few lines).

However, you don't want those spoilers in the promotional material, so you use the synopsis to create a compelling blurb (which appears on the back cover of your novel), leaving out the sensitive parts.

In addition, a blurb can be a short snippet from a review that entices readers to pick up your work.

So, to break it down in layman's terms:

• A synopsis is a summary that can contain spoilers.
• A blurb is any promotional copy that hooks readers.

Does that make it easier to understand?

When you attend something like C. J. Redwine's Query Letter workshop, you'll learn to craft a compelling synopsis of your novel for your query letters. From there, your blurbs will grow wings. If you want to know a little more about the workshop, I discuss the finer points with C. J. here.

Yes, she'll have a workshop at utopYA Con 2015, but she also offers them online.

It's worth looking into for the blurb writing ability it'll surely give you. Even if you don't want an agent, selling your book is important, right?

What do you think? Were you aware of these differences?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo