Well, What's It About?

One of the most nerve-wracking experiences for an author is trying to explain their book to someone else. It doesn’t matter if it’s a co-worker, the random lady in the check-out line at the grocery store, or your mom, but if someone asks “What’s your book about?” there’s this phenomenon many writers experience where their mind goes blank and a screeching, static sound starts playing in their ears.

Or, maybe I’m being dramatic, like I would have been if not for my MFA classes where we intentionally wrote a summary page, a summary, a blurb, and an elevator pitch. Multiple times. Graded and peer reviewed.

As with most things, explaining what your book is about can become easier . . . with practice.

For our particular assignment, our summary, or synopsis, was meant to be a one-page overview of what our novel is about. A little bit more detailed than the summary you would find on the back of a book, but still vague enough to cover all the major plot points and character arcs.

Depending on how long your book is, you may write more pages for your summary. You can use this for practice, but many literary agents will also ask for a summary of your book, and knowing their specific requirements is important.

Writing my summary page let me see where my novel was going in a condensed space, following along with my character on her overall character journey. When creating the summary page, I noticed patterns in my story that I wanted to revise, and other plot points or character arcs I wanted to add that weren’t there. It also helped me to articulate the summary that would appear on the back of my book.

A lot of times, the summary on the back of the book is called a blurb, which kind of upsets me, as that is also what is called the comments authors make on other authors books, aka author blurbs.

Another term for it is jacket copy, referring to the paragraphs you would find inside of a “jacket” cover for a hardcover novel.

This summary is more condensed than the summary page, just a few paragraphs. It’s meant to entice a reader with just enough information while not giving any major plot points or character arcs away.

Often, the jacket copy is wrapped up with a marketing sentence, something like “this epic space fantasy, first in a series, follows the harrowing journey of a woman trying to find herself in a galaxy bent on her destruction” or something to that effect. Obviously, you want to make that last sentence as dynamic as possible.

Writing the jacket copy helped to pin down my novel thesis in a way I could reveal to other people without giving away major plot points. Practicing writing the jacket copy narrowed my focus while writing the novel, helping me not to veer too far in one direction or another, even on a first draft. It solidified where I wanted to go in the story in a vague enough way to leave room for revision but still give me direction.

We also practiced writing an author blurb on our peer’s summary pages as if we had read the book. In one way, it was a way to teach us how to describe a book in a few sentences without giving plot points away, and in another it was a way to practice using language that could entice someone else to read something.

While it may seem premature to practice writing an author blurb, for those who like to review books, it does help to practice giving your review of a book in a few sentences from a reader’s perspective, while also maintaining your persona as an author, and therefore a professional. A colleague of the writer, as it were.

It also may be interesting for you to attempt to review your book from a reader’s perspective, someone who also has writing skills, but has no personal affiliations with the book. Easy to say, very hard to pretend to do in real life, but good practice going forward.

This one is the worst. Even with an MFA degree under my belt, where we practiced this in writing and in conversation, this is still the worst. When the novel idea is new or the first draft still, well, first drafting, it can feel vulnerable to even mention you’re writing a book, much less describe it to someone.

Never mind that the expectation is to summarize it in a few sentences while also making it sound interesting or fascinating.

Never mind that in many of these scenarios, it can potentially be with someone in publishing or someone whose opinion means a lot to you.

Practicing the elevator pitch was embarrassing at first, because in many ways, I had no idea where I was going with the germ of an idea I had for a novel. It was an epic space fantasy, and I felt this pressure to explain worldbuilding elements or mention them in places it wasn’t necessary to.

I’ve practiced with other genres too, and I have always found fantasy and science fiction the hardest genres to summarize novels in. An elevator pitch? Even worse.

But practicing made it less scary. Writing the sentences, over and over, after heavy revision, made it easier to treat like a script and so when I had to practice saying it out loud, I was already familiar with it.

Of course, after memorizing my elevator pitch, the trick became not making it sound rote, like rattling off a phone number.

While practicing one skill helped to gain skills with the other, all of these summary versions required individual practice. Do I have it down? Hah! No, not at all. I have a feeling that with each new book, the lessons will start anew.

More than just a summary, these different types of summaries can help clarify your direction and make a roadmap for you as you work on your novel. Not to mention, already having it done once you are ready to publish or send to a publisher will be a boon to future you that you will not regret.

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