“A maths teacher with OCD fantasises about one of his students while dealing with a series of prophecies and trying to take more control of his life.”

This is the twenty-five word synopsis of my WIP, The Maths Man Prophecies. Well, it’s actually twenty-seven words, but trust me, if I hadn’t read Write A Great Synopsis – An Expert Guide by the inimitable Nicola Morgan, I’d never have got it down to this succinct sentence.

In this new book – a fitting companion to Write To Be Published – Nicola takes us through exactly what we need to do in order to create the type of synopsis that will grab the attention of agents and publishers. This is not a theoretical book. Nicola provides examples of what a good synopsis should be and offers two methods for setting about the task. By the time you have finished this book you should be able to write a two-page outline, a synopsis in a paragraph as well as the twenty-five word pitch.

Nicola also generously shares the synopsis she would have written for her award-winning novel Wasted. While Write A Great Synopsis isn’t a long book, each page is stuffed full with practical advice and examples as well as what we shouldn’t be doing in our synopses.

If you are still in the process of writing your book, read Write To Be Published. If you are ready to start submitting, you can’t go wrong with Write A Great Synopsis. I’m off to read the book again and see if I can’t improve on my own 25 word pitch. I think we all know I could do better, and with Nicola’s help, I know I will.

For a chance to win a critique of your synopsis from the Crabbit Old Bat herself, read this message from Nicola:

“Surrounding publication on January 20th of Write a Great Synopsis – An Expert Guide, I will be visiting a number of blogs for a guest post, review or interview. If you’d like the chance of winning help with your synopsis, simply leave a relevant comment on any of the guest posts. (This could be a deep and meaningful comment or a plea to the gods of fortune to pick you!) One comment per post – but comment on each post if you wish. On February 15th, each blog host will send me the names of valid commenters and I will do a random selection, using a random number generator.”

All commentators to this post are eligible for entry to the competition. Good Luck!

Nicola Morgan is on Twitter  and is the owner of the very successful blog providing advice to writers, Help, I Need a Publisher. She has published over 90 books and you can find out more about her on her Author Website.