The Synopsis -- From An Editor's Point Of View

Imagine for a moment that you have just been hired as an
acquisitions editor a small publishing company that
publishes romance. Your task is to find a romantic suspense
novel to fill a gaping hole in the publisher’s schedule.
You are excited, thinking you have just landed your
dream job. After all, you’ll get to read all day, something
you love to do anyway, and you’ll get paid!

You’re shown to your office and logged onto your
computer system. You open your email and are pleased to
find several submissions already waiting for you. Books
you get to read and don’t have to pay for! Does it get any
better than this?

You open the first email submission and click on the
single attachment to open the file. The file that opens has the
author’s name address and phone number, but there is no
letter and no synopsis. You think this is a bit odd, but
figure that you were hired to read manuscripts so you
settle into your chair and begin to read. The story opens
strongly and you are drawn into the world of the heroine
who is being chased down a dark alley. You’re on the
edge of your seat, hanging on every word, wondering
what will happen to the heroine. Will she escape the man
who is chasing her? You turn pages, faster and faster,
remembering that you’re supposed to be finding a
romantic suspense novel. Now you are on page 60 and
though the story has kept you on the edge of your seat
and turning pages, there is no hero in sight and your
heroine is still running for her life. You begin to wonder
where the hero is, and when he’ll show up. You begin to
wonder whether this book is a romantic suspense at all.
Maybe it’s a straight suspense, there was no synopsis to tell
you. You decide to read a few more pages to see if the hero
turns up. A few more pages down the road there is still no hero
in sight, and you decide that this manuscript really doesn’t work
as a romantic suspense so you draft the rejection letter informing the
author that the piece doesn’t work as a romantic suspense
because it lacks a hero and a romantic element.

You’re now on to submission number two. Your boss has
stuck her head in the door twice to see how you’re doing
and to enquire whether you’ve found any promising
candidates to fill that looming spot in the schedule.

You open submission number two and are pleased to find
that this submission has a cover letter and a synopsis. The
cover letter gushes that you’ll love the surprise ending the
author has crafted for her heroine. You read through the
synopsis and find that the hero and heroine meet early in
the story, they have both a strong attraction and a strong
conflict which keeps them at loggerheads through most of
the story. You are just about to jump for joy thinking
maybe you’ve found the piece to plug the hole in the
publishing schedule when you read that the hero gets shot and
the heroine goes off with the bad guy in the end. So much
for loving the surprise ending! You open Word and craft
your letter to the author telling her that though you loved
the first part of the story as she’d described it, you weren’t
blown away by the ending. You suggest that the heroine
ending up with the hero at the end might be a better ending
for the story and suggest that she resubmit if she decides
to revise.

Well, it hasn’t been a grand day. This acquisitions stuff is
harder than it looks. Your boss is getting jumpy now.
She’s stuck her head in the door twice and keeps casting
meaningful looks at the publishing schedule thumb tacked
to your cubicle wall. You know you have to find a piece,
and find it fast.

 You open up submission #3, scan it quickly. It’s another
submission that jumps straight into chapter one. You’d
love to read it, but you wonder if it’ll be like the other one,
start off great but not really work for you. You decide that
you don’t really have time to read it right now. You need
to find a romantic suspense to fill the spot in your
schedule before your boss comes back. You close submission #3
and move on, looking for something that looks promising.

You open submission #4 and scan it quickly, mentally
checking off the aspects of the story that you think will
work for your readers. The hero and heroine meet early in
the story, they have a strong reason to be together and an
even stronger one to want to be apart. You cheer mentally
thinking that the conflict will certainly be strong. The
villain is a strong character in his own right with a good
reason to want the hero and heroine out of the picture. More
cheering. The author has led you to a scene where the hero
and heroine have just jumped off a cliff and are plunging
into the icy river below. At this point the synopsis ends
with the words, I hope you enjoy my novel.

Far from enjoying the novel, you want to strangle this
author. You now have no way of knowing whether the story
ends happily ever after or whether the hero dies and the
heroine goes off with the villain in a surprise ending. You
really don’t have time to find out right now, so you push
the manuscript aside, into the growing file of ones you’ll
read when you have more time.

Time passes, the day is growing more and more hectic
and you are feeling despair wondering whether you will
ever find the perfect romantic suspense manuscript to fill
the spot in the publishing schedule.

Finally, you open submission number #9. Silently
blessing the author who has been kind enough to include a
synopsis. You scan the synopsis looking for the elements
that make a strong romantic suspense novel. The hero
and heroine meet early on in the story. They are instantly
both attracted and at odds with each other. The villain is
strong and well motivated. As you read through the sub-
mission you can see that the characters internal and
external conflicts work together to propel the story. You can
follow the path the characters take, you can see the situation
getting worse and worse for them as both their relationship and
their physical safety are put at risk.

You begin to feel hopeful as you approach that portion of
the synopsis where the hero and heroine are facing their
final showdown with the villain. You breathe a sigh of
relief when the villain is captured, noting that the author
has so far hit every mark for a romantic suspense. You
keep reading, fingers crossed, hoping that this author
delivers the happily ever after ending required by the sub-
genre. When the hero and heroine melt happily into each
others arms you sigh, feeling that just maybe you’ve
found the romantic suspense novel to fill the open spot in
the publishing schedule. You will still have to read the
novel to be sure the writing is up to par, but at least you
know that the plot works.