Synopsis

A synopsis should be two to five pages long and should layout the progression of the story in summary format. Technically, it should introduce the characters, lay out the major plot points and outline the resolution. But it should also be filled with your writers voice and it should sound and feel like your characters/setting and should be as compelling as the best bits of your book. Remember that editors (or their assistants) get 30+ of these across their desks each day and split them down to a 'no' pile and a 'further consideration' pile.

They may not even get past your ho-hum synopsis to read your scintillating chapters/partial. So it pays to get it right.

Writing a synoppsis is a real art and entire competitions (and how-to books) have been generated to help writers to craft their synopses. Many will tell you that writing the book was easier than writing a good, tight synopsis.

Format-wise it is easier.

Synopsis should be single-spaced, left justified, with a blank space between paragraphs. Use Times New Roman or a similar, proportional font. The title of the book and the line/imprint/sub-genre you're targetting should go in the top left header. At the end of the synopsis it can be helpful to centre the word 'end'.

That's it. The real craft is in the content. You can see a Word version of simple synopsis formatting here.