Catatonic Reading Inc. Collection Table of Contents Fade to Black – Drama PPD – Crime Drama Power Couple – Drama/Greek Tradgey Regarding The King, The Whore, and The Other Guy – Crime Drama/Greek Tragedy/Special Formatting[?] Murphy’s Place – Romance Carter Records: La Familia – Drama__________________________________________ Individual Plot Synopsis’ Fade to Black This story revolves around one sole event, slowly revealed through a series of P.O.V.’s which constantly change at those ‘crucial’ moments. The first event being a simple car ride, the passengers being Jonas Romulus(36), Christine Romulus(15), Devon Romulus (4), and Jake Charles (18). ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ P.P.D. Story centered around journalist Drake Taylor who spends the day trailing two Pepper Hill undercover cops. Training Day esque storyline. Story subject to be scrapped. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Power Couple This [longer] story centers around black Hollywood couple Bryant & Autumn Jones. The reader soon finds out their marriage wasn’t exactly [put together?] because of their love for one another. We see the two distinct personalities of the two, a good chunk of it being an interesting comparison and contrasting. The reader will also get a ‘behind the scenes’ look at their careers. It’s all topped off with a brilliant ending if I do say so myself. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Regarding The King, The Whore, and That Other Guy Benjamin King, mayor of Pepper Hill, VA is the first black male to be elected to office, and as one journalist puts it, ‘****s it up in the name of all black people.’ The main players involved in this Greek Tragedy are : Benjamin King [ The King ] Carmen Habanera [ The Whore ] and Louis S. Lakewood [ That Other Guy ]. There is also one other person involved, Christina Jarvis, who is more important than one thinks. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Murphy’s Place The goal of this story is to demonstrate in some ways, Murphy’s Law. At a middle school reunion everyone gathers around to tell of what they’ve become. ‘The most likely to become…’ turned into dirt, while ‘Mr. Detention’ is climbing the corporate ladder. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Carter Records: La Familia Starting from the bottom to the top, it’s an average day at Carter Records. Yet another P.O.V. changing story, starting off with the lowly doorman, all the way up to the CEO of Carter Records, skipping a few positions here and there. Shows numerous personalities, as well as showing the true colors of the company led by a seemingly cold blooded CEO, Angela Carter. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If this was on the back of the leaflet part of a book, would you pick this up? Which one's seem worth reading, and do you have any plot suggestions that would fit my 'style'? If you can even pick up my 'style' from these synopsis' Questions?
first of all, what do you mean by 'back of the leaflet part of a book'?... a 'leaflet' is like a 'flyer'... a single sheet of paper or a just few pages that usually advertise something or present a pov on some subject... did you mean the 'jacket' of a hard cover book?... that's the loose paper cover that's folded over the hard covers and usually has a synopsis blurb on the front inside flap, that only sometimes slops over to the back flap... [btw, the plural of synopsis is 'synopses'... with no apostrophe] second, i'm guessing from your toc that this book is meant to be a collection of short stories... is that right?... as for the 'style' of your blurbs, i'm sorry to say it's pretty amateurish and none of the blurbs would make me want to read the story... if they're typical of your writing style in the stories themselves, i can't see any publisher taking on the book... reason being goofs in grammar, punctuation, syntax, etc., along with the generally young-sounding and less-than-professional quality of the writing, overall... aside from all that, it's virtually impossible to sell a collection of never-published short stories by an unknown beginning writer, in any case... there's just no market for such stuff, so most [if not all] paying publishers won't be interested... what you need to do is have some or all of your stories published for pay, in reputable magazines, making a name for yourself as a successful writer of fiction... then, when you've reached that plateau and have a substantial number of fans, a publisher may want to take on a collection of your work... wish i had better news for you... if you want examples of what i found to be in need of work in what you've posted above, let me know... sorry i don't have time to do an edit right now... love and hugs, maia
Read carefully what Mammamaia posted. Without a solid background, there is little chance of selling a collection of short stories.
On average, anthologies sell poorly as compared to novels, even when they contain shorts by well known/respected authors. Short story collections, even by well known/respected authors do worse in sales than anthologies. That is why most publishers shy away from them. That is why they are so difficult to sell. Sure there are very rare instances where a collection bucks the trend and does well. There may be some small press markets that specialize in single author collections, but I don't know of any off hand. There is a relatively new anthology project: Anthology Builder that might fit the bill for many authors, but this publisher prefers shorts previously published by paying markets. I used the Anthology Builder to illustrate that there are niche markets out there, and one may fit this, if the presentation and quality of the writing is at a professional level. Terry
rose gave some good examples and noted one place in particular where it fairly screams 'young'... the overall look and content as a whole is also very 'young-looking/sounding'... so, are you? hugs, m
Unfortunetly yes, I would suppose. Is 15 young? I dislike that tagging though, so I have some work to do
It's perfectly fine to be young. Look up the New York Times Bestseller List. Every single writer you see there was fifteen once. All it means is you still have a lot to learn. As long as you embrace the learning process, there's no problem. What is the purpose of this document? Is it a query to send to an agent or publisher? If so google how to write a query and a synopsis. In its current format and style, most professional readers would not even bother with a form rejection letter. Keep asking questions, reading, writing and learning. Best of luck, Rose
