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HOW READERS TALK TO EACH OTHER
VS.
A SYNOPSIS
BY P.S. BARTLETT
I often talk about finding readers. Tonight, I started
reading back over a synopsis I was working on and decided it's a little
difficult to generate interest in a novel without at least letting readers in
on what they're getting for their time and money.
For a little while, I sat here with my heavily lidded eyes
and a cup of coffee, and figuratively stepped outside of the author and back
into the reader and recalled conversations with friends and relatives when we
would ask each other that all too important question about a book they've read; "So, what's it about?"
I rambled on as they can all testify to, starting at the
beginning and many, many minutes later, it dawned on me giving a synopsis of a
376 page manuscript is HARD. Okay, if you are a writer, it isn't as if you
didn't already know that but even when you try to tell someone about a television
show or a movie you watched, how do you explain something you enjoyed and are
excited about without blabbing on and on until you've practically ruined it for
them?
I've read many other authors' advice on how to write a
synopsis without giving it all away but honestly, when you compare the telling
with the doing, it's like telling someone how to drive a car and handing them
the keys.
CRASH!!!!
So, here I am about to give you my best shot at a synopsis
for "The Blue Diamond," because I want you to get excited and one: of
course buy the book when it is released on October 1st and two: be interested
enough to perhaps even support my Pubslush
campaign so that I can afford to market it to the masses.
There is also a three, which is the cherry on top; I want
you to recommend it to your historical fiction, romance and adventure loving
reader friends! After all, from everything I've read and from experience, word
of mouth is absolutely the overall best way to find your readers.
So, without any further babble from me, I give you my heart,
my pirate alter-ego, my female powered tale of fortune and romantic woe...a
best effort synopsis of "The Blue Diamond - The Razor's Edge."
First, the blurb:
Ivory Shepard didn't want to be a pirate when she
grew up but she didn't plan on being orphaned and alone at thirteen with her
three cousins either.
After a Spanish raid in Charles Towne left them
with nothing, Ivory held her cousins together, trained them to fight for their
lives and led them to a life of quiet refuge on the banks of the Ashley River.
Out of reach of the hands of unscrupulous men, they found life on the farm a
tolerable substitute for the traditional alternatives life would force onto
them—until the night the pirates showed up.
Setting foot on that first pirate ship was nothing
compared to the life of freedom and adventure awaiting them, once Ivory and the
girls were through playing nice. Only one man believes he can stop her and he
won't need a ship full of guns to do it.
If it were only that easy…
The quick and simple aka the "Let me tell you
real quick 'cause I'm in a hurry!":
When four young women take a leap into the Golden
Age of piracy, they not only survive, they thrive and blaze a trail of freedom
and adventure. The greatest quest of all begins when they capture a merchant
ship smuggling diamonds, of which Ivory happily relieves them, as well as the
ship itself.
However, she isn’t the only one who knows the
diamonds exist—most of all, the large and valuable blue one. In the end, her
true mission becomes trying to prove she can have it all on her own terms; true
love, the blue diamond and her freedom.
Now for the big ramble aka the "Damn, you
have to read this!" aka a phone call between myself and my sister-in-law
Kim and how that would play out if I were simply telling her about the book as
a reader:
P - Hey girl, let me tell you about this book I finished
writing over the weekend.
K - Okay cool! What’s it about?
P - Well it takes place around 1700 and there are these four
cousins. Wait, think Charlie's Angels meets Pirates of the Caribbean but
anyway...they came to America when they were little with their great aunt and
uncle and settled in Charles Towne, South Carolina but when they were like,
thirteen, the Spanish raided the town and murdered their aunt and uncle,
leaving them orphans.
K - Awww...so then what?
P - Well, they had to work as maids and what not but the
eldest one—her name is Ivory Shepard, well, she more or less protects them and
teaches them how to take care of themselves and how to fight and what not.
Apparently, she’s been doing more than cooking and cleaning to earn a living
but anyway, they manage to save up enough money to buy a little farm on the
bank of the Ashley River—that’s the river that..
K - Whatever, just tell me what happens.
P - Okay, well, one night, these pirates are raiding the
farms along the riverbank and they come to hit the girls’ little farm but the
girls see them coming and take care of business! So, they put their heads
together because they know the pirates won’t take what happened lying down so
they get ready for another attack but what happens is, they end up going with
the pirates to Jamaica to start their lives over as free women. Of course
that’s after Ivory kicks the captain’s butt and…
K - Holy crap! How old are they?
P - They’re like in their late teens when this happens. This
is just the background stuff Kim but the story starts out when they’re already
established as pirates themselves and Ivory has this ship called the Blue
Diamond and this other pirate—super hottie too, imagine Henry Cavill here okay?
K - Who?
P - Henry Cavill, the guy who plays Superman nut!
K - Oh! Ohhhhh…..
P - Anyway, so he blows her ship to bits and she escapes in
like a dinghy but ends up floating around for days before he sends his men to
capture her and he holds her prisoner in his house in Kingston which is like
across the bay from port Royal but anyway, she has a bounty on her head of
fifty thousand pounds and he makes a deal with the guard that if he turns her
over, he’ll not only collect the reward but he’ll get a pardon for all of his
own pirating. In my imagination, she’s like January Jones—just thought I’d tell
you that.
K - So what does she do? Does she get away? What’s the
reward for?
P - Well I can’t tell you everything but over a few days
while she’s held captive, something sparks between them and holy crap girl,
they hook up one night and it’s like fireworks on the fourth of July!
K - Hot stuff aye?
P - Oh yeah but well, you know they are both
pirates so there’s no such thing as happily ever after and neither one trusts
the other so regardless of the cherry bombs and sparkles, he’s not letting her
go.
K - Get out of here!
P - No, seriously. He’s hell bent on that money, even though
you know something’s going on there beneath the surface and the tide could turn
at any moment.
K - Oh haha, I see what you did there. So does she get away
or what?
P - Seriously? You want me to tell you the whole damn book?
What’s the point in that?
K - Okay well at least tell me a little about the other
characters.
P - Okay well Maddox has this quartermaster named Alphonse
Green. Another super hottie, he’s Jamaican and well, let’s just say there’s
some history there with Ivory’s cousin Cassandra. Cassandra or Cass as
they call her is the voice of reason in the bunch. Then there’s Keara who’s
like a little drill sergeant and keeps everyone in line. Then there’s Miranda,
she’s the lover of the bunch but she gets herself in a bit over her head with
her love of the men lol
K - Damn, I have to get this book…
P - Wait, I haven’t even told you about the diamonds yet!
That ship Maddox blew up to get to her belonged to an English merchant company
and apparently, they were smuggling some diamonds and Ivory took them when she
took the ship. In the bag was this one big blue diamond worth a whole lot of
money girl.
K - Ahhh…so that’s where the blue diamond comes in.
P - Yes. Well, let’s just say that she’s not the only one
who knows about the diamonds and the plot thickens as they say.
K - So do the cousins rescue her or not?
P - Wait, I didn’t tell you about Richard. He’s Maddox’s
cabin boy aboard his ship, the Black Cat and he’s so adorable and sweet—sweet
on Ivory that is, and I didn’t tell you about Zara his housekeeper either.
K - Never mind, just tell me when I can get a copy of the
book!
P - Well, it comes out on October 1st but since I love you, I may let you read it now.
K - Hand it over or walk the plank, Peg!
P - Now you know pirates didn’t really do that, right?
K - Book, please?
P – Check your e-mail. Bye!
THE KIND OF WRITER I WANT TO BE
I’ve believed since I
dedicated myself to this journey two years ago that I knew exactly what kind of
writer I wanted to be. Since I wrote the first sentence of my first novel, that
dedication hasn’t wavered.
I’ve had no formal
training in this profession but I’ve done a ton of research, logged countless
hours writing and I’ve dug in my heels. I’m not going anywhere.
I write fast. I think
fast and once I set my sights on a goal I rarely give up unless I’m personally not
satisfied with my level of performance or the quality of work I’m doing. So
far, I see no reason to quit. As long as I keep breathing, moving, growing and
evolving as a person, I’ll never stop.
It is important to me to
produce quality books. Since I am still learning every day what that means to
me and how it relates to my writing, I believe I can only keep improving. I’ve
always loved writing and although I spent most of my adult life working,
raising children and just trying to keep my boat right side up, I chose to put
my aspirations on the back burner and take care of my family. I do not regret
it one little bit. Through that journey, I learned so much about myself and
gained volumes of experience at just being a human being. I’m proud of whom
I’ve finally grown up to be and I need to be proud of the work I do too.
It’s a long road from
writing your first page, to publishing. You will be knocked back more times
than you can imagine. You’ll be told over and over again that your book “just
isn’t what we’re looking for at this time.” Roadblock upon roadblock will rise
up in front of you but you have to keep pushing on. Family problems, day job,
responsibilities and oh, that little thing called sleep will feel like a ball
and chain at times but no matter what, you can’t give up. If being a published
author is truly your calling or at the very least, your goal, allowing anything
to stop you is not an option—no matter how long it takes or what road you take
to get there.
The most important thing
to me is that I write what I want to read. I want to write words that feel like
warm butter on a hot roll. Words that get inside of you and either make you
squirm or rise up inside of you and escape with a smile. Words that stick in
your head and come to mind when you least expect it. I want to write stories
that when you close the book, you want more. The reason I know how important
writing what I want to read is, is because I’ve tried writing stories that may
fall into one of the hot selling genres and I couldn’t get through the first
chapter. You’ll know you’re writing what you want to read, when closing your
laptop feels like kicking a heroin addiction.
I don’t want to write
about what everyone else is writing about. I don’t need to sit at the cool kids
table to feel good about myself. I know there are lots of genres and I know
which ones sell the most. No, I’m not crazy and of course I want to make money
and be able to write full time but I have to do it in a way I feel good about
inside. I have to do it on my own terms. I have to tell a good story with
characters you want to meet and know, and talk to again and again. I believe at
some point I’ll be able to put almost anything into words but it has to be my
anything, not what’s hot at the moment and not just because I want to be with
the in crowd. My readers are out there and as long as I keep looking, I’ll find
them and they’ll find me.
I want to stand out. I have this crazy dream
that my stories will one day be considered as some of the best ever. I’ll stand
by that. I believe that and soon, I’ll live that.
PUBSLUSH CAMPAIGN INFO
I finished my PubSlush campaign last night and it
has been approved! First, here's a little
video to give you more information about PubSlush and their mission.
PUBSLUSH MISSION
I'd be ever so grateful if you'd go take a peek at it and
perhaps even register as a fan to receive updates on my progress. :) Just click
on Ivory below to go to my PubSlush Profile.
Although the official launch date isn't until September 1,
2014, I'm so excited and grateful for this opportunity to be able to take part
in such an innovative concept in crowd-funding.
If you follow my blog, you know I won this opportunity
through a an E-Mail that Blew My Mind – Second Place in the
PubSlush-BookLogix Pitch Contest!" for my new book, "The Blue Diamond - The Razor's
Edge." I'm very proud of this book, as I've moved my writing in another
direction and although I was afraid in the beginning to take such a leap, I'm
still in the genre I love but trying out a different angle and story
type--romance and adventure.
September 1st was a be a pretty big day all the way
around because that is also the day I found out that "Fireflies" has won
second place in the Paranormal Fiction contest on Reader's Favorite!
There are so many wonderful books in my
category and as cliche as it sounds, I'm so thrilled to have been chosen for second place.
"The Blue Diamond" will be released on October 3,
2014! You can get your copies at the links below:
AMAZON
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