If you’re submitting your nonfiction manuscript to publishers, you want to make sure your masterpiece gets the attention it deserves—which is why being able to write a great summary, or synopsis, is so important.

Nonfiction editors spend a lot of time reading and reviewing manuscript submissions and their accompanying summaries. But the fact is, not every publishing company or agency will spend time actually looking at your manuscript if your summary doesn’t capture their attention first.

How to Write a Nonfiction Book Summary

Writing a summary of your book can be surprisingly difficult. No one knows your book better than you, but that deep connection can be a detriment—it can make it challenging to pick and choose the most important points.

Remember, your summary can’t—and shouldn’t—include every smart observation or bit of groundbreaking advice contained in your book. Instead, focus on the most important, unique, and salient points that will excite the person reading enough that they want to read the whole book.

By following these simple steps, you’ll have a killer synopsis that can be used for book proposals, Amazon descriptions, social media marketing, and more.

1. Think about Your Book Objectively

One of the hardest parts of writing a good synopsis is that it requires you to sell yourself (and, of course, your work) to the reader. And most of us know just what an odious task that can be.

So your best bet is to take a step back and think about your book objectively. Take the emotion out of it. Imagine your book was written by someone else—what would you say about it? What are its best qualities?

Your summary should also demonstrate your enthusiasm, knowledge, and authority. Think about why you decided to write this book in the first place. Are you an expert in a particular field? Were you motivated to research this topic because of specific events in your life? Include those things in your summary.

2. Take a Cue from the Tone of Your Book

Your summary should be an illustration of your writing prowess and style. You should be telling the reader about the book in a way that demonstrates what they can expect when they read the book itself.

If your book is funny, your summary should make the reader smile. If your book is a highly-researched biography, adopt a professorial tone to tell the reader why the subject is worth their time. And if you’re offering up a treasure trove of business advice in your book, make sure it’s your smart, snappy voice the reader is hearing—not a bland, lifeless robot.

3. Start with a One-Paragraph Description

Start your summary with two to three sentences that capture the essence of the book. You should explain the question or problem that is addressed by your book and why the book is essential reading for your audience.

You’ll want to include some context around the book as well—why it’s relevant and important to publish at this moment.

Essentially, the first paragraph of your summary needs to grab the reader and get them to keep reading, so put your strongest sales points and most interesting insights right up front.

4. Give Your Summary a Beginning, a Middle, and an End

Just as your book has a beginning, middle, and end, so should your summary.

Once you’ve written your scintillating first paragraph, you should give a bit more detail in the middle of your summary:

• Who will be interested in reading this book?
• What is the book’s value to the reader? (Or: What will the book teach the reader?)
• What makes your book stand out in the market? Why is it different than other books on the topic?
• Why are you the best person to write this book? What are your qualifications? Why do you feel passionate about your topic?
• What research methods or sources did you use when writing? (Or: How credible is your information?)

This should take no more than one or two paragraphs—much longer, and the acquiring editor will lose interest and likely won’t finish your summary, let alone glance through your chapter summaries or manuscript.

Your conclusion should also be one paragraph, and should leave the reader hungering to find out more. Reel the reader in with a promise to help teach them something important, improve their lives, disrupt their worldview—or whatever it is you’re hoping your book will accomplish.

5. Read Book Reviews for Inspiration

Book reviewers are amazingly good at picking the most salient points from a book and explaining what makes those points important.

Find a few positive reviews of books that are similar to yours and see what the reviewers say. What’s capturing their attention? What’s resonating with them the most?

In all likelihood, those points are similar to the things that will stand out to an agent or editor.

Example of a Nonfiction Book Synopsis

Below is an example of a nonfiction book synopsis for one of our books, Profit Wise, by Jeff Morrill. The relevant details we recommended you include in tip #4 have been placed in bold:

Using the principles in this book, Jeff Morrill built businesses from scratch in automotive retail, real estate, telecommunications, and insurance that generate over $100,000,000 in annual revenue. His achievements in building flourishing, ethical companies have been featured in a variety of national media including USA Today, Entrepreneur Magazine, Automotive News, The Boston Globe, and others.That’s because Jeff knows the secrets to building highly profitable businesses: how to create systems and procedures that produce profits automatically by focusing on doing the right thing every time. For the first time, Jeff shares all of those secrets in one place.You really can outsell your competitors without selling out your integrity. Contrary to popular belief, taking the high road really is the straightest path to the bottom line. You’ll learn how to earn more profits consistently in business while staying true to your values.

This book comes with free online access to bonus chapters for beginners who want to start a successful, ethical business the right way. You also get dozens of free worksheets, checklists, and templates you can use in your business to create better systems and better results starting today.

In the synopsis above, it’s made clear that the book is people who run or are interested in running an (ethical) business. The value is that readers will learn how to earn more profits consistently while doing the “right thing,” and this focus on values and ethics is part of what makes this book unique. And finally, Jeff’s expertise and qualifications are clear from the fact that he has built multi-million dollar businesses from scratch and been featured in various national news media to discuss his practices.

Write a Nonfiction Synopsis That Will Sell Your Book

Following the steps laid out here will produce a solid, multipurpose summary that you can use to sell your book to agents, editors, and readers.

Don’t forget to check out each publisher’s submission guidelines before sending anything, and tailor your synopsis, proposal, manuscript, etc. accordingly.

How do you write book summaries or synopses? Share your tips in the comments below.

 

If you liked this article, you might also like:

• How to Summarize a Novel: 4 Steps to Writing a Great Summary
• How to Write a Book Proposal: Including a Template, Samples, and Instructions
• Nonfiction Book Editors