For novelists asked for a synopsis
Novel Synopsis Template and Example
A one-page novel synopsis template for agent submissions: seven paragraphs with word budgets, a rules checklist, and an annotated example that tells the ending.
Where agents differ
What agents and guides ask for in a synopsis
The guides agree on the core: the whole plot, in story order, ending included. Agencies and agents differ on the details, set out below beside the template's choice. When an agency's own guidelines say something else, follow the agency.
| Question | This template | What agents and guides say |
|---|---|---|
| Length | One page, about 500 words, with a note on stretching to two | "A one page synopsis" (Paper Literary4). "A short synopsis (1-2 pages)" (Donald Maass Literary Agency5). One or two pages, "about 500-1000 words, single spaced" (Jane Friedman1). |
| Spacing | Sized for one single-spaced page; at 1.5 spacing it runs onto a second | Single spaced (Jane Friedman). Line spacing "no narrower than 1.5" and no more than two pages unless an agent asks for more (Jericho Writers2). |
| Names | Three if you can, five at most, each in capitals at first mention | Name the main characters, and call a one-scene character "the waitress" (Jane Friedman). "4 or 5 character names" if possible (agent Julia Silk of Greyhound Literary, in the Bath Novel Awards roundup3). Three, in novelist Susan Dennard's one-page method. |
| The ending | Told plainly in the last paragraph | "Always include any twists, and the ending" (Jenny Savill, Andrew Nurnberg Associates). "I like spoilers/plot twists to be included" (Susan Armstrong, C+W). Four of the ten agents in the roundup asked outright for spoilers or twists. |
| How to send it | Delete the headings and notes, then attach the Word file or paste the text, as the agency asks | Attached as a Word document, with the first three chapters (Paper Literary). Pasted into the body of the email, because "we will not open unsolicited attachments" (Donald Maass Literary Agency). |
From each agency's submission guidelines, the Bath Novel Awards roundup of ten agents' advice, and the guides by Jane Friedman, Jericho Writers and Susan Dennard, checked October 29, 2026. Quoted words are theirs. Guidelines change, so reread the agency's page before you send.
Real examples
Real synopses to learn from
Two real synopses you can read in full. Both run under 500 words, and both tell the ending.
Star Wars as a one-page synopsis
Novelist Susan Dennard, Pub(lishing) Crawl · a one-page method worked through a film everyone knows
Answers 11 questions, from the opening image to the final image, then joins them into 452 words. Only Luke, Ben and Darth Vader are named; the princess and the pilot go by their roles.
Read Susan Dennard's method and exampleDouble Cross by Tracy Gilpin
Jericho Writers · a client's crime novel synopsis, shared after it helped win an agent and a book deal
Tells a murder investigation in about 470 words of present tense, names the killer and his motive, and ends on where the heroine is left.
Read the synopsis on Jericho Writers
Links checked October 29, 2026.
How it works
What goes in a novel synopsis?
A novel synopsis is a summary of your whole plot for agents and editors, usually one or two pages long. Write it in third person and present tense, even if the novel is in first person. It follows your protagonist in story order: the opening, the event that forces them to act, the rising trouble, the midpoint, the worst moment, the climax and the ending. Publishing educator Jane Friedman1 sums up its job: it shows what happens and who changes, and "it has to reveal the ending."
Build it up from your turning points rather than boiling down the manuscript. Jericho Writers2, a London-based writing school that sells editing and courses, suggests sketching the bare plot in about 300 words. Then add about 200 words on how events affect your characters, showing what each one makes your protagonist decide. In the template's example, Maren discovers that the museum's prized logbook is a copy in her late father's hand. She tells no one, and stalls the appraiser while she searches his papers.
Name only the characters who change the story, in capitals the first time each appears, and give everyone else a role, like "an old volunteer." Cut subplots the ending doesn't need: the example drops a reporter's subplot and the auction house's politics. Then write it plainly. In a Bath Novel Awards roundup3 of ten agents' advice, Jenny Savill of Andrew Nurnberg Associates calls a synopsis "simply a tool" that "doesn't have to be beautifully written." Two others, Laura Williams and Susan Armstrong, read the pages before the synopsis, to judge the writing.
How it works
From your plot to one page
Download it or open it in River
Download both Word documents with no account, or click Edit with AI to open the template and the example in River.
Tell River how your book goes
Optional. Type a sentence or paste chapter summaries, ending included, in the box at the top, and River starts every paragraph.
Fill in the brackets
Replace each bracket with your own events, or ask River to go through them one at a time. Then check names and tense.
Fit it to each agent
Trim or stretch to the length each agent asks for, delete the headings and notes, then attach or paste it as they ask.
Synopsis
THE SALT LEDGER · Upmarket mystery · 88,000 words
MAREN HOLT, 38, is the paper conservator at the Holt Maritime Museum in Port Absalom, Maine, which her late father founded. The town's pride is the 1847 rescue, when the whaler Constance sailed back into a gale for a stranded crew. Its logbook, the museum's treasure, draws the summer visitors who keep Port Absalom going through winter. Maren wants one thing: to keep the museum open.
The museum's roof is failing, and Maren's brother, CAL HOLT, who chairs the board, has arranged to sell the logbook at auction in Boston. Rebinding it for the sale, Maren finds a watermark from a mill that opened in 1871. The logbook is a copy, and the margin notes are in her father's handwriting.
Over the winter, Maren and Cal begin to speak again. Descendants of the six sailors, traced through her research, come to Port Absalom. In spring the museum reopens with her father's copy displayed beside the burned original and the six names on the wall. Maren signs the new condition report with her own name.
Opening, turn and ending of the full example. The query stops at her choice; the synopsis tells how it ends.
What you'll get
A one-page synopsis structure that tells the ending
- A one-page structure with words per paragraph
- A full example synopsis, annotated
- The rules agents give, and where they differ
Before and after
Your plot in. Every paragraph started.
A conservator exposes her late father's forged logbook and the museum closes, then reopens with the truth.
Opening: [NAME], [age], restores old documents at the museum her late father founded in [town]. Its prize is a logbook that [what the town believes it records]. Ending: The museum closes for the season. In spring it reopens with the truth on the wall, and [NAME] signs the new condition report with her own name.
You fill the brackets, or ask River to read your manuscript.
What lands in your doc
What's inside the synopsis template
- Novel Synopsis
The page you fill in: a header line and seven paragraphs, opening to ending, each with a word budget. - Example Synopsis, Annotated
A full synopsis of an invented mystery, THE SALT LEDGER, with a note mapping each paragraph to the structure. - Word budgets that fit one page
Ranges from 40 to 60 words (the ending) to 100 to 130 (rising trouble), about 500 in all. - A rules checklist
Eight checks, from present tense and capitals to the ending told, story order and what to leave out. - Where agents disagree
A table at the end of the example: length, spacing, names and spoilers, with who says what. - A two-page note
What to add, in order, when an agent asks for two pages of about 900 to 1,000 words.
Questions authors ask
Common questions
How long should a novel synopsis be?
Usually one or two pages, but each agency's guidelines decide. Paper Literary4 wants one page, attached as a Word file; the Donald Maass Literary Agency5 wants one to two pages pasted into the email. With no rule given, Jane Friedman suggests starting short, at about 500 to 1,000 words, single spaced. This template fills one page, with a note on stretching to two.
Do I have to tell the ending in a synopsis?
Yes, every twist and the ending. The synopsis is how an agent checks that your story pays off, and holding back the outcome defeats the purpose. "Give me ALL the spoilers!" says Lauren Gardner of Bell Lomax Moreton, one of ten agents in the Bath Novel Awards roundup3. Not sure how your book ends? Settle it first with the novel outline template.
What should you leave out of a synopsis?
Anything that doesn't move the plot. Jane Friedman warns against backstory that doesn't explain a character's motives, explanations of theme, rhetorical questions, and phrases about structure such as "in the climax of the novel." Use dialogue sparingly, if at all. Keep the setting to a line: Jericho Writers would place a Jane Austen novel "in a small village in Regency England."
How do you format a novel synopsis?
Head the page with your title, genre, word count and name. Below it, write plain paragraphs with no subheadings, so delete the template's headings and notes. Jane Friedman advises single spacing, while Jericho Writers2 wants line spacing no narrower than 1.5. Jericho also suggests naming the file after your book (title-synopsis.docx), since an agent "probably has 100 files" called synopsis.
What's the difference between a synopsis and a query letter?
A query letter pitches your book in a few hundred words and stops before the outcome. A synopsis tells the whole plot, ending included. Jane Friedman notes that some agents say "synopsis" when they mean the short story description inside a query, so read guidelines closely. Our query letter template pitches the same invented mystery, so you can compare.
Is this synopsis template free?
Yes. The download costs nothing and needs no account: you get the synopsis template and the annotated example as two Word documents. Edit with AI opens both in a River workspace, free to start, where you can fill them in, edit them or ask River to change them. Paid plans add more AI use and access to the most advanced models.
What does Edit with AI do?
It opens both documents in your River workspace. Describe your book at the top, ending included, and River starts all seven paragraphs, bracketing what you didn't tell it. Give it chapter summaries or your manuscript and it writes the whole page. It never invents an ending. Check agency rules: Paper Literary4 isn't looking to represent work "created or edited with generative artificial intelligence."
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