I may be jumping ahead of myself by working on my marketing tools rather than the story itself, but I'm finding it helpful to get to the heart of my story by focusing on the most basic elements of the novel before I let loose and begin typing full-speed through the 2nd major draft of my novel. Full-speed for me, by the way, means 400 words a year--something needs to change soon.
My genre is a mish-mash which I call a literary historical mystery action-adventure. It has two storylines, one in the present which takes place in California and northern Spain, and one in the past which takes place in 19th century northern Spain.
Here is a book pitch in 53 words for my novel-in-progress:
Esther Campos, a diligent World Lit grad student, travels to Celtic Spain to retrieve a forgotten novel by a famous 19th century author she bonds with through a letter. Esther struggles between bequeathing it to the literary canon and remaining dutiful to an egomaniacal professor whose career will be devastated by this revelation.
You want to be able to succinctly describe both the story arc and the character's emotional arc in as few words as possible and use this pithy description as a marketing tool.
As a result, the reader will know who, what (is happening and what is at stake), where, when, and why.
- who the protagonist is (timid salesman, a cock-sure investigator, a loyal priest). The adjective describing the hero should be his Achilles' heel. How will the hero grow emotionally by the end of the story?
- what is the story plot? What are the actions that take place in the story?
- where the story takes place (in Detroit, Australia, or another galaxy)
- when the story takes place (now, in the 14th century, in the year 2099)
- why should we care about the protagonist and her story? What are the stakes? What could she lose?
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