A thousand words, roughly, seems like an awfully long post. Were you referring to the shorter query synopsis, or is it okay to post the whole synopsis here for comment?
Edit: Well, not here. In F&F for Novels.
[This message has been edited by Meredith (edited March 01, 2010).]
I can see the point about not posting something 1000 words long, but I also feel that since the publishing concerns don't apply to synopses, I'd really like to make that option available to people.
Maybe, since full synopses (as part of a partial) are not the things that get an author's manuscript requested so much as query synopses are, the focus should be on queries.
Also, if the people who are helpful on a query synopsis are willing, the author could ask them to look at the full synopsis through email.
What do others think about this?
The only thing that might be an issue (as I see it) is simply that, faced with a wall of text, some critiquers might be turned off. But then, that's a problem we face with everything, so why not give it a go?
I personally would love to see more Novels F&F presented as if to an agent: Here's a query, summarising the point of the story, and offering to email a partial and synopsis for prospective readers. Just like getting agent buy-in on reading a full story, if we get our pitch right in Novels F&F, we might get a few more buy-in for members to read the whole thing. I'd be much happier offering to critique a novel entry if I knew I was going to get the first few pages and a synopsis initially, rather than be presented with a huge workload for a story I don't know I care about yet.
Then again, maybe I shouldn't be too opinionated - I've not posted anything in Novels and won't be doing so for a while yet
[This message has been edited by BenM (edited March 01, 2010).]
I agree with the "wall of text" issue, but I wonder if posting the synopsis in F&F might get more readers than asking for people who're willing to read it via e-mail. The critiques, obviously, would be less extensive, but represent a wider audience.
I don't know. Maybe the synopsis could be parsed out in smaller chunks (250 or 300 words?). Then, if a reader didn't follow on to the next part of the synopsis, that would be where they lost interest? *shrugs*
And it saves the poor critiquer from having to wade through the whole manuscript. I strongly recommend only offering to give feedback on partials, and I don't do it any other way myself.
If critiquers want to read the whole thing, they can always ask for the rest of it after reading the partial.
Meredith, posting a long synopsis in chunks is a good idea. Authors could say that they are going to do that and start each chunk with some kind of designation like Chunk 1 or Part 1, and so on. I think that's a great idea for dealing with the wall of text problem.
I truly don't mind the size and complexity at my leisure but if I saw a wall of text here on Hatrack I might give it a pass. That's because I usually visit here in small chunks of time and can't always give proper attention to a long post.
Send it on through.