Outlines (Part 2)
Creating a marketing outline can be tricky.
This isn’t like a working outline that is meant only for you—it’s an outline that you show agents and editors to entice them into representation and publication.
You have to use different skills to create one than you do for writing fiction. You have to be part campfire storyteller and part sales-and-marketing guru.
Like crafting a good story, there are many ways to write a good marketing outline, but there are two major guidelines. 1) It should be commercial. 2) It must grab the reader’s attention and hang onto it like a rabid pit bull.
I’ve posted a partial (first three of twenty chapters) and somewhat simplified version of the marketing outline for Signal to Noise. There should be enough there for you to see the form and format of one of these things. Hopefully it will help you market your own work.
Next time: I’ll finish talking about outlines by discussing its more important cousin, THE PITCH.
This isn’t like a working outline that is meant only for you—it’s an outline that you show agents and editors to entice them into representation and publication.
You have to use different skills to create one than you do for writing fiction. You have to be part campfire storyteller and part sales-and-marketing guru.
Like crafting a good story, there are many ways to write a good marketing outline, but there are two major guidelines. 1) It should be commercial. 2) It must grab the reader’s attention and hang onto it like a rabid pit bull.
I’ve posted a partial (first three of twenty chapters) and somewhat simplified version of the marketing outline for Signal to Noise. There should be enough there for you to see the form and format of one of these things. Hopefully it will help you market your own work.
Next time: I’ll finish talking about outlines by discussing its more important cousin, THE PITCH.
posted by Eric Nylund at 5:14 PM
8 Comments:
Now this is definately a keeper.
Quick question though: I'm guessing that you already wrote the entire novel out before you wrote this outline, correct?
Sir—this is an excellent question. I’m glad you asked.
Actually, no; I wrote the outline (both writing and marketing versions) before the book. Once you’ve sold a few novels, publishers have proof that you can deliver, and you do not necessarily have to write an entire book to sell it. I’ve sold many novels with only an outline and a few sample chapters.
There are pros and cons to selling this way. It saves time, but some editors may not be able to grasp the full vision of your novel from a mere outline.
(This method of selling from an outline doesn’t work, btw, for first-time novelists. You have to prove to the publisher you’re able to deliver a completed novel).
Right, that's what I figured. I'm guessing it doesn't really make a big difference then if you change a large portion of the book, and thus the outline, while writing it, or do you have to consistently update it and provide it to your agent/publisher?
Sir- my advice: stick to the outline. The specifics of how closely to must stick to it will vary from editor to editor, but they bought it in the first place because they liked the story in that outline, right? Start making _big_ changes and you could be in trouble.
Constantly making changes and running them past an editor isn’t a great idea. Most editors I know are far too busy for this. They want to work with someone with a clear, strong vision.
The one exception is if an acquiring editor _asks_ for revisions to an outline.
Wow, great entry. Seriously Eric, all of the help you offer here on the blog is amazingly informative and in my case, necessary.
I'm always either saving your guides to my hard drive, or printing them out. This one is no different.
Thanks a ton for taking the time to maintain this blog!
~Matt
P.S. I know this probably isn't your fault Eric, but for some reason (probably because of the move) I cannot login to post comments with the ol' Blogger account. Is this whole "Google Account" thing part of the move you were talking about a while back?
I have had trouble with it as well. Blogger has basically rid of their own username list and is going with google's emails now. I can't sign in at all with my blogger username, and ended up being forced to transfer all my info to my gmail account.
Because gmail has a weird setup to actually get it (you have to go on your phone and send a text message or something awkward like that), i'd be glad to get anyone gmail accounts. I've got probably 90ish available. Just me a message if you need one.
That's odd, because down near the username and password boxes there's: "You can also use your Blogger account."
16 days till I can buy Ghosts of Onyx... this is getting ridiculous.
Great coverage on outlines. Am a late comer to using outlines, but quickly found they work great as a roadmap for complex plotting, ensure a balance of character coverage (especially minor characters), sets the foundation for writing each chapter.
I think when some holdouts begin using outlines they will find creativity is not hampered as much as they "assume." Remember, assembling the outline involves its own share of creativity and imagination exploration. So, as my mother use to say, "Don't knock it until you try it."
Just a thought,
Michael
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