Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel Revised and Expanded Edition

make room in your day for promoting and marketing your newly published mystery novel while you’re writing the next one.

If you want to sell a print version, you can hire a print-on-demand (POD) service like CreateSpace, Lulu, or Lightning Source.

Close with Can I send you my manuscript?

Once you’ve been rejected by an agent or editor, you don’t get a do-over.

If after eight weeks you still haven’t heard, forget about that agent and send out the next query.

Communicate your protagonist’s motivation and key challenges.

Your synopsis can be up to two pages long, single-spaced. Like publisher synopses, yours should introduce the main characters, establish the setting, and summarize your story including your opening gambit and some of the plot twists. You don’t have to reveal the ending.

Say it with me: The synopsis is a marketing pitch. Remember, this is not a blueprint of the book or a summary of everything in it. It should be as specific as possible, including details that make your book unique.

The synopsis for querying agents and editors is much shorter and less detailed than the before-the-fact synopsis you may have written while planning your novel.

this will be your first published novel; publishers and agents are looking for undiscovered talent