The Synopsis Treasury: A Landmark Collection of Actual Proposals Submitted to Publishers

Front Cover
Wordfire Press, Jan 15, 2015 - Education - 370 pages
Have you ever wondered what successful authors submitted to publishers? Ever wanted to peek over their shoulders and see their synopses or outlines, the ones that landed a book contract (and maybe even the ones that were rejected)? Now's your chance. Contained within these pages are never-before-seen story submissions by international bestsellers, grandmasters, multi-award winners, and rising stars, each with an original biography and introduction. But what about the publisher's response? You'll find some of those here too. Have you ever assumed an editor would accept whatever a heavyweight author gives them? This collection proves that even a successful writer may be asked to rethink, rewrite, and resubmit-and that's if the editor likes it well enough in the first place. Selected by Christopher Sirmons Haviland over a span of ten years, these real story submissions in their context will supplement all those "how to write and submit" books by showing you how it's done.

About the author (2015)

Christopher Sirmons Haviland, also published as C.S. Haviland (CSHaviland.com), has a Bachelor's degree in Radio/TV/Film from the University of North Texas. He is the author of the fantasy novel Faith & Fairies and his short stories include "Change" published in Pronto! Writings From Rome and "The Reality Division" published in Bad-Ass Faeries 2: Just Plain Bad (winner of the 2009 EPPIE Award). Haviland was Co-Producer on the feature film The First of May (FirstOfMay.com), starring Julie Harris, Dan Bird, Mickey Rooney, Charles Nelson Reilly, Gerard Christopher, Tom Nowicki, and baseball legend Joe DiMaggio in a cameo role. The movie ran for years on HBO Family and won a half dozen awards, including the Award of Excellence by the Film Advisory Board, The Dove Award from The Dove Foundation, and two Best Film Awards from the Burbank International Children's Film Festival. As a spec screenwriter, Mr. Haviland has been a Quarter Finalist and SemiFinalist in the Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting (sponsored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences), a Quarter Finalist in the New Century Writer Awards, a Quarter Finalist in the Screenwriting Expo (sponsored by Creative Screenwriting Magazine), a multiple Semi Finalist in the Chesterfield Writer's Film Project (sponsored by Amblin' Entertainment and Universal Pictures), a Semi Finalist in the Maui Writers Conference National Screenwriting Competition, a Finalist in the People's Picture Show contest, a multiple Quarter Finalist in the Zoetrope Screenwriting Contest, and a Finalist in the AAA Screenplay Contest (sponsored by Creative Screenwriting Magazine). Haviland is a highly sought veteran in online advertising operations and was staffed in the startup phases of About.com, Mail.com and the Softcard mobile app. He lives in Frisco, TX with his wife Sara and his three boys, Forest, Sky, and River.

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