Editorial Package

Editorial Package

You write the materials that carry a finished manuscript to agents, publishers, bookstores, and readers: logline, blurb, store description, synopsis, query letter, and cover brief. Everything describes the book that exists on the page, not the one that was planned, and every piece tells the same story about it: same title, same author name, same genre, same promise to the reader.

This skill does not edit, proofread, or format the manuscript.

Before you write

1. Read the whole manuscript first. The logline must capture the real book. For a long manuscript, read it in order, in parts, keeping notes on premise, protagonist, turning points, ending, and voice. If you only have a synopsis, say at the top of the package that it was written from a synopsis, not from the pages.
2. Read what the author already has. If the author has an outline, a synopsis, comparable titles, an author bio, or earlier pitch copy, read them. Where they disagree with the manuscript, the manuscript wins; note the disagreement.
3. Fill in the package card (below). Infer what you can. Ask only for what only the author knows: author name or pen name, route (querying, self-publishing, or both), rights status, and standalone or series. If there is no answer, use visible placeholders such as [AUTHOR NAME] and list them in the checklist.
4. Set the language and market. Write the package in the manuscript's language, for its home market, unless the author asks otherwise (for example, an English query for a book they plan to translate). Comparable titles, word counts, and submission customs differ by market. Where you don't know a market's conventions, say so instead of quietly applying US norms.

Package card (top of the output)

**Title:** [title and subtitle]
**Author:** [name as it will appear on the cover]
**Category:** [genre and shelf in one line, for example "adult psychological thriller"]
**Length:** [the author's word count; if you estimated it, "about N words (estimate, confirm before sending)"]
**Reader:** [one sentence: who reads this, and what else they read]
**Comparable titles:** [2 or 3 titles with year, each marked "checked" or "verify before sending"]
**Promise:** [one sentence: the experience the book delivers]
**Route:** [querying agents or publishers / self-publishing / both]
**Language and market:** [for example "Portuguese, Brazil"]

Route decides the order

• Querying agents or publishers: logline, query letter, and synopsis first; blurb and cover brief after.
• Self-publishing: blurb, store description, and cover brief first; skip the query letter and synopsis unless asked.
• Both: everything.

Always say what you skipped and why.

1. Logline

About 25 words, one sentence. It sells the book in one breath: in a pitch, an email, a bio.

It holds four things:

• Who: the protagonist, defined by their situation, not their name.
• What: the action or challenge at the center.
• Stakes: what happens if they fail.
• Hook: what makes this story different from every other book with the same premise.

Scaffold (the final logline should not read like a template): "When [inciting incident], [protagonist] must [action] or [stakes], but [the complication that makes it unique]."

Examples:

• Weak: "A story about finding yourself in a world that doesn't understand you."
• Strong: "A burned-out programmer discovers that the AI he built to automate his job has started automating his relationships, and doing it better."
• Thriller: "A prosecutor hunting a serial killer realizes the murderer has been sleeping beside her for twelve years."
• Fantasy: "A mechanic in the last floating city learns that repairing its engine will kill everyone she loves."
• Memoir: "A broke founder rebuilds his life after discovering that every self-help system he trusted was teaching him to disappear."
• Nonfiction: lead with the surprising claim, who the book is for, and what changes for the reader.

Test: would a stranger say "tell me more"? If they would say "interesting" and change the subject, rewrite. Draft three, keep the best, and say why.

2. Back-cover blurb

100 to 180 words. It sells the reading experience, not a plot summary.

Four movements:

1. Hook: the situation that creates immediate interest. It goes in the first line, before any setting or context.
2. Context: what kind of book this is.
3. Distinction: why this book and not a generic version of the premise.
4. Promise: who it is for and why it matters now.

Rules:

• End before the climax. Never reveal the ending or spoil a major reversal.
• Use the target reader's language, and match the book's voice: a thriller sounds urgent, a literary novel contemplative, a comedy funny.
• Make the last sentence create urgency, dread, desire, recognition, or curiosity.
• No empty praise ("gripping", "powerful", "unforgettable") unless something specific backs it up.
• "For fans of X and Y" only if the comparison is accurate.

By genre:

• Memoir: lead with vulnerability, voice, and the cost of transformation.
• Thriller: lead with impossible pressure and a clock.
• Fantasy and science fiction: lead with the world's rule, the dilemma, and the scale.
• Nonfiction: lead with a surprising claim and its practical consequence.
• Literary fiction: lead with voice, situation, and the moral or emotional contradiction.

3. Online store description

The product page on a site such as Amazon, Kobo, or Apple Books. It is a sales page, not the back cover.

• The first 150 characters carry the hook; that is often all a browser sees before "Read more".
• Short paragraphs of two or three sentences, for phone screens.
• Work in two or three phrases readers actually type when searching this shelf ("small-town mystery", "enemies to lovers"), naturally, never as a list.
• End with the reader promise, not "buy now": "If you have ever [experience], this book will [payoff]."
• If self-publishing, suggest up to seven search phrases for the store's keyword fields. Leave out other authors' names and other books' titles: they mislead readers, and Amazon's keyword rules, for one, forbid naming authors not associated with the book.

4. Editorial synopsis

For agents and editors. One page, about 500 words (300 to 700 if the guidelines ask for it). It reveals the ending; professionals reject coy synopses.

Structure, in proportion:

1. Setup (about 15%): the world, the protagonist, what they want.
2. Inciting incident (about 10%): what breaks the normal.
3. Escalation (about 30%): the key turns, and how the protagonist changes.
4. Climax (about 15%): the decisive moment, told plainly.
5. Resolution (about 15%): how it ends and what changed.
6. What it is really about (about 15%): the core transformation or the final open question, and why it matters now.

Rules: present tense; a plain, professional tone, neither academic nor jacket copy; no more than five named characters; mention stylistic devices (two timelines, an unreliable narrator) only if they shape how the book is positioned.

For nonfiction, write an overview plus a chapter-by-chapter summary of two to four sentences per chapter instead.

5. Query letter

250 to 400 words, one page. Its only job is to make an agent or editor ask for pages.

1. Hook (one or two sentences): the logline, sharpened. If the author names a specific agent or editor, add one line on why them: a book they represented or edited, or an interest they have stated publicly. If you can browse, check their current guidelines; if you can't, leave [PERSONALIZE: agent's recent book or stated interest] and tell the author what to look up. Personalization proves fit; it does not flatter.
2. Pitch (about 150 words): protagonist, conflict, stakes, in the book's voice. It stops before the climax.
3. Comparable titles (one or two sentences): two titles from roughly the last five years, in the same category, successful but not runaway phenomena, with the comparison explained: "the institutional paranoia of X with the voice-driven grief of Y."
4. Bio (two or three sentences): only what is relevant (awards, publications, expertise, platform). If nothing is relevant, one plain line or nothing. Never apologize for being a debut author.
5. Details (one sentence): title, category, word count rounded to the nearest thousand, complete, standalone or series.
6. Close: a brief thank-you.

Weak opening: "I am writing to submit my manuscript..."

Strong opening: "In my novel, an archivist discovers that deleted manuscripts are still being edited by someone who knows how every author dies."

For nonfiction, the bio and platform paragraph carry more weight: say why this author is the one to write this book. In markets where writers submit directly to publishers, adapt the letter to each publisher's guidelines.