A full-service literary agency that focuses on books for the Christian market.

So. . . what’s your novel about?

//  by //  29 Comments

By Wendy Lawton

Wanna see a writer stand frozen with that deer-in-the-headlights look? Just ask them this question: “So. . . what’s your novel about?”

Here’s a list of the WRONG things to answer:

  1. An issue— “My book is about global warming.” WRONG. A nonfiction book may be about global warming but a novel is a story about people. Agents and editors cringe when an issue is the first thing that comes to a writer’s mind. It makes us expect a diatribe disguised as a novel.
  2. The theme— “My book is about forgiveness.” WRONG. I’d hate to guess the percentage of books that share the theme of forgiveness, but that is not what your book is about. That is not what makes your book distinctive.
  3. The setting alone— “My book is pure Hollywood.” WRONG. Even if the setting informs the whole tone of the book, it is not what your book is about.
  4. The genre alone— “My book is a romance.” WRONG. That is the genre and the questioner needs to know that, but it is still not what makes your book different and exciting.
  5. A carefully memorized pitch— “Picture a man and a mountain, the temp dropping to 40º below and all of the climber’s tools slip out of his hands and fall into a crevasse hundreds of feet below him. The only person who can save him is the climber who hates the very sight of him, blaming him for her husband’s death on their last trip to Kilamanjaro. Will her hatred trump her growing attraction for this bold climber?” WRONG. By the time the writer finishes this carefully prepared spiel, the listener’s eyes have glazed over. He got caught up somewhere between the mountain and the crevasse and didn’t get any further.

It’s a good idea to prepare for the inevitable question, but a memorized pitch has all the appeal of a speaker reading word-for-word from his notes. You want your pitch, your answer to the question, “What’s your book about?” to be personable and seemingly off-the-cuff. You are a storyteller. You need to also be able to tell the story as well as write it.

So what is your novel about?

  1. Your main character and what he or she is seeking
  2. Secondary character, if key to plot
  3. Conflict— What is keeping your character from reaching his/her goal?
  4. Setting, if important. If you are writing a southern novel I need to know because that is far more than a setting– it’s a whole attitude.
  5. Genre, of course. The questioner needs to know it is a mystery, for instance, but that is only part of the answer.

But let me be clear, this is just one person’s opinion, not a rule. The most important thing is that you do what comes naturally. When someone asks you, “what’s your novel about?”, they are interested. They may be a potential reader, an agent, an editor or someone in the media. Your job is to draw them into the story with very few words. You want them to ask further questions, not try to wriggle away from an author who is meandering through the whole story of his book.

If you feel you need tutelage in answering this question, start reading the back covers of novels. They catch the very essence of a book in a compact number of words.

So. . . what’s your novel about?

 

Reader Interactions

Comments

    Leave a Reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  1. Andrew Budek-Schmeisser

    I’ll tell you what my book’s about,
    it’s a dude caught out of time
    imprisoned as a wartime Kraut
    for trying to hold the line.
    He came to the dry Southwest,
    with parole as almost being free
    and then he found spiritual test
    which taught him how to bend a knee.
    His journey here brought him grace,
    and his journey home brought hell.
    In the opposites’ complex interface,
    lies the story that I tell.
    If you’re interested to know some more,
    then please read “The Last Indian War”.

    Although I take pleasure in poking fun at my writing efforts, “The Last Indian War” actually does exist, and it’s the novel of which I am most proud…and it is unpublished.

    It’s the story of a German POW who accepts parole to avoid the febrile Nazism of the POW camps, and accepts work at a petrol station on the edge of the Big Rez in New Mexoco.

    Once there, he realizes that WW2 pales into insignificance against the spiritual warfare of bigotry, in which his only allies are a Navajo shaman and an Irish widow.

    In the battle, he finds love, and then finds that the wife he thought dead in Germany still lives.

    It’s too Christian to be mainstream, and pays too much respect to Navajo spirituality to be Christian, so the book’ a lost soul, destined to wander the netherworld of unpublished masterpieces (hahahaha).

    Anyone wants to read the thing, click on my name, drop by my blog, leave a message, and it’ll happen.

    But don’t say I didn’t warn you.

    Reply

  2. Kristen Joy Wilks

    Ha ha! This is good practice. So … my novel is about a free-spirited photographer who loses her fierce Scottish terrier amidst a herd of rowdy bison at Yellowstone National Park. She must locate her poor fur baby before he is devoured or boiled to a crisp in one of the park’s charming thermal wonders, all while avoiding the “assistance” of a rules-obsessed park ranger.

    Reply

    • Andrew Budek-Schmeisser

      Kristen, for you…and the Scottie

      Given the chance, he will revert
      and will not show repentance,
      for the Scottie dog’s a legged advert
      for Scottish independence.
      He rolls the world beneath his paws,
      and we have, thus, night and day.
      Our home is governed by his laws,
      and malefactors better pray.
      His is no mild and docile pet,
      and he’s skilled with his dentition,
      as you will learn, to your regret,
      upon one meal’s omission.
      When Braveheart is correct-remade,
      he’ll by Mel Gibson have been played.

      Reply

    • Wendy Lawton

      Great job, Kristen. Plus you modeled something I forgot to mention: I can guess the voice of your book from the voice infused in your pitch. Brava!

      Reply

      • Kristen Joy Wilks

        Thanks, Wendy! Yes, the book has a similar voice … although my crit partner talked me out of having an unsuspecting poodle be “snorked down by a bear” as she felt that was far too voicey (voicy?) and really, the book could be written without the death of a poodle. So fear not, no poodles were “snorked” in the making of this romance!

  3. Morgan Tarpley Smith

    This is nerve-wracking!! lol (It’s a definite work-in-progress.) But here it goes!

    My split time novel follows Leah, an unemployed event planner, who resigns to work at a nursing home, and uncovers the startling secret that a kind elderly woman was a Nazi. Through her extraordinary tale of faith and love amidst war, Leah must confront her own painful past and grapple with forgiveness.

    Reply

  4. Judith Robl

    A Quaker wife struggles to keep her family together when her husband and two elder sons are shunned from meeting for their participation in the Patriot cause during the American Revolution.

    Reply

  5. Andrew Budek-Schmeisser

    Had a thought, not on what a novel’s about, but on what I’d like a novel to do.

    Just saw, for the first time, “Brian’s Song”, and at the end I was so inspired, and so moved, that I had the feeling, “I don’t want to watch another movie for awhile, because nothing will match the impact. Anything else I see, it’ll just fall flat.”

    That’s what I’d like my writing to do, to give a sense of character and meaning and grace that makes the reader just want to stay with it for a while, to live, as it were, the Love.

    What do you guys think? Is this a worthy goal? Or is it a somehat self-conscious over-reach, trying to force what should be informed by serendipity and a kind of magic?

    Reply