For those hoping to be published, author and publishing analyst Jane Friedman says the synopsis is “probably the single most despised document you might be asked to prepare.” I’m inclined to agree with her. I’d add the blurb to that list, too.
A synopsis and a blurb are two workhorses of the submission process, but they serve different purposes. A synopsis retells your story from beginning to end, spoilers included. It allows an agent or editor to assess the plot, structure and characterization, identify potential weaknesses and decide whether to request the full manuscript. A blurb, on the other hand, is designed to hook the reader without revealing the ending. In my case, I’m hoping to hook an agent or editor into asking for more—and ultimately publishing my book.
For much of my free time over the past two past two months, I have been preparing these two pieces for query letters. I’ve learned that writing a book and positioning it for the market are two different tasks.
Finding the Right Agent
A literary agent’s job is to represent writers and act as a bridge between them and book publishers. Many are former editors. They provide editorial feedback and secure the best terms for book advances, royalties and subsidiary rights. In other words, their job is to sell your book. If they don’t think they can sell it, they won’t represent you.
I wasn’t entirely sure I needed an agent. According to The Writers’ Union of Canada’s 2026 booklet Author & Agent by Michael Redhill, less than 20% of published authors have one.
This figure suggests that having an agent might not be essential, but I thought it was worth trying anyway since some publishers only accept submissions through agents. I decided to query both agents and publishers and see where the process took me.
My search for an agent quickly became a process of elimination. I needed someone who was open to unsolicited queries, represented middle-grade fiction and had an interest in fantasy or fairy tale-inspired stories.
Some agents provide wonderfully specific wish lists, making it easy to spot a potential match (in fact, I sometimes found it comical how specific they were). Others simply state that they are interested in children's literature, leaving you to guess whether your work might appeal to them. Neither approach guarantees a good fit, and even a promising match is useless if the agent isn't currently accepting submissions.
In my opinion, finding the right agent to query is harder than identifying the right publishers.
When Your Manuscript Doesn’t Fit the Box
When you query an agent or publisher, you need to clearly identify the category your work falls into so they have a sense of where it will fit into the market.
This posed a problem for me: Is my story a chapter book or middle grade fiction?
Generally speaking, middle-grade fiction is aimed at readers aged 8 to 12, while chapter books tend to target younger, newly independent readers.
I talked it over with the developmental editor I hired last year and we landed on the carefully worded category of middle grade for younger readers. But I am not wholly convinced. I feel my manuscript is a bit of an outlier that fits somewhere in between the two. Here’s why:
My protagonist is nine years old, which means that the audience for my story would skew younger, likely aged 7 to 9 or 10, but the language I use is decidedly more advanced than those found in chapter books. Word counts vary, but my current 16,000-word manuscript (after all my revisions) falls below the typical minimum length of many middle-grade novels. Some agents have very strict minimum word counts and will not even look at your work if you don’t meet the minimum.
So the question I regularly ask myself is, Do I preserve my story’s natural shape or expand it without a compelling narrative reason?
I've read great children's books that don't seem to fit neatly into conventional length expectations. Amy Timberlake's Skunk and Badger and anything by Kate DiCamillo come to mind.
A quick search of the interweb told me that Amy Timberlake's book is considered a middle-grade novel specifically targeting younger middle-grade readers or transitional chapter book readers, and Kate DiCamillo’s books are categorized as middle grade. I wonder how these two authors positioned their very first manuscript in a query letter?
Over the last ten years, there were many times I thought my story was complete only to further expand it as a result of some good feedback or a new idea that came to me. At the moment, I am not sure how I would expand the plot of my story, but I am definitely open to it if it feels right.
The other day, I found an agent whose interests really excite me! Each one of these elements is a strong entry point for me.
Protagonists who are or learn to be courageous and self-sufficient.
Yes! That’s Sophie.Sprinkles of wit and humour even if the story is dark.
Yes! The character Wimple provides comic relief in a storyline that has dark elements.Novels that feel classic and timeless.
Yes! My story has elements of a classic fairy tale.Magic, oddity and wonder in the mundane. Even if the story is contemporary and realistic, it feels like something unusual is right around the corner, ready to be stumbled upon and marveled over.
Yes! The familiar Broken Tree not far from Sophie’s backyard is a secret doorway into Faerie.
But I then hit a snag.
This agent has a minimum word count of 20,000 for middle-grade books and my manuscript currently falls below that amount—by 4000 words. Sigh.
In the end, I decided to take a risk and query her anyway, because my potential fit with her interests is so high. The worst she can say is no.
Here’s my query:
Dear [Agent],
Shy SOPHIE longs for a sister and loves the magic of autumn. When a balloon slips from her grasp on her ninth birthday and drifts beyond the Broken Tree, she follows it into a familiar clearing—and straight into the path of WIMPLE, a timid pixie bound to a grieving FAERIE QUEEN and a cruel task he does not fully understand. For years, Wimple has been reporting Sophie’s movements as part of the Queen’s plan to replace her lost daughter, NYM.
Using Wimple as her lure, the Queen draws Sophie into the hall beneath the faerie hill, where a single bite of enchanted cake binds her to Faerie forever. Guided by WREN, a faerie girl who loved Nym, and a tiny, silver-winged creature called a wick, Sophie seeks help from SIM CADEL, a wise old pixie. He warns her that she must find Wimple and return home before dawn, for only the one who led her into Faerie can lead her out again. Facing whirling sprites, greedy spriggans, and a ruthless COLLECTOR of words and memories, Sophie must summon her courage and outwit the Queen before dawn—or remain trapped in Faerie forever.
[TITLE] is a 16,000-word middle-grade fantasy for younger readers.
I noticed that your submission guidelines specify a minimum manuscript length of 20,000 words. My story is complete at its current length, and I would prefer to preserve its natural shape rather than extend it without a compelling narrative reason. Given its potential fit with your interests, I wondered whether you might consider a shorter work of this kind.
I believe the best children's stories blend wonder and humour with darkness, leaving an impression that lasts well into adulthood. Readers drawn to the immersive presence of the woods in Jon Klassen's THE SKULL and Sara Van Goethem's THE WITCH OF THE DARK WOOD; the collision of human and faerie worlds in Lena Coakley's WICKED NIX; and the themes of longing, friendship, and curiosity in Kate DiCamillo's HOTEL BALZAAR may enjoy venturing beyond the Broken Tree alongside Sophie.
As for me, I am a former communications writer and editor who spent a decade in the private sector before becoming a primary-school teacher, a career I have happily pursued for 20 years. I am currently writing a blog—part field notes, part personal journey—on finding my way into children's literature. [TITLE] is my first book.
A synopsis and the first 10 pages follow.
Thank you for your consideration,
Dalya Goldberger
Learning to Tell the Story of My Story
Preparing a query letter, blurb and synopsis takes time and is not easy, but I found the process extremely beneficial. It helped me figure out how well I know my story.
Here’s how I tackled writing the synopsis:
I wrote a two- or three-sentence summary for each chapter. This forced me to strip away small details and focus on the main events. It also helped me see the bigger picture, identify repetition and inconsistencies, and notice when something important existed only in my head rather than on the page. Then I further reduced the mini-summaries and wove them into a single narrative, ending included.
A synopsis should present a clear and compelling narrative arc and not a boring play-by-play. A big challenge for me was leaving out all the descriptive details I was inclined to include and avoiding interpreting the story for the reader.
For the blurb, I studied examples of back-cover copy and tried to follow the general format, focusing on the rising action (thank you, Grade 11 English class!) and ending at a pivotal moment without giving anything away.
Submission requirements that imposed a word limit on the blurb or synopsis were particularly challenging for me. But again, the exercise forced me to really zoom in on the story elements that are most important. As a result of doing this, I recognized that my original title focussed on the wrong story element. I decided to change the title to one the developmental editor had suggested (and which I initially rejected). Sorry, I’m still not ready to share the title with you.
I composed my first blurb and synopsis for my entry in CANSCAIP's Writing for Children’s Competition. I wasn't longlisted, but I'm still looking forward to receiving the feedback. I then used these drafts as a basis for submission to the first agent I queried.
When I look back at it now (like it was years ago!), I wish I could revise the whole query and send it again. But I can’t. In practice, you will likely get only one opportunity to make a first impression. With agents and editors managing heavy workloads, there's often little opportunity to follow up, let alone submit a revised version.
So far, I have queried two agents and four publishers: Annick Press, DCB Young Readers, Kids Can Press and Pajama Press. Another publisher, Orca Books, will be accepting submissions in February 2027.
The good news is that with each submission, I'm getting better at writing the query letter, blurb and synopsis.
And Don’t Forget the Comps
Comparable titles, or comps for short, are other recently published books that are similar to yours in some way. Authors use comps to help publishers understand where their book fits in the market and which readers might enjoy it. Think: If you liked books X, Y and Z, you might also like my book.
Comps should fall into the same category as your own book (in my case, middle-grade fiction) and be similar, but not too similar. Similarities can include tone, setting, theme and so on. Ideally, they should have been published within the last three to five years and should avoid classics or major franchises like Harry Potter or The Chronicles of Narnia, as these do little to establish a new manuscript’s market position.
I enjoyed discovering comparable titles for my book. It meant reading a lot of middle-grade fiction. At first, I looked for books with similar story elements, until I realized that was too literal (ha!) and not particularly nuanced. What I really needed was a similar feel. Several books I read were good books, but they didn't offer strong connections to my own. I approached the task in much the same way I teach my students to make book-to-book connections: Does this story remind me of my own? If so, how?
The titles I finally included in my query resonated with me, each in a different way. The dark woods in Jon Klassen's The Skull and Sara Van Goethem's The Witch of the Dark Wood reminded me of the atmospheric presence of the woods in my own story. In all three, the woods feel like a character in its own right.
In Wicked Nix, the faerie and human worlds collide (though in a way entirely unique to that story), reminding me of the proximity of these two worlds in my own. And finally, the longing main character Marta feels for her absent father in Kate DiCamillo's The Hotel Balzaar reminded me of the longing several of my own characters feel, each in their own way.
Three is a good (magic) number of comps to include, but you'll notice I threw in a fourth. I just didn't want to leave any of them out! Ultimately, I'm happy with the ones I chose.
Coming Full Circle
Back in my twenties, when I was searching for a career and not just a job, I wanted to work in publishing. I wanted to read and edit books for a living. To get a foothold, I was willing to come in through the back door, so to speak.
In the 1990s, I got an interview with McGraw-Hill Ryerson for a sales rep position selling textbooks. My boyfriend at the time worked in sales; he gave me pointers and drove me all the way to Whitby, Ontario, for the interview. I didn't get the job, but the interviewer was kind and understanding of my desire to gain a foothold in the industry.
Instead, I went on to start a career in communications, where I had opportunities to write and edit, and eventually became a primary-school teacher. Both paths gave me something I would draw on later, in other words, now.
Decades after that interview, I'm back at the door of the publishing industry with a manuscript of my own, but this time I am standing at the front door.
Knock, knock.