The Good Guys Lose

So I have an idea for a story, but in it the good guys (humans) lose to the bad guys (aliens).  The loss doesn't involve extinction or having our planet blown up, but we end up being little better than dirt between the cracks of the intergalactic society.

And I'm wondering who would want to read a book, even if it's interesting, that ends up with humanity basically losing the big battle.  We're the plucky guys who always figure out how to beat the 10,000 year old intergalactic society and bend them to our will, not the losers.  At least that's how every Sci-fi book I've ever read does it.

That's so cliche though.  I could do the story from the POV of an alien, but I think people wouldn't like it.  I could do it as a short story or novella and sort of not mention that the people getting their butts kicked are us until the end.  Oh well.

Writing Synops-odes (plural of synopsis)

I've been reading web sites on how to write a synopsis.  I've found some helpful hints.  My first synopsis for my new novel ASH, OAK AND IRON (since renamed to The Threefold Death) was a pure data dump.  It sucked.  I wrote a second version that was a briefer and less sucky version of my 30,000 word synopsis (I kid, but not by much).

Then I found a helpful hint on the intertubes that changed my approach to synopsis writing.  The agent said 'write your synopsis as if you are summarizing your novel to a 12 year old child'.  So I did that. The third version of my synopsis focuses on three characters and only the major events of my novel.  It was actually easier to write than my first two versions because I de-invested (to hell with side-kicks) and just tried to get the main points of my novel across to the oh-so well read and witty twelve year old literary agent.

Now my synopsis is kid friendly. Sure there's sword play, sex, murder, discussion of second base and other subjects that I might not want to discuss with my twelve year old... but you get the point.

I have focused with laser-like precision on my reading audience--twelve year old literary agents with 6th-grade reading levels. Note: consider this an ego-driven snipe at those agents who are currently--or who will soon be--tossing my brilliantly written query letter into their circular filing cabinet!

Vengeance is mine!

Um, so to restate : My initial thought of writing two sentences (approximately) per chapter was a recipe for instant rejection IMHO. My synopsis is now a five page summary of the major events of my novel, enough information but not a data dump.

First Post

So, I'm finally taking this writing thing seriously.  In the last year I've written two books, have two more outlined, and am enjoying myself immensely.

Now it's time to try and find a literary agent.

Yea, writing is the easy part.  The hard part is writing query letters to agents.  I have about three paragraphs to catch some stranger's interest, that and the first 500 words of my novel.  It's akin to showing someone my left eye and asking them to hire me to be a male model.

Oh joy. :)