Synopsis Of "Jane Doe"

Jane Bauer is a bright unambitious shipper in an underwear factory, completely happy with the life she's built for herself in which she spends her spare time cooking with an old Italian matriarch, hanging out with her best friend Tim and his boyfriend Luca, and delivering messages of love with coffee money to the homeless people who drift like invisible ghosts near her upper Tenderloin neighborhood in San Francisco.  Jane thinks she has overcome her past in which she was neglected by her mother and then brutally attacked when she was a teen, but when she starts dating the egregiously handsome EMT, Isaac, she has to rethink how to shake the reverberations of violence from her life.  As she is moving forward, learning to let new people in, the forces of her past are also moving forward.  Eventually they will all cross line a line together. 


(That's a one paragraph synopsis.  I'll keep trying to rewrite it until it I nail it.  Which might take a while.)


The theme of Jane Doe is overcoming violence.

The theme of Jane Doe is healing and then having to heal all over again.


I should mention that "Jane Doe" is merely a working title and is by no means a title I'm sure about for the book. I would be willing to bet that this is already a book title and I haven't done any searches yet.  I will brainstorm for names when I have completely finished writing the first draft.  Soon I will be working on editing and polishing the first chapter to prepare for submissions.  No one wants to be sent the whole book so when you make submissions you generally send the first chapter and sometimes a middle chapter.  I will have to start doing research on book agents and publishers.  Many publishers won't accept submissions from unagented authors.  So I need to send submissions to both. 

If any of you can give me good tips on appropriate publishing houses to submit this type of story to, or know of any reputable agents that you can recommend me submitting my work to I would appreciate it. 

I'm not interested in self publishing at this time.  I want to try for the classic 500 rejection slip route.  I've done all kinds of self publishing before, and I know that I need to try my damnedest to go through this whole author process legitimately with this book.  What I really want is to have a copy of my own book some day to put on my book shelf.  One that I didn't print myself.  One that someone else had enough faith in to publish it for me under their big umbrella.  I want to do this the old fashioned way.

Now I have to tell you that it was a commenter today who reminded me that I needed to start practicing writing a synopsis and work towards a book pitch.  This is (predictably) my weakest point in this process.  So I will share my attempts here.  When I have finished what I plan to submit to agents and publishers I will probably share that with you all here and you can (if you please) help me hone the pitch so that an editor will read it and feel completely compelled to read more!

This same commentor has inspired me to produce the following response:


A commenter on the post Awaiting The "Jane Doe" Denouement said that she thought the theme of my book seemed to be "Belly Button Gazing".  I was inclined not to be offended by her opinion.  However, now that I've given this some thought I can't get around the fact that the expression "navel gazing" which is the same as "belly button gazing" are never used in a complimentary fashion.  Both of those expressions imply: wallowing, an unattractive self absorption, over thinking to the point of ridiculousness, self pity, whining, and self indulgent introspection.

It's funny that she used this expression because I have been meaning to write a post about how much I loathe the expression "navel gazing" and there it was- being used on my work.  I'm still not particularly offended*, even though it is an insult to my story, because for one thing- she is basing her opinion about the theme of my book based on little bits of language I shared for the sheer enjoyment of the language.  For another, a writer's job is to get inside other people's skin and speak for them.  It is our job to explore the human condition, mind, heart, and our interactions.  A person who is unwilling to look inward quite a lot will not develop the ability to also see into others. 

She has also reminded me that I have failed to provide a synopsis to you all about my story.  I need to start practicing writing a brief synopsis and eventually turn that into a pitch for my book to agents and publishers because I do mean to give this everything I've got and right now I'm prettying up a box to pile my rejection letters in**.  (I have written the synopsis at the top of the page and you have probably already read it.)







*Oh crap.  You all have such high expectations of my truth telling, I guess I have to admit what you already know- I am a little bit offended.  Dang it.  Why do you always have to be telling me how much you like how honest I am.  I can't even get away with little white lies any more. 

**Not really.  Not yet.  I only thought of that this instant while writing this post.  I think it's a good idea though, don't you?