This setup breakdown is meant to help you understand the overarching premise of a book. By studying things like loglines, blurbs, and other forms of distilled content, you can better understand story structure (fiction) or content organization (nonfiction). This can assist you in becoming a stronger book planner and book summarizer. Being able to succinctly sum up what your book is about helps you with querying trade publishing agents and acquisitions editors. It also helps you create your own book blurb when it’s time to put your book on the market, if you’re an indie author.
Blurb
This is what the author has used as the book descriptor on the book’s sales page. Take a look at what it does and does not tell you about the book. What would you add? What would you remove? What would you rearrange?
They say not to stick your pen in company ink.
Does that apply to graphic designers as well?
This year, I decided to check off a couple life-altering items:
Ditch the cheating ex, move into my own apartment, and finally pursue my dream career.
When I land a graphic design job at Treasuries Inc., the start-up darling of
the marketing world, I think I have it all figured out.Oh, naïve little me.
I, Grace Holmes, am not related to the great detective, Sherlock.
If I were, maybe I could solve the mysterious case of why the universe gave me
my dream job, but then paired it with my new boss, Cameron Kaufman.Cameron Kaufman is a man with a plan—if that plan is
attempting to stilt my career. He’s arrogant, cynical, and ready to spit
sarcasm any chance he can. But, most of all, he is swoon-worthy to a degree of
unfairness. Seriously—dimples and a winning ass? Give me a break here!So, of course, we’re hit with a big project on my first
week. Of course, now my boss and I have to spend late nights together. And, of
course, I’m getting more attracted to his snarky comments as each day passes.We both have mouths that could kill. My only problem is that
I can’t stop picturing what else he can do with his, or whether my job is worth
risking to find out.
Five Ps of Premise Prep
Based on my reading and interpretation of the book, here is what the Five Ps might look like for In Too Deep. After reading the book, do you find that you agree or disagree with my take? Which changes would you make?
Person: Grace Holmes is a talented graphic designer and friends with the sister of someone who works at Grace’s dream employer, Treasuries, Inc.
Pain: Grace’s latest, longest, and most committed relationship (on her end, anyway) has just fallen apart and she’s in no condition to get into another. Everything she thought she understood about love seems like a fraud.
Prize(s): To move on from her failed relationship and to get a new job.
Pitfalls: The job interview, her new boss, her best friend’s brother as a (nosey and suspicious) co-worker, her sexual attraction to her new boss, the ethics of the manager-employee relationship, living in the same apartment complex as her boss.
Promise: That Grace will make a decision about what means more to her: her job or her romantic desires. That this will be a sexy workplace romance.
Premise
A book premise takes elements from your premise preparation and uses them to sum up the central story / concept of your book. They can be written in a multitude of ways. The one below differs greatly from the one the author used as a blurb. Studying book blurbs and synopses can help you get better at creating your own book descriptions, blurbs, and summaries. Premises can be written as a single sentence:
Grace wants to recover from her train-wreck of a breakup, but she must manage her “remorseful” ex and her feelings for her new manager in order to do so.
Premises can also be fleshed out a bit more to help clarify the concept. This version can be crafted into a book blurb later.
Grace only has one man left to love in her life. Hank. Her aging golden retriever.
After a devastating betrayal and breakup, Grace is ready to move forward with her life and focus on her career and her own peace of mind.
Then she meets her new boss.
If it weren’t enough that he is heart-stoppingly gorgeous, he also happens to be quick-witted (it takes a lot to match words with a sass queen like Grace), an ultra-talented artist, AND he has a golden retriever (Buddy) of his own.
Though getting this new job was supposed to mark a fresh start as a single, fulfilled woman with talent, ambitions, and her trusty canine at her side, it looks like she may have to choose between her dream career and her dream man.
How would you re-write these?
Logline
Though In Too Deep is not a screenplay, a logline is another kind of summary tool that helps you think through what the core of a particular story is. I construct a premise and a logline while I’m in the book planning stages.
A newly-single graphic designer is hired onto a marketing firm and has to choose between following the career path she’s always dreamed of or taking her relationship with her new boss to more intimate depths.
How would you rewrite this logline?
What elements of this premise could you change to make it your own?
What Stands Out
Dogs
While it’s not wholly unheard of, not every romance includes the old canis familiaris, so that may be a fun point of attraction for some folks.
Graphic Design
I honestly can’t remember that last time I read a book where the protagonist was a graphic designer, so I thought that was a cool detail.
Ready to Read?
Check out how this setup works itself out in narrative form by reading In Too Deep.