How to Write a Book Summary

Do you need to write a book abstract? Maybe you like to write summaries of what you read for future use?

Regardless, writing a summary can be a daunting process.

In this article, we’ll look at how to write a book summary and give a step-by-step process.

What is the difference between a book summary and a book review?

Regardless of the reasons behind you wanting to write a book summary, albeit for school, work, or a hobby, it should be noted that a book summary is not a book review.

While the difference between the two may not be black and white, it should be noted that a book review is a description of the book with your thoughts and feelings on the subject matter. A book summary, oftentimes referred to as a synopsis, recaps and summarizes all of the key aspects of the narrative, without any of the biased commentary.

How Long Should a Book Summary be?

Keep in mind that you are writing a book summary, not re-writing the book itself.

Before beginning writing your book summary, you will want to make sure to list all of the essential characters, places, and events that occur while leaving some of the ‘filler’ sections.

Every book or story has these filler sections, and while they may add to the atmosphere of the story or character development, they are not always necessary in book summaries.

A typical formula that a lot of book summarizers use is this:

This may not apply to you if you do not have a page limit, but I still use it in order to keep my readers engaged by giving concise sections.

So, to re-iterate the beforementioned format, if you have a 3-page limit and there are 12 pages in the book, then you would want to have four sections per page.

How to Structure a Book Summary?

This one is a little tricky, as it is up to you how you want to format your book summary.

What I have found to be the best format is to go section at a time, with one section introducing the main characters before you delve into the story that the author is telling.

For instance, if the book has 15 chapters, then you should have 16 sections of your book summary, one for introductions of the characters, setting, and theme, and the other 15 summarizing each chapter.

Additionally, you can add a section at the end working as a conclusion, but in some cases, this may not be necessary. If you are the type of person that does like to add your two cents, this would be the section to do so.

What are the Best Steps to Write a Summary?

Before writing a book summary, the first step is, of course, to read the book. Then, try to summarize in your own words what has just happened per chapter, or all of the important paths that the writer took in telling their story.

By doing this in your head, it helps to solidify what you learned, which makes your brain store all of the important knowledge.

Below are the steps you should take to write a compelling book summary.

Decide the Market

Even before you read the book that you are wanting to summarize, it is a good idea to ascertain who the target audience, or market, will be.

For instance, if you are summarizing a book about poetry, you may want to expand upon the writing process for beginning poets, and condense down the history of poetry.

Knowing your target audience is key in knowing how to reach them, and what they are wanting to know more about.

Once you have your reading market in mind, you can start to cater to your summary to them.

Research the Author

Before you start to write your summary, and even before you read the book, it would be a good idea to research the author.

This will not only give you a feel for their writing style, but knowing their background can give you an insight into where they came from, and what point they are trying to get across in their story.

Some subject matter may seem a little off in the book you are summarizing, but by knowing the state of mind that the author was in when writing their book, it can help you to understand the thoughts and feelings that they were trying to convey in their story.

Start to Read the Book

While reading the book that you are summarizing, it is important to have the correct mindset and environment in mind.

Unlike a reading assignment for a college class, you will really want to think about each section that you are reading, and not just speed-reading through it for the most important aspects.

The correct mindset to have is if you are needing to teach the subject matter of each section to a class, or group of peers. This will train your brain to keep in mind all of the important aspects that the author is trying to convey through their words.

There are so many times that we read something but are not really focusing in on what the thought behind it is, or what the words are really saying.

While reading the book that you are summarizing, it would be a good idea to summarize the section back to yourself; this trains your brain into storing the knowledge that you just learned.

Take Notes and Highlights

Taking notes and highlighting important parts of the text may make the reading go slower, but it is more efficient and helps you store the knowledge you just read; highlighting sections also helps you to make a checklist for yourself for parts that you want to make sure to include in your summary.

If it is a more story-driven part of the book, it would be a good idea to take as many notes as possible for those sections.

One thing to keep in mind however, is that if you over-highlight or take too many notes you are just making more work for yourself down the road. Try to differentiate the pertinent and impertinent information while taking notes.

Write Small Summaries for Each Chapter

By writing small summaries for each chapter, it helps your brain to store the information that you just learned, as well as make your final project easier, by working as you go along.

If you are reading a lot of information in a small amount of time, it is easy to forget sections towards the start of the book. By creating a summary for yourself as you read and take notes, it makes it easier to read those summaries when completing the final project.

This way, if there is a section that you need to change while fine-tuning your book summary, you can come back to a part that you have already summarized and made changes as required.

This process also makes it easier to organize your thoughts later on; for instance, if you are reading your final summary and realize there is a section that should be expanded up or condensed, you can go back to the section summary and do so.

Bullet the Key Points

While this can go along with the step above of summarizing key points, you will want to make sure that in these sectional summaries that you bullet vital points that happened.

While the key points will be different on each book you summarize, a good practice is to bullet the following:

• main characters,
• what action they took
• and what happened as a result of this action

Additional key points and information that you may want to bullet is

• Main or secondary characters that were introduced
• secondary actions that took
• any seemingly small “ripples” that have happened, that may have conflicts or solutions later in the text

Additionally, once you are fine-tuning the book summary as a whole, it would be a good idea to bullet the key points.

How you structure this is entirely up to you; by choosing to bullet key points section at a time, or towards the end of the summary may be beneficial to reaching your target audience.

Write your Full Summary

At this point in your writing process, you can begin to write your full summary. If you have followed the sections listed above, then you will already know the important parts of each section and have these details in bullet points.

From this point, it is just about adding all of the information together in a cohesive format that makes sense.

Keep in mind that you will want to avoid rambling, and should give the most important information. (Remember, you are not writing a book, but summarizing one that has already been written).

By using useful information that is kept to the point and concise, you can grasp your reader’s attention and give them the information about the book that they need.

Final thoughts

A book summary can be a great way to solidify knowledge of a book you’re reading and can be used to skim over crucial points later on.

Use the steps we discussed to write your future book summaries.