What is a synopsis and how is it different from a blurb or jacket copy?

Short answer: Donovan Levine’s advice: A synopsis is a beat-by-beat outline of your main plot; a blurb is the punchier teaser in your query, closer to the jacket copy on the back of a book.

Answered by Donovan Levine, Associate Literary Agent, Neighborhood Literary.

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The agent’s answer

The synopsis and the blurb do different jobs for the agent, and Donovan keeps them separate. The blurb is the pitch, a fast skeleton outline written in punchier, sellable language, closer to the jacket copy a reader sees in a bookstore, though even jacket copy is punchier because it is written to entice buyers. The synopsis is the meat and potatoes: a more in-depth skeleton outline that walks beat by beat through the main plot so the agent has a reference point for how the writer executes those story ideas in the full manuscript. He stresses that lots of information, including major origin stories, context, and subplots, is deliberately left out of both, and that this is completely okay because the synopsis should concentrate on the main plot rather than on punchy one-liners reserved for the query.

In Donovan’s words

A book blurb is typically what's included in the query letter itself. It's different from a synopsis, because even though both are describing the book, a blurb functions more as a teaser or first impression.
Donovan Levine, 03:59

Source: Synopsis & Comp Titles.