Page Count: How Picky Are Agents?

I've heard editors say that if it's a matter of just a couple of pages to get to a logical break (such as a chapter end) that you should go ahead a include them. I'd imagine most agents would feel the same way.

You'd probably be fine with that. Unless the agent says specifically, "absolutely no more than 50 pages" or something similar, one extra to finish the chapter shouldn't make a difference. If they get to that spot and want to read more they won't care about an extra page, and if they never get that far they won't know, so you have nothing to lose.

I always sent approximately the number of pages requested, ending at a chapter or at least a scene break. I made a separate document just for the submission if the sample ended at a scene break, so that the agent didn't get the first bit of the next scene on the last page. I figured they were ultimately readers, and a reader would be annoyed to be cut off mid-scene, even mid-sentence.

I figure you've got about a 5-page leeway either way.

We obsess over the damndest things, don't we? After sending out my latest query, I realized I'd forgotten to left-justify the text of the sample pages, and went into a sweat that I'd be rejected on that alone.

After a little rational thought, it came to me that any agency that would reject a query solely on that basis would probably be someone I wouldn't want to work with anyway.