Question about email queries...

[kaitie]

Alright, this is kind of a silly one, but no laughing. :tongue

I've read a lot about sending queries via email, and from what I've seen they basically say include no formatting because it can get screwed up when it gets sent into cyberspace. I get all the basic rules...leave off addresses or put them under your name, no attachments, single spaced with extra lines between paragraphs, etc. What I'm not sure on is how to deal with font. Everyone says to use TNR (or Courier) when you send a query. My emails are automatically set to Arial. Does that mean when I send an email query I should change the font to TNR? Or is that considered formatting and the rule doesn't apply to emails? Silly little thing, I know, but I don't want to mess it up.

[Danthia]

It's okay to change the font. Basic rule of thumb... Make sure it's as easy to read as possible. That usually means a 12 point Times or Courier font.

[kaitie]

Alright, thanks. :) I was going to send it to myself as well to see how it looked, but I just didn't want to do something that might screw up the formatting royally before I sent it off. :)

[Kathleen42]

It actually never occurred to me to change the font from the default.

[DeadlyAccurate]

I don't think I ever changed the font from the default either. As long as it's easy to read and normal (no Comic Sans, for example, and no script fonts), don't worry about it. If the agent gets most of her emails in Arial anyway, I doubt she'd ever notice if your query was in Arial, too.

[raburrell]

Thread derail:
Oddest thing is our CEO actually wanted me to change a professional, scientific whitepaper into Comic Sans the other day.

Yes, he's insane.
/derail

[Kathleen42]

Thread derail:
Oddest thing is our CEO actually wanted me to change a professional, scientific whitepaper into Comic Sans the other day.

Yes, he's insane.
/derail

If I could, I would remove Comic Sans from every computer in the office. It makes my soul bleed.

[Jamesaritchie]

Formatting doesn't get screwed up if everyone concern is using professional level e-mail tools. This hasn't been the case for quite a spell. My agent and publishers all use MS Outlook, and everythhig we send back and forth is formatted just like any other manuscript, and is sent as rtf.

[Khanada]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but if your recipient is set up to receive HTML-formatted email (& you send it HTML), then they can see what font you have chosen in your email. If they only receive plain text, then they will read your email in whatever their default font is on their computer. I'm not very tech-y inclined, but I ran some tests from one email account using Mozilla Thunderbird to another using MS Outlook. In Thunderbird, I can easily choose whether to send HTML, plain text, or both, so I could see what they looked like in my Outlook account. When I sent in plain text, my Times New Roman from one account ended up with the default font on my other account. Plain text is where other formatting really falls apart -- bolding and italics come across as symbols.