Hotmail messed with my query format, what do I do?

KDexter · Dec 14, 2009

I apologize if this is the wrong place for this thread, but I didn't know where it belonged, and since I'm querying for a novel, I figured I'd try it.

I spent all morning formatting an e-query for an agent I was really looking forward to querying. Everything looked beautiful, so I sent it out. To my horror, when I checked my sent messages folder to observe the work I was so proud of, the format had somehow gotten screwed up. While it's not a garbled mess of unintelligible crap, the font is inexplicably gray, the paragraphs I had so perfectly aligned had shifted, and there were spaces where spaces were not meant to be. Oh yes, one sentence was written in black font, looking as though I meant to highlight it.

I'm sure this has happened to others, but I haven't dealt with it before. I don't want to send it again so soon, but I'm loathe to look like an unprofessional nincompoop who can't be bothered to format. Is there a chance the strength of the story will still shine through, or have the query gods ultimately sabotaged me?

Clair Dickson · Dec 14, 2009

I'm guessing that agents are used to the occasional oddball formatting in your email. I don't think it will inherently kill your chances, but it may damage them a little. Hopefully-- unless the agent's having a bad day already-- they'll read it anyway.

What do you mean, though, that you 'spent all morning formatting an e-query.' I thought there was minimal, if no formatting in a query-- esp. an emailed one. And I'd be careful messing with the formatting in an email besides, because what hotmail codes, another mail program may not like. Text is usually the best and safest route-- all plain text. (And if you type in Word or another word processor, saving as a text file will make sure you don't have any goofy formatting to make things look or act strange)

Me&BacchusGoIntoABar · Dec 14, 2009

As Clair said, I've heard that if you save your text as a text file (not a Word file, for example), it will format correctly into email.

KDexter · Dec 14, 2009

Hopefully it will be okay, I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Sorry, I realize how I made it sound, but I wasn't making an effort to do anything fancy with the query. Just trying to keep everything properly spaced and professional looking. "All morning" was an extreme overstatement brought on by frustration and my current lack of breakfast.

Will go find some food and chill out.

Kathleen42 · Dec 14, 2009

Other than spaces between paragraphs, I'm not sure what spacing your query would need?

Incidentally, Hotmail might not be the best email client to use. I've read (in another thread on AW) that it has a higher chance of being flagged as spam. Not sure if that's true, or not.

KDexter · Dec 14, 2009

Kathleen42 said:
Other than spaces between paragraphs, I'm not sure what spacing your query would need?

I tried to indent the start of paragraphs, which I'm learning is not necessary in a query.

Well, there's nothing to be done about it now. Sometimes making a mistake is the only way to realize you've done something wrong. In the future I'll save as plain text and be leery of hotmail.

Thanks for the replies all.

DeadlyAccurate · Dec 14, 2009

See if there's an option to strip all formatting from your email (or send as plain text; not sure how the wording is in your program). That *should* make it so you don't have anything fancy that might screw up when it's sent. You can also do a test send in the future to another email account (yours or a friend's).

Kaylee · Dec 14, 2009

Kathleen42, Hot mail does the same to my manuscript what E-mail account do you suggest?

Hittman · Dec 14, 2009

Did you compose it in Word and then paste it directly into the e-mail? Word copies not only the text, but a huge amount of unnecessary garbage that won't usually be visible but can really screw things up.

It's easy to get around this, though. Just paste it into Notepad first, then copy it from notepad into your web mail and all that extra garbage is gone.

Do it with the CTRL key a few times and it becomes second nature.

Ctrl A selects all the text, Ctrl/C copies it to the clipboard (the computers memory, basicly) and Ctrl/V pastes the copied text.

In Word: Ctrl/A, Ctrl/C

In Notepad Ctrl/V Ctrl/A, Ctrl/C

In your web mail client" Ctrl/V

Kathleen42 · Dec 14, 2009

Kaylee said:
Kathleen42, Hot mail does the same to my manuscript what E-mail account do you suggest?

Are you talking about the formatting? Cause I'm not sure there is an email client that will help with that. If you're worried about the spam issue (which, again, have not experienced but have heard) I've had good luck with gmail.

Maxinquaye · Dec 14, 2009

I would in all sincerety suggest moving over to GMail instead of hotmail. Hotmail was earlier very abused by spammers, and the history of that still lingers on the net, which is why many automatically filter out hotmail-mails as spam.

KDexter · Dec 14, 2009

Hittman said:
Did you compose it in Word and then paste it directly into the e-mail? Word copies not only the text, but a huge amount of unnecessary garbage that won't usually be visible but can really screw things up.

Yes! Therein lies the problem.

Hittman said:
It's easy to get around this, though. Just paste it into Notepad first, then copy it from notepad into your web mail and all that extra garbage is gone.

This was a great suggestion, thank you.

Also, thanks again to everyone for replies and for suggesting other e-mail providers. I'm definitely going to look into GMail.

veinglory · Dec 15, 2009

In the future I suggest sticking with plain text and block formating. With an email query, less is more

. In terms of pasted MSWords all emailm programs are about the same--it just goes wrong.

kathleen_grant · Dec 15, 2009

KDexter said:
I apologize if this is the wrong place for this thread, but I didn't know where it belonged, and since I'm querying for a novel, I figured I'd try it.

I spent all morning formatting an e-query for an agent I was really looking forward to querying. Everything looked beautiful, so I sent it out. To my horror, when I checked my sent messages folder to observe the work I was so proud of, the format had somehow gotten screwed up. While it's not a garbled mess of unintelligible crap, the font is inexplicably gray, the paragraphs I had so perfectly aligned had shifted, and there were spaces where spaces were not meant to be. Oh yes, one sentence was written in black font, looking as though I meant to highlight it.

I'm sure this has happened to others, but I haven't dealt with it before. I don't want to send it again so soon, but I'm loathe to look like an unprofessional nincompoop who can't be bothered to format. Is there a chance the strength of the story will still shine through, or have the query gods ultimately sabotaged me?

I've learned the hard way too and now I always click "Save As Draft" then check it in my Drafts folder, view it, make sure it's perfect, then click "Continue Composing This Message" to add the agent's email address to send it out!

Straka · Dec 15, 2009

I went through many revisions to get this right. I also used Yahoo. I don't like hotmail.

Hotmail messed with my query format, what do I do?

KDexter

Clair Dickson

A dark core to every cloud

Me&BacchusGoIntoABar

KDexter

Kathleen42

crushing on fictional characters

KDexter

DeadlyAccurate

Absolutely Fazed

Kaylee

New kid, be gentle!

Hittman

Kathleen42

crushing on fictional characters

Maxinquaye

That cheeky buggerer

KDexter

veinglory

volitare nequeo

kathleen_grant

Carpe Diem

Straka

Bored Fanatic