sample chapters in query

Hmmm....my manuscripts are always saved as double spaced....so I guess my answer would be double....I just send the first five pages (or whatever they ask for). I've never put that much thought into it

You can (and should) write in whatever spacing you like best. When submitting, always double space.

Edited to say: Oops! I missed the bit about the 'body of the e-mail'. In that case, single spacing is fine, but you should select and copy the first 5 (or whatever they designate) double-spaced pages of your MS. (Hope that makes sense!)

Yes -- as Terie said, ALWAYS send manuscripts (even parts of manuscripts) double-spaced. Always.

I thought this didn't apply for email queries and that sample pages were done in the same space between paragraphs fashion as the query section because it's too hard to read double spaced in the limited space available. This is a darn good question because I'm sending out next week and would hate to do this wrong.

kaitie said:

I thought this didn't apply for email queries and that sample pages were done in the same space between paragraphs fashion as the query section because it's too hard to read double spaced in the limited space available. This is a darn good question because I'm sending out next week and would hate to do this wrong.

Click to expand...

Since you were probably composing your reply while I was editing mine, check out my edit.

If the agent asks for five pages, the total amount of writing they want to see is five double-spaced manuscript pages. So copy those, paste them into a separate document, single-space the paragraphs, put a hard return between each paragraph for readability, then copy this into the email.

Same goes if they want to see 30 pages--give them thirty original double-spaced pages, reformatted into single-spacing.

Email programs can make double-spacing look weird and hard to read.

Terie said:

Since you were probably composing your reply while I was editing mine, check out my edit.

Click to expand...

Haha, sorry about that! Y'all had me freaking out there for a minute.

In the body of an email, rather than as an attachment, format it like you would any email: single-spaced, with an extra space between paragraphs. I don't have a link, but I know I've seen agents say to do that, b/c it's almost impossible to double-space emails, and there's no guarantee it would arrive in that format.

For the original question, I'd choose the first X pages, chosen from the double-spaced version. Remember that the agent won't necessarily read all X pages, unless you've captured her interest, and in that case, it doesn't matter whether you've got X pages of half of X pages. In other words: more isn't necessarily better. Usually, in my experience, if the first couple pages are compelling, then the next pages will be equally compelling, so the agent will ask for the rest; and if the first couple pages are weak, then the rest of the pages will be equally weak, and therefore whether the agent read 2 pages or 50, she won't ask for the rest.

JD

It's fine to send sample pages single-spaced and with an extra space between paragraphs, but more and more markets are asking for complete stories, articles, and even novels, formatted within the body of an email. I had to send at least a dozen this way last year.

Fortunately, MS Office, primarily Word and Outlook, are the industry standard, and it's been easy to send perfectly formatted RTF e-mails through Outlook for at least a decade. For writers, Outlook can be set to use Word as the e-mail editor, so there's never a need to cut and paste, or even to open outlook.

They do, always, arrive perfectly formatted, and any decent agent or editor should be able to open them directly in Word through Outlook.

But even Gmail is now capable of using Rich Text Formatting, so sending formatted e-mails is easy.

Don't know about such things as Yahoo or Hotmail. I wouldn't use either for anything professional.

Always double-space. They will give it an honest read if it is solicited, good luck waiting.