When querying

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When querying and enclosing the first five pages or first three chapters or whatever they ask for, should I start page one half way down the page as if it were a whole manuscript being submitted or is it OK to start at the top? Which is the more professional? Should it be double-spaced or is 1.5 OK?

Also, some have advised that the synopsis should be complete and others say not to tell the end. Is there a difference for a brief synopsis and a longer one?

One agent I am contacting asked for only a single page. How can they tell anything about the writing on that basis?

I find this whole process mysterious and painful, but I imagine that makes me no different from anyone else.
 

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When querying and enclosing the first five pages or first three chapters or whatever they ask for, should I start page one half way down the page as if it were a whole manuscript being submitted or is it OK to start at the top? Which is the more professional? Should it be double-spaced or is 1.5 OK?

Start half-way down the page. Double space.

Also, some have advised that the synopsis should be complete and others say not to tell the end. Is there a difference for a brief synopsis and a longer one?

A longer synopsis is ... longer. Tell the end. How else will they know that you have one?


One agent I am contacting asked for only a single page. How can they tell anything about the writing on that basis?

You'd be surprised.

I find this whole process mysterious and painful, but I imagine that makes me no different from anyone else.

You get over it.
 
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