How do you ship your manuscript?

JoNightshade · Jul 20, 2007

Just wondering how other people do this. When an agent asks to see my manuscript, I print it out and then put it in a tight bubble-wrap envelope and mail it off that way. The pages are all loose. I always feel weird doing it this way. If I were an agent I'd ask people to take their MSS to Kinkos and get it bound for $3 before sending it off.

Is this how everyone does it or am I missing something?

blacbird · Jul 20, 2007

Never never never never never bind a novel manuscript for submission. Never. Loose pages are just fine, though I'd recommend a manuscript-sized box rather than a tight bubble-wrap envelope.

Agents HATE bound manuscripts. They're a lot easier to deal with as loose pages.

caw

maestrowork · Jul 20, 2007

Yup, no binding. Rubber-band the thing, put it in a document box (readily available at Staples, etc. or online).

Julie Worth · Jul 20, 2007

I always put it in a box, unbound. Unless I send them a bound copy, but that's always a mass-market sized POD. (In spite of everything you hear about agents preferring double spaced, loose leaf, in my experience they actually prefer a book that rests comfortably in a pocket to a bicep-building MS.)

rugcat · Jul 20, 2007

Makes it difficult for them if they should want to make notes on the ms, no?

Julie Worth · Jul 20, 2007

rugcat said:
Makes it difficult for them if they should want to make notes on the ms, no?

Do any agents take notes on the first read? Anyway, I've sent out a pocket sized book with the ms on several occasions, both to publishers and agents, and when I got them back the ms was untouched, but the pocket sized had obviously been read. And when I offered agents a choice, none ever asked for the ms.

blacbird · Jul 20, 2007

Julie Worth said:
I always put it in a box, unbound. Unless I send them a bound copy, but that's always a mass-market sized POD. (In spite of everything you hear about agents preferring double spaced, loose leaf, in my experience they actually prefer a book that rests comfortably in a pocket to a bicep-building MS.)

You are the first person I've ever heard say this, and it goes against everything I've ever read in guidelines from agents. Unless an agent actually requests such a thing, I'd never send a POD mass-market sized book, or any other bound book for that matter, as a submission manuscript. For precisely the reason Rugcat mentions, among others.

caw

Julie Worth · Jul 20, 2007

blacbird said:
You are the first person I've ever heard say this, and it goes against everything I've ever read in guidelines from agents. Unless an agent actually requests such a thing, I'd never send a POD mass-market sized book, or any other bound book for that matter, as a submission manuscript. For precisely the reason Rugcat mentions, among others.

caw

You'd be suprised how few agents know how easy it is to get a POD printed up, which is possibly why they don't mention it. In my experience, not a single agent had seen a POD submission, and none were aware of Lulu.

But many agents get books that have been published already (eg, by an overseas publisher), and they'll happily read the book as opposed to the ms.

blacbird · Jul 20, 2007

Julie Worth said:
You'd be suprised how few agents know how easy it is to get a POD printed up, which is possibly why they don't mention it. In my experience, not a single agent had seen a POD submission, and none were aware of Lulu.

But many agents get books that have been published already (eg, by an overseas publisher), and they'll happily read the book as opposed to the ms.

Well, we're going to agree to disagree on this one. I'd bet my house 98% of the legit agents out there would instantly bin a POD that arrived from someone whose manuscript they had requested. There are about 547 reasons why agents want standard loose-leaf double-spaced manuscripts in Courier or TNR 12-point fonts, with generous margins. 546 1/2 of those are violated by a small POD book.

Getting a book already published for some form of further representation is an entirely different animal from consideration of an unpublished manuscript.

Of course, agents instantly bin my standardly-prepared queries, so in my case it probably doesn't matter.

caw

Julie Worth · Jul 20, 2007

blacbird said:
Well, we're going to agree to disagree on this one. I'd bet my house 98% of the legit agents out there would instantly bin a POD that arrived from someone whose manuscript they had requested. There are about 547 reasons why agents want standard loose-leaf double-spaced manuscripts in Courier or TNR 12-point fonts, with generous margins. 546 1/2 of those are violated by a small POD book.

Getting a book already published for some form of further representation is an entirely different animal from consideration of an unpublished manuscript.

Of course, agents instantly bin my standardly-prepared queries, so in my case it probably doesn't matter.

caw

I only have to find 3% to win your house? Hooha! Here's one: http://podbookreview.blogspot.com/2007/06/hard-copy-submissions.html

And, from an interview with Jenny Bent:

Girl: If someone POD'd a book but still wants to pitch editors/agents, should he or she simply send the paperback?

Jenny: Yes, with reviews, sales info, etc.

Scrawler · Jul 20, 2007

I use nice white boxes I buy from Staples and leave it loose with a few blank pages at the beginning and end.

RLB · Jul 20, 2007

Scrawler said:
I use nice white boxes I buy from Staples and leave it loose with a few blank pages at the beginning and end.

Why the blank pages? Just curious.

And I think my favorite agent quote on this comes from Dan Lazar's Publisher's Marketplace page: "Also, no need to send your materials double sealed in bubble wrap. It's paper, not anthrax."

Anonymisty · Jul 20, 2007

Rubber banded, wrapped in a plastic grocery bag and shipped in a small box or padded envelope.

And that's how my copyeditor sent it to me for my final edits back in May. Except without the plastic bag.

javili · Jul 20, 2007

I am ususally sending MS to people in a different country and there is no mail available. So I email a pdf document to a reprographic shop, they print it, package it, ship it by FedEx or whatever, bill my credit card. I figure it costs about fifty bucks to send a novel to somebody, a little less for a screenplay.

Sucks, huh?

blacbird · Jul 20, 2007

RLB said:
And I think my favorite agent quote on this comes from Dan Lazar's Publisher's Marketplace page: "Also, no need to send your materials double sealed in bubble wrap. It's paper, not anthrax."

Oh, yeah? Then why are mine always treated like anthrax.

caw

NicoleMD · Jul 20, 2007

Julie Worth said:
I only have to find 3% to win your house? Hooha! Here's one: http://podbookreview.blogspot.com/2007/06/hard-copy-submissions.html

I don't see how this link is relevant. This person is doing critiques/reviews of POD'd works, not asking for sumbissions for an agency. Or am I missing something?

Nicole

ChaosTitan · Jul 20, 2007

White document box, bound with one of those monster rubber bands.

blacbird · Jul 20, 2007

NicoleMD said:
I don't see how this link is relevant. This person is doing critiques/reviews of POD'd works, not asking for sumbissions for an agency. Or am I missing something?

Excellent point.

caw

Scrawler · Jul 20, 2007

RLB said:
Why the blank pages? Just curious.

I don't know. Maybe because published books have a few blank sheets beginning and end and I'm wishfully thinking? Or I'm afraid if something got spilled on it/it got put on something wet, the blank sheets would soak it up before it got to the manuscript? It's a quirk I guess. :e2shrug:

blacbird · Jul 20, 2007

But how do you really know they're blank? Do you type on them, "This page left blank intentionally"?

caw

Julie Worth · Jul 20, 2007

NicoleMD said:
I don't see how this link is relevant. This person is doing critiques/reviews of POD'd works, not asking for sumbissions for an agency. Or am I missing something?

Nicole

A long while back I’d found a webpage of agent interviews, where the question of POD submissions was asked and answered by several agents, but now I can’t seem to find the right keywords. Anyway, here’s what one agent wrote me after I sent him a reading copy: “Thanks very much for the bound copy of [title]. Nice little promo tool! I haven't gotten to your ms yet, due to being very busy at the moment, but this handy reading copy will move you up in the pile!”

JanDarby · Jul 21, 2007

Just to counterbalance all the boxes a little, I've always used a Tyvek Priority Mail envelope. Free, and if you tape it to size, folding over the edges like wrapping a present, the papers won't shift around, and it's lighter (cheaper to mail), and the agent doesn't have to dispose of the box, just the smaller, lighter envelope.

JD

Scrawler · Jul 21, 2007

blacbird said:
But how do you really know they're blank? Do you type on them, "This page left blank intentionally"?

What is is?
There's a title page, and the last page says something like THE END. The pages sandwiched between have letters all over them, so I know.
It's my quirk and I'm sticking to it.

Ziljon · Jul 21, 2007

I use a box lined with a piece of 11x17 paper. The big sheet fits up and around the loose pages. Recipient easily lifts MS out of box using the 11x17 hammock.

Julie Worth · Jul 21, 2007

Ziljon said:
I use a box lined with a piece of 11x17 paper. The big sheet fits up and around the loose pages. Recipient easily lifts MS out of box using the 11x17 hammock.

This is a fine idea, since your MS may spend months idling in a corner of an office.

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