I'm about to send off a query letter to an agent who says to include the first five pages of the manuscript. While I'm aware manuscript submittals are always double spaced, how about those first-five pages with queries. Five double-spaced doesn't seem like enough words to get a flavor. Anyone have experience with this?
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You'd be surprised at how little it takes for them to get a flavor. They can tell in the first paragraph if you can write and if your story is actually starting.
I used to think the same thing, that five pages wasn't enough to get a feel for my writing. I've since changed my mind. Those first five pages are plenty. Readers picking a book up at the bookstore will often judge based on fewer pages than this. If you can't draw someone in here, then chances are they're not going to read much further. I think this is part of the agent's thinking, and remember that this is just the beginning. If they like those five pages they'll request more.
I used to, too, when I was a new writer. Saved me expensive paper, and who could tell the difference?
Once I got to be an editor, those 1.5-spaced manuscripts used to drive me crazy. No room to write comments, no way to make a quick assessment of word-count (double-spaced pages are usually about 250 words each), and it just looked WRONG. Double space everything, if it's prose, unless it's a synopsis, in which case, single-spacing and present-tense is always my preference.
Man, you must have big handwriting! ;-)
Actually those are all good points; though from the dumb writer perspective I'm not sure why word count on the first 5 pages matters.
My assessment of the first 5 pages always was, "it's not to see if I'm good it's to make sure I don't suck."
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I could BE your editor.
I want double-spaces. I will always want double-spaces.
I am on to the 1.5 spacing. It doesn't work.
Good writing will grab my attention in 1,200 words.
Adding another 800 words to the sample just tells me the writer can't follow directions.
If you don't have an interesting enough hook for your beginning, then trim the fat and start things in a more compelling spot.
I want to see a bit of writing that will distract me from a subway full of muggers and cause me to miss my stop home. Do that and I WILL want to see the rest of your work!
Good luck!
I want double-spaces. I will always want double-spaces.
I am on to the 1.5 spacing. It doesn't work.
Good writing will grab my attention in 1,200 words.
Adding another 800 words to the sample just tells me the writer can't follow directions.
If you don't have an interesting enough hook for your beginning, then trim the fat and start things in a more compelling spot.
I want to see a bit of writing that will distract me from a subway full of muggers and cause me to miss my stop home. Do that and I WILL want to see the rest of your work!
Good luck!
I have to chime in and agree that you can tell when a writer is using 1.5 spacing. I teach a fiction class and I always say, right in the first class, that submissions should be double spaced and someone always submits something that's 1.5. It's irritating because I feel like the writer is trying to trick me, and if I feel that way, I can't imagine how an editor would feel who is reading hundreds or thousands of submissions.
BTW, I am not condoning the 1.5 spacing, I'm just saying that's what I happened to do. I was young (well younger) and naive. It wasn't meant to be a trick. I just wrote everything in 1.5 spacing back then as it saved paper when I printed it out. I somehow manged to survive.
But yes, it is much better to double space those first 5 pages.
But yes, it is much better to double space those first 5 pages.
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Most agents want them included in the body of the email and, in order to make that work, you have to single space with a blank line between paragraphs - and don't indent.
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