Hathor, if you want agent PM info, send me the name. I just got a subscription for this month.
And congrats on the request!
CV
And congrats on the request!
CV
The Daily Rejection
- Thread starter Devil Ledbetter
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Thanks. I was kinda hopin' for some of that there dancin' produce, though.
I have a PM membership and I'm not finding anything on her. Searched both the deals database and the entire site. Where are these four deals you mentioned, DJ?
Hathor - Congrats on the NoQS action!! I LOVED your query and first 250! 
Folks, help please:
I'm trying to figure out the best way to paste my manuscript's pages into email. I've started using Courier New because my email (Gmail) doesn't like Times Roman and messes up all the lines. In the past, I was stripping the text of all formatting, but one agency requires double-spaced text and I can't do that once I've stripped the formatting. (Plus, I figure most agencies prefer double-spaced text?)
But the problem with Courier is it's so BIG. Ten pages of Times Roman becomes about 15 of Courier. So do I shrink it down, or do I send fewer pages? A lot of agents request 10 pages and in Times that's exactly my first chapter but in Courier it's less.
Gah. Overthinking all this query stuff as usual. Anybody want to simplify this for me?
Folks, help please:
I'm trying to figure out the best way to paste my manuscript's pages into email. I've started using Courier New because my email (Gmail) doesn't like Times Roman and messes up all the lines. In the past, I was stripping the text of all formatting, but one agency requires double-spaced text and I can't do that once I've stripped the formatting. (Plus, I figure most agencies prefer double-spaced text?)
But the problem with Courier is it's so BIG. Ten pages of Times Roman becomes about 15 of Courier. So do I shrink it down, or do I send fewer pages? A lot of agents request 10 pages and in Times that's exactly my first chapter but in Courier it's less.
Gah. Overthinking all this query stuff as usual. Anybody want to simplify this for me?
Well my advice would be use Times instead of Courier. What exactly is it doing to mess up the lines?
I don't think anyone expects double-spaced text in emails, especially since many email clients don't do double-spacing well if at all. You just format it the same way you do here, single-spaced with double returns between paragraphs.
I don't think anyone expects double-spaced text in emails, especially since many email clients don't do double-spacing well if at all. You just format it the same way you do here, single-spaced with double returns between paragraphs.
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Hathor, good luck! Sending positive thoughts your way.
CatchV, welcome to our little corner of the interwebz. As DJ said, ten queries is nothing, not even a big enough sample to draw any conclusions. Keep going!
CatchV, welcome to our little corner of the interwebz. As DJ said, ten queries is nothing, not even a big enough sample to draw any conclusions. Keep going!
JJ, it doesn't do it every time apparently, because now it's not... But several times I tried, the lines got chopped into tiny pieces, some longer than others, with no apparent rhyme or reason.
I found an old thread in Google's forums complaining about something similar. Gmail's default font is san serif, and if you don't change the font, no font information is attached—so your email will show up in whatever default font the receiver's email client is set to use. But that takes a lot of trust that the agent will have theirs set up well.
You could try using an email application like Thunderbird instead of going through a browser window (I assume that's what you're doing). There's other apps, but Thunderbird will have access to all available fonts on your machine.
You could try using an email application like Thunderbird instead of going through a browser window (I assume that's what you're doing). There's other apps, but Thunderbird will have access to all available fonts on your machine.
Thanks, JJ. I appreciate all the help. I remember reading once, and perhaps it was from a Gmail tutorial or forum--or maybe it was on a querying thread--to always strip the formatting when sending emails. That may be old info for today's technology, but doing so makes me feel a bit safer. However, I don't like how it looks, and I have to go in and add italics where necessary, so I was hoping to find a solution.
It sounds like one answer it to change the font within my outgoing email to something other than Gmail's 'sans serif.'
And that is a positive with Courier New. It's widely recognized; even Gmail has it. But I much prefer Times, which isn't in Gmail (only 'serif'). 
I'm here: http://michelle4laughs.blogspot.com/2014/10/noqs-minion-13-seabound-ya-fantasy.html I found yours because I remembered something upthread about Persephone. It sounds awesome and congrats on the request!
RaggedEdge, that's a tough one. Stripping the formatting is the only way that's ever worked for me. The agency is really adamant about double spacing? Like, do you think they'd auto-reject you for it...or just overlook that if it was nicely formatted as single-spaced?
I would say use whatever the equivalent of 10 pages in Times would be, since that's the font agents are probably imagining when they say "ten pages."
Doh!
RE, not sure what the problem is. I paste my Times New Roman, double-spaced work into gmail all the time. I've never seen a problem with it or had anyone ever respond there was a problem with my submission (I single space the query and double space the chapters). Is it possible there's a problem in the Word doc itself, so it's carrying over crazy to gmail? Like you have extra carriage returns or characters at the end of lines, or something under the paragraph layout that's set that's messing up the copy/paste?
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Such self-control, Maramoser, not mentioning your request.
Your book sounds very interesting. I wish you continued luck, even if we are on different teams.
I wonder if there will be many requests in the next two days.
As far as Gmail is concerned, my problem with cut & paste is that I get additional lines inserted between paragraphs. But only sometimes. Yet I always format my documents the same way.
Your book sounds very interesting. I wish you continued luck, even if we are on different teams.
I wonder if there will be many requests in the next two days.
As far as Gmail is concerned, my problem with cut & paste is that I get additional lines inserted between paragraphs. But only sometimes. Yet I always format my documents the same way.
Krash, do you use MS Word 2010? That's the version I'm using.
Hathor, what I tend to notice is the opposite: some paragraphs are smashed together without a space, even though there's a space in the document.
Maramoser, congrats on your NoQS request! Your story sounds compelling (with shivers)!
Also, thanks for the input on the Gmail dilemma.
Thanks, Hathor -- PMing it to you now. I forgot that the Adult entries were due today (I'm YA). And congrats on the request!!
I've used both '07 and '10 and no problems with either.
You wanna send me the first chapter and I'll see if I can cut and paste it in cleanly and send it to you?
Thanks, krash.
I might take you up on that, although I'm not sure yet good it would do? Sometimes it has pasted cleanly for me too. But other times, no. More often, no.Tonight it's doing a new weird thing. Even with Courier. I paste my text in same as I did earlier in the day--from the same exact Word docs--but now it's adding an extra space between paragraphs. Like Hathor said.
So I experimented. I copied the document into Google Drive first (touchy-feeling Google connectedness, ooh!), and then into Gmail. And it liked that better, at least in Times (didn't try it with Courier).
Then I emailed that to my yahoo email, but it only liked it at 1.15 spacing. At single spacing the lines overlapped a little. At double spacing, the blank line between paragraphs was lost.
And even though I sent it in Times it showed up in some other font (the yahoo default, I suppose?).
Oy. This is ckahfekhaakfhevldconfusing.
So my best bet might be to copy everything into Google Drive, change it to Times with 1.15 spacing plus a blank line after each paragraph, and then copy into gmail. And hope for the best.
Until tomorrow, when it will decide to act up with yet another mutation...
Oh congrats! If you think the revision ideas are worth trying out, perhaps you can just send it with a kind note even though you didn't mention it in the email. Worst they can do is decline! The fact that you got detailed feedback is one step up on the rejection ladder.
Damn, RE, I know Word is bad for adding hidden formatting, but it's weird that it's not being consistent about it. I guess Google Drive is piling on with the formatting somehow. Maybe the formatting is changing based on the fonts in both apps.
The big problem is that you don't know what's happening on the receiving end of that email, you have no control over what their client may be doing to it. So I think sticking with stripping all formatting and single-spacing with extra returns between paragraphs is still probably the safest bet. Surely agents have dealt with enough email issues themselves to realize that email formatting is a tricky thing, and they won't mind simplicity. And if they do, they should request a full and read from a document instead of email.
The big problem is that you don't know what's happening on the receiving end of that email, you have no control over what their client may be doing to it. So I think sticking with stripping all formatting and single-spacing with extra returns between paragraphs is still probably the safest bet. Surely agents have dealt with enough email issues themselves to realize that email formatting is a tricky thing, and they won't mind simplicity. And if they do, they should request a full and read from a document instead of email.
Happy #NoQS Day 2!
I have a book club meeting in a couple of hours and then I plan on spending the day researching the Reconstructionist era and reading my NoQS mentee's ms.
Lonegungrrly - I'm waiting for NaNo to kick me in the butt, too... using this time to get psyched about my Shiny New Idea. What are you going to be writing?
Eliza - Bummer about the Rs
You can PM me your logline if you'd like; I probably won't get to it until this afternoon.
CatchVonnegut - Welcome! Pull up a chair! Have a cupcake.
We're actually *usually* pretty upbeat here, despite the name. Camaradarie in the trenches!
Maramoser -
I have a book club meeting in a couple of hours and then I plan on spending the day researching the Reconstructionist era and reading my NoQS mentee's ms.
Lonegungrrly - I'm waiting for NaNo to kick me in the butt, too... using this time to get psyched about my Shiny New Idea.
What are you going to be writing?Eliza - Bummer about the Rs
You can PM me your logline if you'd like; I probably won't get to it until this afternoon.
CatchVonnegut - Welcome! Pull up a chair! Have a cupcake.
Maramoser -
What can I say? I have mad google skillz.Where do you find these things?
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My Pitch/Page are turned in for Pitch Wars.
Now, to get my full manuscript in primo shape formatting-wise and finish my planning for Nano.
Now, to get my full manuscript in primo shape formatting-wise and finish my planning for Nano.
Happy #NoQS Day 2!
Lonegungrrly - I'm waiting for NaNo to kick me in the butt, too... using this time to get psyched about my Shiny New Idea.
I'm writing a YA contemporary ...mystery... I think? Sort of a YA version of Gillian Flynn's Dark Places where most of the book takes place in just 24 hours, and there is a lone survivor trying to figure out how their whole life unravelled in just one day. It's the first Boy YA (male protag, no romance) I've ever attempted. I'm excited! and woefully unprepared! haha what is your Nano Project??
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*peeks in*
Hi everyone! Good luck to everyone in NoQS and Pitch Wars, and happy almost-NaNo!
I'm going to be busy revising this month, but we'll all be bent over the computer screen. Going to a children's writing workshop in Big Sur in early December, so the prospect of having agents and editors see this MS in five weeks is a huge motivator!
Hi everyone! Good luck to everyone in NoQS and Pitch Wars, and happy almost-NaNo!
I'm going to be busy revising this month, but we'll all be bent over the computer screen.
Going to a children's writing workshop in Big Sur in early December, so the prospect of having agents and editors see this MS in five weeks is a huge motivator!- Status