The dreaded white space

cswayden · Aug 6, 2010

Okay, here's a question for all. I just read on an agent's blog that she hates the white space. What she means is by pasting your query into your email, the spaces don't translate well. And I've seen it before with some of the rejections I've got I can see that there are four or five spaces between paragraphs.

So my question is: Do you retype every single query to every agent you submit to? Every agent knows that the majority of writers are sending out their queries to as many as possible. So I guess, to make it look formal and correct, am I to type my query over and over? Any help would be appreciated and if this doesn't make sense, chock it up to lack of sleep and story arcs that are driving me nuts.

lmcguire · Aug 6, 2010

This problem usually comes from pasting from MS Word into Outlook. Try pasting into Notepad, then copying (yes, re-copy) from Notepad into the email editor. NOTE: You will lose formatting like bold, underline, font, etc. But you won't have to re-type and you won't end up with a strangely formatted email... Liz

shaldna · Aug 6, 2010

Or you could paste in Rich Text format, which solves all manner of issues with formating.

cswayden · Aug 6, 2010

Rich text format, cool. I didn't know about that. Great tip, thanks!

cate townsend · Aug 6, 2010

Paste from a text program, fix as needed, then save it as a draft in your email program so you don't have to paste the letter every time you want to send it out.

Ryan_Sullivan · Aug 6, 2010

If there's an easy fix, like the ones above, that works, go for it. But, don't stress. They're not going to reject you over format--and if they do, is that really somebody you could work with long-term? I couldn't.

cswayden · Aug 7, 2010

Those are some awesome ideas, thanks. And I agree with you Ryan but maybe this is desperation but I just want to do everything in my power to get on their good side for possible representation. I know the majority are looking at the writing, the work, will it sell, etc. but still, there are those out there that are sticklers and if that is something they hate well I don't want to get the form rejection just because I didn't take the extra step in having it look right. Just my thoughts.

Jamesaritchie · Aug 7, 2010

lmcguire said:
This problem usually comes from pasting from MS Word into Outlook. Try pasting into Notepad, then copying (yes, re-copy) from Notepad into the email editor. NOTE: You will lose formatting like bold, underline, font, etc. But you won't have to re-type and you won't end up with a strangely formatted email... Liz

If you have both MS Word and Outlook, you never have to cut and paste anything, ever. Outlook is designed to use MS Word as the e-mail editor, if you set it up this way, as writers should.

You actually send your e-mail directly through MS Word. When set up this way, outlook sends the e-mail as perfectly formatted .rtf.

You can also set Outlook to use Word as the e-mail editor for any e-mail. I haven't used cut and paste for years.

Corinne Duyvis · Aug 7, 2010

A lot of agents don't want RTF emails, though. They prefer plain text. Much less chance of wonky formatting that way. Keep in mind that agents read their e-mails in various different ways, some even via their phone, and you want to make sure your query looks good on all of them.

What I do is add underscores around all my italicized phrase, C&P my pages into GMail, then use the "strip formatting" function. Works perfectly. And then I just keep C&Ping the result.

The dreaded white space

cswayden

lmcguire

shaldna

The cake is a lie. But still cake.

cswayden

cate townsend

Ryan_Sullivan

Agented YA Writer

cswayden

Jamesaritchie

Corinne Duyvis

My New Cat Is Too Big for Shoulders