Agents: Attachment or cut & paste?

Cut and paste. Most agents won't open unsolicited attachments.

ChaosTitan said:

Cut and paste. Most agents won't open unsolicited attachments.

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This.

But if the agent asks for an attachment, you can use Word. Just make sure to save it as .doc instead of as a .docx because a lot of people aren't yet using the newer format.

Some of them block attachments, and never know you sent to them.

Actually, I've had that happen with requests.

4 months I waited once to find his spam filter did something to it

Cut and paste

It depends

Like the subject line states, it really depends on the agency. Most of the e-mail queries I fired over the wall were "cut and paste" from Word, including the ones that required 5, 10, 30 pages, first three chapters, etc. A couple I had to hand-type (query letter only, no pages). Only one actually listed they accepted attachments, so I don't count that as the norm. The vast majority of the sites I've seen list specifics for e-queries (i.e. "We accept .doc and .docx", "Use Courier New", "We like cookies", etc). If the instructions are vague, I'd be more inclined to cut and-paste over attach due to spam filters.

Unless an agent specifies that they want attachments, I'll ALWAYS paste into the mail. Always.

Unless the agent asks for attachments, I always copy and paste.

SusanL said:

Unless the agent asks for attachments, I always copy and paste.

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Whenever I cut and paste it always looks horrible. How do you format it so it's readable?

popmuze said:

Whenever I cut and paste it always looks horrible. How do you format it so it's readable?

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When you're writing the query letter in Word, write it single-spaced, double-spaces between paragraphs, and turn off Smart Quotes (it stops curly quotes from turning into crazy symbols when you paste). Should copy/paste just fine.

popmuze said:

Whenever I cut and paste it always looks horrible. How do you format it so it's readable?

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First put it in single space, and if you're using tab indents for new paragraphs, do a find for ^t and replace all with ^p

And, even if you're sending the same query to multiple agents (which you shouldn't be doing without a little personalizing anyway) DO NOT forward. It looks terrible.

Julie Worth said:

First put it in single space, and if you're using tab indents for new paragraphs, do a find for ^t and replace all with ^p

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So that means, when the agent says to submit ten pages, she has to read it all in single space?

So that means, when the agent says to submit ten pages, she has to read it all in single space?

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Yes -- with a double space between paragraphs.

rainsmom said:

Yes -- with a double space between paragraphs.

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This is why I don't like sending pages embedded in the query. It's unnatural.
I'd rather the agent reacted to the query. Then, if they request pages, I know they are interested in the concept. Also, I can then attach the pages in Word.

The other way, I don't know if it's the query or the pages they didn't like. Plus, it usually takes longer to get a response.