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I've got two schools of thought about this. One is that agents are reading query letters on mobile devices, and so they might tend to read less of a query letter. At that same time however, most agents I've found in my research are asking for a synopsis and a 5 to 50 page sample as part of their guidelines.
I'm wondering if they're basically asking for partials because so many people spend so much time revising and crafting a query letter that you can really hide a dog manuscript with a good query letter. Maybe asking for a partial and a synopsis cuts down on the number of submissions they receive?
So I've started thinking about my own novel and how my query letter has probably gone through forty drafts or so while my manuscript has only been revised three times. I wonder if we "Pre-published" authors should revise our manuscripts more and polish the query less? With so many agents effectively asking for partials as part of their submission process the chances are better at least your first couple of paragraphs will get read. I'd bet a passable query will get the agent to look at the first page of your book, and I'd say the first 250 words of your book stand a better chance of selling your manuscript than the 250 words of your query.
Any thoughts? Or maybe it's just that I'm researching YA agents, and it could just be that agents who represent that particular genre that makes de facto partial requests.
I'm wondering if they're basically asking for partials because so many people spend so much time revising and crafting a query letter that you can really hide a dog manuscript with a good query letter. Maybe asking for a partial and a synopsis cuts down on the number of submissions they receive?
So I've started thinking about my own novel and how my query letter has probably gone through forty drafts or so while my manuscript has only been revised three times. I wonder if we "Pre-published" authors should revise our manuscripts more and polish the query less? With so many agents effectively asking for partials as part of their submission process the chances are better at least your first couple of paragraphs will get read. I'd bet a passable query will get the agent to look at the first page of your book, and I'd say the first 250 words of your book stand a better chance of selling your manuscript than the 250 words of your query.
Any thoughts? Or maybe it's just that I'm researching YA agents, and it could just be that agents who represent that particular genre that makes de facto partial requests.