formatting problems with sample pages

ArtsyAmy · Aug 26, 2016

I'm wondering about two things regarding cutting and pasting sample pages of the manuscript into the query letter. When agents' submission guidelines say to include the first five pages by pasting them into the query letter (not as an attachment), I simply copy the pages from the Word 10 document, and paste them into my Gmail message, below my name and contact information. Should I be doing things differently?

When I cut and paste the sample pages, I lose my header, which has my last name, title of the novel, and the page number. So, the pages pasted into the emailed query do not have page numbers. One of the agents I'm interested in querying said in an interview that one of her query pet peeves is a lack of pagination. I tried different ways to manually add page numbers after cutting and pasting pages, but weird spacing things happened. Is including page numbers for pasted sample pages standard? If so, any suggestions for how I can make it work?

Also, the archives from a few years back suggest not simply cutting and pasting pages, but taking some additional formatting steps to avoid potential wonkiness when the recipient receives the email. (I ran tests by sending query letters to myself, and the formatting looks fine, but of course, I don't know what the agents' received email will look like.) Is this still a problem these days, or has technology improved in recent years, enabling the email to look the same to the recipient as it does to the sender?

Thanks so much for any help on this.
-Amy

Marissa D · Aug 26, 2016

If agents are getting shirty over not having pagination in sample pages pasted into an email, they're out of touch with reality. I don't think there's a way to preserve headers and pagination when doing a cut and paste. Of course, if they request pages as an attachment, then they should absolutely be properly formatted. But for 5 or 10 sample pages? Don't worry about it.

If you want to make very sure that no formatting weirdness happens when cutting and pasting from a word doc into an email, paste your text into Notepad first, which will strip out all formatting that might create wonkiness. You can do some reformatting there (adding spaces between paragraphs or indenting the beginnings of paragraphs) then copy that into your email (and make sure you save it in Notepad to use for the next query.)

EMaree · Aug 26, 2016

Page numbers would look horrifically messy on a below-the-signature sample pages. I have no idea what that agent was imagining.

Quickbread · Aug 26, 2016

Perhaps that agent is referring to partial and full submissions lacking page numbers rather than email queries.

Myrealana · Aug 26, 2016

If you have Word, do you also have Outlook with your Office package?

I connected my full version of Outlook to my Gmail account. I find Outlook far easier to work with as far as formatting my submissions than gmail, though I still don't put in page breaks, or headers. Maybe that particular agent requests chapters/synposis in an attachment? Some do.

ArtsyAmy · Aug 26, 2016

Thanks so much for the help. Myrea, I will look into Outlook--seems that might work great for me. The particular agent does ask for sample pages to be pasted into the query, but I suppose it's possible that at the time of the interview her submission guidelines called for pages as an attachment?

Thanks again. Rep points for all!
-Amy

WeaselFire · Aug 27, 2016

ArtsyAmy said:
I simply copy the pages from the Word 10 document, and paste them into my Gmail message, below my name and contact information. Should I be doing things differently?

Paste as plain text.

ArtsyAmy said:
One of the agents I'm interested in querying said in an interview that one of her query pet peeves is a lack of pagination.

Pagination in the query or in the sample? If the sample, attach it, don't paste it as text. If the query, mail the query printed on paper, email has no pagination.

ArtsyAmy said:
Is this still a problem these days, or has technology improved in recent years, enabling the email to look the same to the recipient as it does to the sender?

Email as text, not HTML and your problems go away.

Jeff

Derimed · Sep 4, 2016

I had a similar problem with my query's 5 sample pages... if it's okay to ask in here. I did the standard 12 point font, Times New Roman, double spaced, etc., but on the body of the gmail email it auto-reformatted more like 1.5 space and 10 point font. I sadly didn't notice this and sent the query... but when I went back and repasted the 1.5 space and 10 point font-looking stuff back into Word -- it came out as 12 point font, Times New Roman, etc. It looked as 5.5 pages instead of 5 because the reformat created very large spaces between paragraphs. Is the agent going to care about this, or is this more to be expected? The agent I submitted to is a superstar agent, so I am not exactly holding my breath on him having a lack of material from other writers. Thanks in advance for your help.

Thedrellum · Sep 5, 2016

Derimed, in my experience the agent isn't going to care about something small like that, so don't stress over it.

And good luck with your submissions.

mayqueen · Sep 5, 2016

I think as long as the sample pages pasted into the email are readable, there's nothing to stress over. Standard formatting is important when/if you get to the submitting partials and fulls stage, but in that case, you have the benefit of formatting in Word and then possibly converting to PDF, depending on the agent's guidelines.

In Gmail, you can use the "remove formatting" option as well. Just select all, click on "formatting options," and then "remove formatting." (It looks like Tx.)

Derimed · Sep 14, 2016

Thank you both for answering my question! I am sorry I didn't see the replies until today, I wasn't able to access the site for a while.

formatting problems with sample pages

ArtsyAmy

Marissa D

Scribe of the girls in the basement

EMaree

a demon for tea

Quickbread

Myrealana

I aim to misbehave

ArtsyAmy

WeaselFire

Benefactor Member

Derimed

Thedrellum

Grr. Argh.

mayqueen

practical experience, FTW

Derimed