Submitted Full Manscript with some overlooked formatting errors

I second apologizing with a brief explanation and re-sending the ms with the correct formatting.

Missus Akasha said:

I received my first full manuscript request from literally my dream agent and so (of course) I sent it off. However, when I was rereading the submitted version of my manuscript today, I realized the formatting for the five chapter headings and the position of where the chapter begins are very uneven. One of them is literally, the chapter title at the bottom of one page and the beginning of the actually chapter on the next page. Some of the chapter headings are on the same page as the ending of a previous chapter when it should be on a different page altogether. Needless to say, I am absolutely mortified at this overlook.

It most likely happened because I changed the margins, but my question is: does manuscript formatting errors affect your chances?

Should I send her an email with the appropriately formatted manuscript or just give her be and wait?

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It's difficult to know what's best to do here but if the agent seems approachable and kind (and most are), then you have nothing to lose by sending a brief apology and a reformatted work.

I don't think this happened because you changed your margins, by the way: if you've formatted this properly that shouldn't affect things too badly. It's probably because you've not used a page-break to start each new chapter and have instead used carriage returns. Try working with styles in Word in future, and you should have a lot less of this sort of thing happen.

ETA: Formatting errors aren't likely to affect your chances of this agent taking your work further. And if they do, would you want to work with an agent who didn't allow for such things? Don't worry.

remister said:

I second apologizing with a brief explanation and re-sending the ms with the correct formatting.

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I vote this idea too.

The position of a chapter heading on the page is a minor enough error that I, personally, wouldn't bother sending a correction. It's not likely to knock the agent's flow off too greatly, and it won't change their enjoyment of your manuscript.

Missus Akasha said:

I always start a chapter on a new page, isn't that a page break?

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Page breaks are a really cool software feature that means your chapters will always start on a new page. In Word on Microsoft Windows, you can do a page break with Ctrl+Enter -- if you test it out by typing Ctrl+Enter Chapter 4 in a new document, you'll see it puts that line to the top of the next page. If you go back a page and write a bunch of text to spill over onto your nice clean Chapter 4 page, the page break will jump onto a brand new page.

It's life-changing once you get used to it!

Carriage returns basically mean hitting the enter key, which is how a lot of people get the chapter headings spaced out nicely without page breaks.

EMaree said:

In Word on Microsoft Windows, you can do a page break with Ctrl+Enter -- if you test it out by typing Ctrl+Enter Chapter 4 in a new document, you'll see it puts that line to the top of the next page.

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And for Word on the Mac, it's Shift-Fn-Enter.