my first query, and I blew it...

brendao · Nov 4, 2006

I emailed my first-ever query letter to an agent a couple of days ago. Upon reviewing it in my sent basket (because I'm obsessive like that) I found that it had hideous formatting errors throughout. Every apostrophe and dash had turned into a weird symbol with a tiny "TM" next to it.

I was horrified, of course. I guess the problem occurred from trying to cut and paste a word document into my email for some reason. After that, I emailed another agent from the list of five I'm starting off with, and I knew enough to type the query directly onto the composing screen.

What should I do about that first agent? Write it off as a learning experience? Send him the query again explaining in the subject line I'm resending due to formatting errors? Write him an email asking if I may resend the query?

ORION · Nov 4, 2006

I emailed my query to the agent that ultimately offered representation and it was full of those weird things that happen in cut and paste in emails. She read the query, asked for the full. I found out later (after she offered representation) that my mac needed the .doc after attachments and ALL my stuff was sent to her weird. The first few weeks working with her we straightened everything out and we now can do attachments back and forth fine. My point is she loved my query, loved my premise and loved my novel.
Agents that do email queries know this happens. If it makes you crazy email your friends and figure out a format that works for the rest of your queries but trust me if the agent likes your work they'll ask for it.
JMHO

jkorzenko · Nov 4, 2006

Orion's right, don't sweat it. And just as an fyi -- if you save the document as a .txt file -- then copy and paste, it'll work just fine. I always save mine to draft and make sure it's formatted correctly before hitting the send button. Because I'm obsessive like that.

brendao · Nov 4, 2006

That's great advice about saving it to draft first. I learned something new today. Thanks for responding Orion and jkorzenko.

Carmy · Nov 4, 2006

Word is a pain in the rear!

Usually, I copy whatever it is to WordPad, save as .rtf, and then copy from there to mailbox or site. Apparently, .rtf is compatible with all word processors.

Try it to see if it works for you.

RainbowDragon · Nov 5, 2006

Why not send the query again with a BRIEF explanation and apology if it's a duplicate. That way you'll know the agent knows you know what happened and you'll know the agent knows you're a competent and courteous writer? That or send it via snail-mail and explain there may have been a problem with the e-query you sent.

stormie · Nov 5, 2006

As the others have said, don't worry. An agent one time had trouble reading what I cut and pasted, and emailed me asking that I redo it by saving it as plain text. No problem. They realize that these things happen.

JohnB1988 · Nov 5, 2006

A second caution:

Word lets you send e-mails directly with its send feature. BUT--If you use it, even just for one page, it will (without telling you) include an attachment. It’s blank, but probably contains formatting info or something.

For many agents just the presence of an attachment on the e-mail is an automatic delete. So it’s best to use the cut and paste method, even if you have to mutter things about Bill’s parentage.

stormie · Nov 6, 2006

JohnB1988 said:
A second caution:

Word lets you send e-mails directly with its send feature. BUT--If you use it, even just for one page, it will (without telling you) include an attachment. It’s blank, but probably contains formatting info or something.

Yeah, what's with that useless feature?

And one other thing: Send it to yourself, first, before hitting the send button to an agent. You'll see if it comes out okay.

brendao · Nov 6, 2006

All great advice, thanks. I've got a version saved in draft in my email program. I'm going to send it to myself right now and make sure it's OK.

Maybe this thread will spare others from making the same mistake.

Maprilynne · Nov 6, 2006

Seriously Brenda, email them back with a brief apology and new copy of the query. I did the same thing with the first three e-mails I sent out and upon re-sending, recieved two requests for partials. (one a day after recieving a rejeciton for the messed up one, so I KNOW it helped.)

Maprilynne

brendao · Nov 6, 2006

OK, Maprilynne, I took your advice and resent with a sentence explaining and apologizing. Now I'll stop thinking about it and move on. Today I sent a query elsewhere with the first chapter pasted into the body, using rich text, and it worked fine. So I've learned from my mistake, at least...

And I just now received two freelance magazine assignments via email, so I'm hoping that will keep my mind from obsessing over the replies.

Maprilynne · Nov 6, 2006

You can also e-mail things to yourself to make sure they turn out alright before you email them to agents. That has saved me more times than I can count.
Good Luck!

Maprilynne

kuatolives · Nov 6, 2006

They might not have received it as a jumble. It depends on the mail program and how they interpret line breaks and special formatting.

So, even sending something to yourself won't necessarily reveal how they received it.

I wouldn't email them back. I'm sure the parasites get a hundred emails a day, so they are aware of formatting issues.

aruna · Nov 7, 2006

I once put an equery together form a variety of sources: typed into gmail, pasted from other equeries, and from Word. It looked fine, and I sent it to Ethan Ethelberg. I was horrified to see, once it had left, that the copy left on my gmail has half black and half purple - randomly. I have since discoveerd that gmail tends to do that if you paste bits together.
Since then I always send it to myself first to make sure it's OK.
EE never replied to that query.

Kasey Mackenzie · Nov 8, 2006

aruna said:
I once put an equery together form a variety of sources: typed into gmail, pasted from other equeries, and from Word. It looked fine, and I sent it to Ethan Ethelberg. I was horrified to see, once it had left, that the copy left on my gmail has half black and half purple - randomly. I have since discoveerd that gmail tends to do that if you paste bits together.
Since then I always send it to myself first to make sure it's OK.
EE never replied to that query.

It's a good idea to always select all the text and manually format it inside gmail to make sure it's the color/font type/font size you want it to be. I've discovered that the hard way! =)

GeneBrighton · Nov 10, 2006

Word test copy worked, will agent's copy?

JohnB1988 said:
A second caution:

Word lets you send e-mails directly with its send feature. BUT--If you use it, even just for one page, it will (without telling you) include an attachment. It’s blank, but probably contains formatting info or something.

For many agents just the presence of an attachment on the e-mail is an automatic delete. So it’s best to use the cut and paste method, even if you have to mutter things about Bill’s parentage.

I sent the first copy to myself from word as a test and saw no attachment. But, does this mean what was sent to the agent was sent without an attachment?

my first query, and I blew it...

brendao

ORION

Sailed away years ago

jkorzenko

brendao

Carmy

RainbowDragon

Perpetuous Revisasaurus

stormie

storm central

JohnB1988

stormie

storm central

brendao

Maprilynne

Author Waiting in the Wings

brendao

Maprilynne

Author Waiting in the Wings

kuatolives

Gonzo Journalist

aruna

On a wing and a prayer

Kasey Mackenzie

One Hit Wonder?

GeneBrighton