It won't fit

I usually put that in the body of the letter.

probably should trim the synopsis -- make it 'wow' / condense... hell, condense everything, unless you have a hell of a bio...

ccarver30 said:

Ok, I trimmed and added a few lines in to one. Thanks! Now: to decide where the third chapter ends (agency requests first 3 chapters).

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good goin'!! good luck!

ccarver30 said:

Now: to decide where the third chapter ends (agency requests first 3 chapters).

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Right before the fourth chapter begins?

Condense the hell out of the query! The shorter the better, IMO. Three quarters of a page, if you can.

Carver, you never did explain what you meant about needing to find where the third chapter ended. Didn't you divide your novel up into chapters when you were writing or during a rewrite?

ccarver30 said:

The stupid closing/signature is on page 2. Since this will be sent via snail mail, I feel the need to have the agency address at the top and have just the ususal headers: title, word count, hook, synopsis, bio, contact info, and genre. Could I combine the title and word count in one line??

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Why not combine title, genres and word count all in one line?

The Greatest Story is a 120,000-word thriller.


And why include your contact info? It should already be in your letterhead.

The hook and synopsis should be combined, and the synopsis shouldn't be more than two paragraphs. Keep the credentials short and sweet.

ccarver30 said:

LOL - My entire novel is not broken out in to chapters AT ALL, smarty pants!
I guessed and gave them the first 21 pages- I ended it at a very juicy part. We'll see what happens...

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Good luck.

Since I'm not great at condensing, I just make the font print really really small.

CoriSCapnSkip said:

Since I'm not great at condensing, I just make the font print really really small.

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I sure hope you're joking.

aadams73 said:

I sure hope you're joking.

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My agent won't read anything that's not in 12pt. TNR or Arial. I had a novel writing instructor who said Courier New as the "in" thing...jeeze was he wrong. The big "however" - it is best to find out what font is acceptable to the agent/publisher/editor.

I put title, genre, and word count all in one sentence. In an email, I don't include the agency's mailing information in the "letter," but I most definitely include mine, at the end, after my name.

Don't use arial font, even if the agent will accept it. It takes up more room than Times New Roman.

In the past I've had to squeeze the margins just a teeny bit to get things to fit. As long as its not obvious and the agent doesn't measure them with a ruler it should be OK.

Just a question. I personally prefer Garamond to Times New Roman for my own work and correspondence, although I submit to whatever rules people make about fonts. Garamond is just a readable as TNR and it takes less room. Do you think that agents can really tell if it's TNR or Garamond, if they're just seeing it on paper?

dub said:

My agent won't read anything that's not in 12pt. TNR or Arial. I had a novel writing instructor who said Courier New as the "in" thing...jeeze was he wrong. The big "however" - it is best to find out what font is acceptable to the agent/publisher/editor.

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TNR 12 is best for queries, but Courier 12 IS the standard for manuscripts. Always has been, always will be, most likely. An agent who doesn't know this is not an agent I'd trust.

The trouble with many agents is that they aren't editors, and too many have no clue what editors want.

To address K1P1's question

This is Times New Roman
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
Abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789

This is Garamond
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
Abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789

It does seem a bit more 'squished'. Maybe an agent won't notice, but why take the chance? Its hard enough to get a positive response from an agent, no point adding another reason for rejection.

K1P1 said:

Just a question. I personally prefer Garamond to Times New Roman for my own work and correspondence, although I submit to whatever rules people make about fonts. Garamond is just a readable as TNR and it takes less room. Do you think that agents can really tell if it's TNR or Garamond, if they're just seeing it on paper?

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TNR is the standard for queries, and it's hard enough to read at 12. Garamond can cause eye strain. Better to go bigger than smaller.

An agent probably won't say, "Hmmm, this must be Garamond," but an agent might say, "Damn, I must need glasses." She might also puts your query down and pick up one that's easier to read.

Brevity should not come from the font you use, but from writing fewer words.

Trust me on this, while TNR is the standard, the only reason this is so is because darned near every word processor put out has traditionally been defaulted to TNR. This was because, at the time, TNR was the best font there was for scholars, scientists, and university/college work. Word processors were not developed with fiction writers as the primary users.

Any agent that turns down a query because it's written in a large, easy to read font other than TNR is an idiot, but a font even smaller and tighter than TNR is never a good choice.

K1P1 said:

Do you think that agents can really tell if it's TNR or Garamond, if they're just seeing it on paper?

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Yes. They may not be able to name the font, but they will know it's not TNR. It looks different.

Jamesaritchie said:

TNR 12 is best for queries, but Courier 12 IS the standard for manuscripts. Always has been, always will be, most likely. An agent who doesn't know this is not an agent I'd trust.

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JAR, the world-is-a-changin' and because so many submissions are made electronically these days, more and more agents and editors are starting to prefer TNR over Courier. Before computers, before technology, manuscripts were not always submitted in Courier, but in a standard-size, monospace font like courier. Before typewriters, they were written by hand, sometimes with a quill and parchment.

Nothing is always. Nothing is forever. Changes have and will happen.

aadams73 said:

I sure hope you're joking.

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Making small margins works wonders, too, but the font trick is the real deal.

Dude? Agents hate the small font trick. It's extremely frowned upon.