E-query contact info: top or bottom?

jamiehall

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With a print query, I know my name, address, phone number etc. goes in a block at the very top of the page. But, with an e-query, is that information supposed to go at the top or the bottom? I've been given the impression that an e-query is just supposed to jump in with "Dear <agent name>" and thus the only place I see for the contact information to be is at the end. Or do I have it entirely wrong?
 

IceCreamEmpress

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At the end. That's the convention for business email.

After all, your email address is automatically at the top.
 

ORION

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well I really don't think it's a deal breaker but in my successful query I made it exactly like a business letter and put it at the top- my agent said it made it very easy to find - plus I pasted 5 pages at the bottom of the query so it might have been harder to locate my info if I had put it at the end...
 

IceCreamEmpress

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well I really don't think it's a deal breaker but in my successful query I made it exactly like a business letter and put it at the top- my agent said it made it very easy to find - plus I pasted 5 pages at the bottom of the query so it might have been harder to locate my info if I had put it at the end...


That's a good point right there. Okay, I'm switching my vote unless the query is less than 200 words long.
 

Danthia

I pasted my letter right in as is, with the info at the top. Quite a few had forms to fill out though, so it wasn't even a issue. I think it doesn't really matter as long as the query is good. No agent worth having is going to reject you for your name being in the "wrong" spot. (grin)
 

TrishD

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I agree with Danthia, I don't think it matters where your name is. But I also agree that putting at the top makes it very easy for the agent to find. I treated mine like a business letter, too, and put all my information before the Dear Agent.
 

astonwest

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With doing an e-query, wouldn't you just need to put in your name alone? Couldn't contact info go in the appropriate spot on anything you send in via regular mail later?
 

jamiehall

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With doing an e-query, wouldn't you just need to put in your name alone? Couldn't contact info go in the appropriate spot on anything you send in via regular mail later?

I'm pretty sure I've seen agents complain about e-queries without a mailing address or phone number. Perhaps it doesn't matter much if your partial has that information in the next step, but I'd rather not risk doing anything that might piss off agents.
 

RLSMiller

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I put my address/phone underneath the Sincerely bit, and then I put the sample pages after. My reasoning is that I want to catch their attention immediately with my hook. Those few precious seconds where they first open the email are important I think, and I don't want them to have to scroll through potentially unneccessary contact details, if it turns out the query doesn't grab them, to get to the meat of the email. By the time they read the query, they should know if the contact details are relevant or not.

I doubt it matters which way, but here's an alternative view.
 
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Carrie R.

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Ditto RLSMiller, I put my address phone right under my "signature" name. I didn't want to waste the first five lines of the e-query with boring stuff -- wanted the agent to be able to jump right into my query letter rather than scrolling. I wouldn't put the info at the VERY end of the email (after pages and stuff) because that would be hard to find. I formatted mine: query, "signature," contact info, pages, synopsis (depending on what each agent wanted).

Just think about how you would prefer to get an email and go with that -- I doubt it will be a dealbreaker (I say having stressed about this exact same thing before!).
 

Carmy

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I can't understand how putting my name and address at the top of an email would allow the agent to find the email faster. Surely most of us find mails by what is written in "Subject."

I place my info after Sincerely.