The thought of including my 400 page novel in the body of an email and not as an attachment sends me into fits of emotional angst. Am I actually expected to put my cursor at the beginning of my novel (typed in Word) and then go to the end of the work, hit shift, right click and hit copy (the work will all then blue) and then go to my email and go right click paste and feel comfortable that my entire novel is now resting comfortably in that email message?? Seriously? Please give me some words to help wrap my head around this. I would so much rather send in a paper rendition of my manuscript. Suppose I do the email thing, what does the agent do on her end? Does she read it directly off her computer? Does she print it up and then read it. I would love to get a mental picture of this very counter-intuitive process. If any of you could shed any light on this for me, I would be most appreciative. Lastly, If given the option of sending in a paper rendition of my manuscript, and I elect to go with that option, would that be so awful? Would that label me as old-fashioned and out of date? Thanks for any insights you could give me on this.
Body of email
- Thread starter Umgowa
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Did someone ask you to paste an entire novel into the body of an email? I've never heard of such a thing. You'd normally send it as an attachment. If someone did that, it's non-standard in my experience.
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Normally you would paste the sample pages (typically 5-10) in the body of the email with the query, but if the agent requests a full or partial, you would send that as an attachment. I have never heard of an agent requesting the entire novel to be pasted into the body of the email.
I've never heard of anyone wanting an entire manuscript in an email. That's insane.
If you have gmail, and you copy and paste from word, it formats it exactly as you have it, so if for some crazy reason they're making you do this, that could be a lifesaver. If you have gmail of course LOL.
If you have gmail, and you copy and paste from word, it formats it exactly as you have it, so if for some crazy reason they're making you do this, that could be a lifesaver. If you have gmail of course LOL.
What a relief to read your helpful responses. Someone told me that I might be requested to do that (Paste the entire novel into an email) and it seemed strange to me, so I initiated this post. As usual you were very helpful and validated my concerns that this was strange. Now for a follow-up and related question. An agent has given me a snail-mail option of mailing in a query, synopsis and first three chapters along with the second option of pasting them into the body of an email. By availing myself of the snail-mail, paper option, am I making myself look out-of-date and odd? I figure since the snail-mail, paper route was given to me as an option, how awful could it be to avail myself of that option? Any thoughts you could give me here would be most appreciated.
I would think that if the agent specifically mentioned the snail mail option to you, then s/he is just fine with you using it.
For all you and I know, the agent literally prints up paper copies of what is sent digitally and prefers "fiber media."
Maryn, who'd be pleased to mail paper if the agent was open to it
For all you and I know, the agent literally prints up paper copies of what is sent digitally and prefers "fiber media."
Maryn, who'd be pleased to mail paper if the agent was open to it
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Yeah, never heard of pasting a full novel into an email. It's fairly common to request the first 3 chapters and the like to be pasted in, but usually they request the novel as an attached file after that if they want to read the full manuscript. Quite a few people don't like to open unsolicited attachments on their PC, or just find it quicker when they can scan through an query and go straight into a story.
If they offer a snail mail option then it's fine if you want to do it that way. There is no way an agent will print out every submission - think of the cost in ink and the piles of paper they need to carry out to the recycling bins! Quite a few will prefer reading and taking notes on paper however (I certainly do).
If they offer a snail mail option then it's fine if you want to do it that way. There is no way an agent will print out every submission - think of the cost in ink and the piles of paper they need to carry out to the recycling bins! Quite a few will prefer reading and taking notes on paper however (I certainly do).
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I would just go with pasting them into the body of an e-mail. Three reasons: 1. I'm lazy, 2. Agent can download onto Kindle/phone/device of preference and read anywhere, and 3. If she wants to pass it on to colleagues or interns it's much easier to e-mail to them and they can then download onto THEIR device of preference instead of lugging around a bunch of papers everywhere.
Oh, and environmentally friendlier.
