Can't believe it

Isa_Halley

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I'm devastated.

I was editing my query the other day. Just adding something new and it 'ate' the word 'is' and I sent it like that to some agents!!!!!

To make it worse. I did the same with my sample text....while editing....'in the edit' - there's a mistake.

As far as I know these would be it. 2 typos/mistakes



What do you think?

Will I come across as terribly unprofessional? God only knows how much time I spent on polishing it and editing - only to fall flat on my face during the final step.
Maybe I'm just really really tired of the whole process now. Read it all over and over AGAIN so many times.

Grateful for your thoughts on this.

Thanks
 

Laurasaurus

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Unless the missing word somehow changed the meaning of the sentence in a horrifically unfortunate way, or made it completely indecipherable, I wouldn't worry too much over it. I don't think it's a disaster! Agents know typos can happen to anyone.
 

Aggy B.

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You've seen it now so you can fix it for all the subsequent queries.
Typos happen. I know it seems terribly devastating, but it's probably not nearly as bad as you think. (The rest is legible, I assume, which is a huge leg up on 90% of the queries that agents get. And as long as you don't have dozens of typos you're probably fine. [I once sent a pitch/query to a publisher and spelled the MC's name two different ways in both the pitch and in the synopsis. >_< He still asked to look at it and told me later it was one of the best queries he'd ever gotten.])
Deep breaths.
In general, because this is a process that tends to make ones eyes glaze over it's usually a good idea to let things sit for a day or two and/or ask someone else with an eye for errors look through something after you make changes. But it does happen to all of us. (When I send a MS to my agent, I always send a second version after he's said "Yes, this is great. I'll start sending it out soon," that has more of the little tiny errors cleaned up. Because I always find extra spaces/missing words/homonyms/typos on a reread. But I need a little time to be able to go through and find them.)
In other words, don't panic. It should be fine.
 

Old Hack

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I sent out a query with two typos in it--in the first para of the letter--and it still landed me an agent.

It's best to avoid typos but mistakes happen. It won't be enough to put an agent off a brilliant book. Try not to worry.
 

s_nov

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Somehow, one round of queries had a typo in the literal first sentence of the query and I still got requests. I think that as long as it's not riddled with other obvious typos, you should be okay! Just take a deep breath, fix it for the next round, and keep going.
 

lizmonster

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Mine had a basic grammatical error I didn't catch until I already had a bunch of partial & full requests. Agents have been known to make typos themselves - they know we're all human. Hang in there.
 

Kats

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Yep, it happens. I just realized that a query I sent last week is missing a full stop between two sentences, making it a super long, run on sentence that's hard to understand. But I got a request from that query! Don't worry about it - fix it up for your next queries and move on.
 

Isa_Halley

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Thanks so so much for all responses Guys :Hug2:. I really feel better now. I wanted it to be perfect but as we know even with best intentions something can slip through the net!
 

D.L. Shepherd

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Don't stress too much, just fix it for the next ones.
I once sent a query to an agent named "Brian," and after sending it, I realized I wrote "Brain."
He asked for a full!
 

Isa_Halley

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Thanks so much!! I think calling someone BRAIN - is quite flattering ;)
 

Pisco Sour

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Don't stress; yes, it's annoying and you won't make the same mistake again. I have learned that if an agent/editor likes the voice/tone/story they don't care about typos. Eg. The 'full' ms I sent out to agents who requested was full--and I mean full--of typos, missing words, weird stuff I later scratched my head about... really quite embarrassing. (long story but I had to re-write the book after computer died, in record speed). Regardless, I had multiple offers on that book.