Young Person's Guide to Publishing

Traditional Publishing -- Step 4: Format your query package

Before you submit your query package, you need to ensure everything is formatted correctly and professionally. (And spell-checked. Dear God, spell check!)

The Manuscript

The manuscript needs to be in a single file saved in .doc or .docx format. Not PDF or other format. This site will give you the details about how to format your document:

http://www.shunn.net/format/novel.html

The general requirements are:

--12 pt. Times New Roman or Courier font, black only

--1 inch margins

--Double spaced text

--Indent the first line of each paragraph

--No extra space between paragraphs

--Cover page with title and your contact information

--Your name/Title/Page number in the upper right corner of each page, beginning with the first page of the story

--Begin each chapter about 1/3 of the way down the page.

You may hate the way your story looks when formatted this way. You may prefer a different font or even have the skill to make your manuscript look like a printed book.

Don't. This is the way professionals format their manuscripts. Agents and publishers want to work with professionals.

Email queries

The vast majority of your queries will be sent over email. Only a small number of agents and publishers accept only snail mail these days, and it's considerably cheaper, easier, and faster to work by email. Honestly, unless you really, really, really want to work with a particular person who accepts only snail mail, I would put all those people at the bottom of my submission list.

Subject line: Query: BOOK TITLE

Start the email with Dear {Person's Name}. Skip a line, and then begin the body of your query. Your query should be single spaced. Do not indent the first line of each paragraph, and do skip a line between paragraphs.

After the body of the query, skip a line, and sign "Sincerely, {Your Name}." Put your phone number beneath your name.

Now, check your spreadsheet to see what the agent or publisher wants you to send in your query package. If the agent or publisher wants you to include pages or a synopsis, these are pasted into the email. They are NOT attachments.

NEVER send an unsolicited attachment. NEVER.

The synopsis and pages will be formatted much like the query -- single spaced, no paragraph indent, extra line between paragraphs.

PROFESSIONAL TIP: You probably have your query, synopsis, and manuscript saved in Word or similar word-processing program. Instead of copying and pasting from your word-processing program directly into email, paste into Notepad first. Format in Notepad (and save for the next query package!), and then copy and paste from Notepad into email.

Why? Because word-processing programs have lots of back-end code that can be problematic when pasted into email. It may look great on your end but have a lot of weird characters that make it virtually unreadable on their end.

Notepad is a "plain text" program. That means it will strip away all the special characters and formatting and back-end coding. Your email will then be clean and simple and readable -- exactly what agents and publishers are looking for.

ANOTHER PROFESSIONAL TIP: Sometimes a publisher's or agent's submission page says only "Send a query" and doesn't specify that you should add pages or a synopsis. Unless the submission explicitly says NOT to include pages, paste the first five pages of your manuscript below your query anyway.

Printed query packages

Fortunately, printed query packages are rare. This site has a lovely breakdown of how to format your query and synopsis, what size envelopes to use, and so forth:

http://www.agentquery.com/format_tips.aspx

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Did this chapter answer a question you had? It would be great if you would press that little star graphic in the top right corner. If not, just carry on reading and vote for one you find more helpful. Oh, I'd be happy to answer your questions in the comments below, as well. --XG