When querying

[Diviner]

When querying and enclosing the first five pages or first three chapters or whatever they ask for, should I start page one half way down the page as if it were a whole manuscript being submitted or is it OK to start at the top? Which is the more professional? Should it be double-spaced or is 1.5 OK?

Also, some have advised that the synopsis should be complete and others say not to tell the end. Is there a difference for a brief synopsis and a longer one?

One agent I am contacting asked for only a single page. How can they tell anything about the writing on that basis?

I find this whole process mysterious and painful, but I imagine that makes me no different from anyone else.

[James D. Macdonald]

When querying and enclosing the first five pages or first three chapters or whatever they ask for, should I start page one half way down the page as if it were a whole manuscript being submitted or is it OK to start at the top? Which is the more professional? Should it be double-spaced or is 1.5 OK?

Start half-way down the page. Double space.

Also, some have advised that the synopsis should be complete and others say not to tell the end. Is there a difference for a brief synopsis and a longer one?

A longer synopsis is ... longer. Tell the end. How else will they know that you have one?


One agent I am contacting asked for only a single page. How can they tell anything about the writing on that basis?

You'd be surprised.


I find this whole process mysterious and painful, but I imagine that makes me no different from anyone else.

You get over it.

[Diviner]

Thank you, Uncle Jim. Such quick, complete answers!