Pasting Pages into Email

cwbrowning · Apr 24, 2012

I have what is probably a really stupid question, but this is driving me insane! When I paste the requested pages into the email for the query, the pages from my manuscript paste in without the indents to signal a new paragraph. Instead, there is a space between paragraphs. I spent about two hours messing with the email formatting (I use gmail) and copying it all onto notepad, ripping out all formatting, correcting it in notepad, and then pasting it back in. Nothing. Still doesn't indent. It doesn't look bad, just not right. Is this something that agents will be really picky about? Does this happen to anyone else? Am I just a noob and haven't figured this out? Short of typing it all into the email, I don't know how to fix this.

But, more importantly, I am stressing over whether or not this will make an agent think I am sloppy. The Query itself is fine, as is the synopsis. Its just when the actual manuscript pages...

Anyone have any insight?

Drachen Jager · Apr 24, 2012

Most agents seem to want e-mail excerpts unformatted with an extra line between paragraphs.

So, AFAIK you had it right the first time.

thothguard51 · Apr 24, 2012

I think most agents know that pasting to email is going to be a jumble at times. Different emails will show different formatting issues.

They are more interested in what the sample pages read like than the formatting in the email. Still, it never hurts to make sure you edit the email to put spaces between paragraphs, or that your italics and show up where needed...

Sage · Apr 24, 2012

As long as there's an extra space, no tabs is fine. I have a first 10 pages file for each book with an extra space included because my e-mail is so inconsistent about whether it tabs, adds a space, or neither. I figure that my added space makes it completely clear that there's a new paragraph, no matter what happens to tabs or gmail's spacing by the time the e-mail reaches the agent's inbox.

cwbrowning · Apr 24, 2012

Oh what a relief!! :hooray:

I have been going crazy over this!!! YAY!!!!!

Terie · Apr 24, 2012

Here's a thread from a few weeks ago with details.

Jamesaritchie · Apr 25, 2012

If you're using RTF format for the manuscript itself, and then have Gmail set to use RTF, you shouldn't have a problem. I use Gmail constantly to send perfectly formatted manuscripts to magazine publishers.

Mharvey · Apr 25, 2012

Yeah, I sent out some queries without properly formatted pages at the bottom. The lines would break at appropriate parts, but there was no space in between. Kinda looked like a wall-of-text.

It was an inadvertent thing - glitch in formatting. About 75% didn't even bother with form rejections.

Now, I use Pure Text to insure what I see is what I get. Works much better.

dmickey · May 5, 2012

What is RTF? What is Pure Text?

rac · May 10, 2012

I had most of the troubles the others have described until I started using Word. Now the formatting headache is gone. There are very few glitches.

Old Hack · May 11, 2012

When you save your document you can choose to save it in various formats, and RTF (rich text format) and plain text are some of the options you have.

Parametric · May 11, 2012

PureText is an awesome free program that enables you to paste text with formatting stripped. So all of the invisible tags and codes that might make your pages look weird when you paste them into email go away. I'm a big fan.

Corinne Duyvis · May 11, 2012

In Gmail, there's a little button that strips the formatting of whatever text you've selected. It looks like an italicized, underlined T, with a little X next to it.

I use it religiously when sending queries. It makes C&Ping pages from Word supremely easy. I can just copy and paste from Word--indents, no spaces between paragraphs, single or double spacing between lines, whatever--and hit the button, and boom, it loses your indents and adds a space between paragraphs. It also loses your italics, but since you should indicate those inbetween _underlines_ or *asterisks* anyway, that's not a big deal.

rac · May 11, 2012

Corinne Duyvis said:
In Gmail, there's a little button that strips the formatting of whatever text you've selected. It looks like an italicized, underlined T, with a little X next to it.

I use it religiously when sending queries. It makes C&Ping pages from Word supremely easy. I can just copy and paste from Word--indents, no spaces between paragraphs, single or double spacing between lines, whatever--and hit the button, and boom, it loses your indents and adds a space between paragraphs. It also loses your italics, but since you should indicate those inbetween _underlines_ or *asterisks* anyway, that's not a big deal.

Thank you! You've made it easier.

Jamesaritchie · May 11, 2012

Corinne Duyvis said:
In Gmail, there's a little button that strips the formatting of whatever text you've selected. It looks like an italicized, underlined T, with a little X next to it.

I use it religiously when sending queries. It makes C&Ping pages from Word supremely easy. I can just copy and paste from Word--indents, no spaces between paragraphs, single or double spacing between lines, whatever--and hit the button, and boom, it loses your indents and adds a space between paragraphs. It also loses your italics, but since you should indicate those inbetween _underlines_ or *asterisks* anyway, that's not a big deal.

This is good when agents and editors want stripped pages, but when they want formatted stories, as they often do, just use RTf and send it.

Too many judge how a manuscript looks by how it appears in their own e-mail client, and this is NOT the way to do it unless you're using Outlook, and have it set up properly.

Unless you're set up to receive and view rtf formatted e-mails, anything you look at probably will be a mess. This does not mean it's a mess when an agent or editor looks at it in their own in-boxes.

When an agent or editors does want formatted pages, you're just creating a lot of extra work when you strip formatting.

It's been possible, and easy, to send perfectly formatted e-mails for at least ten years.

dmickey · May 11, 2012

Interesting, thanks for the info. Sending email queries has been the bane of my existence since technology and I are not friends.

Corinne Duyvis · May 11, 2012

Given how many agents will read e-mail on their phone and such, sending text with zero mark-up is always the best choice unless they specifically ask for something else--and in that case, you're better off sending an attachment rather than pasting the pages in your inbox, anyway.

Ken · May 11, 2012

... and if you have any doubts, email the query to yourself and see if anything gets messed up.

Katana · May 11, 2012

Corinne Duyvis said:
It also loses your italics, but since you should indicate those inbetween _underlines_ or *asterisks* anyway, that's not a big deal.

Okay, I've read just this week on several websites that italics are now permissible in your manuscript, because _this_ and *this* are holdovers from typewritter days when italics could not be displayed. I would leave them out of queries but, in this digital age, most agents don't have a problem with someone having italics in their manuscript, and it actually saves time on the timesetting end. Has anyone else read this?

Corinne Duyvis · May 12, 2012

J. Marks said:
Okay, I've read just this week on several websites that italics are now permissible in your manuscript, because _this_ and *this* are holdovers from typewritter days when italics could not be displayed. I would leave them out of queries but, in this digital age, most agents don't have a problem with someone having italics in their manuscript, and it actually saves time on the timesetting end. Has anyone else read this?

99% of the time, yeah, italics are entirely permissible in manuscripts. The above referred to pasting pages into e-mail

Old Hack · May 12, 2012

J Marks, remember this thread is about emailing text, not how we format our manuscripts: but yes, use italics in manuscripts and never *this* or _that_.

Pasting Pages into Email

cwbrowning

Drachen Jager

Professor of applied misanthropy

thothguard51

A Gentleman of a refined age...

Sage

Supreme Guessinator

cwbrowning

Terie

Writer is as Writer does

Jamesaritchie

Mharvey

Liker Of Happy Things

dmickey

rac

Old Hack

Such a nasty woman

Parametric

Corinne Duyvis

My New Cat Is Too Big for Shoulders

rac

Jamesaritchie

dmickey

Corinne Duyvis

My New Cat Is Too Big for Shoulders

Ken

Katana

On the edge...

Corinne Duyvis

My New Cat Is Too Big for Shoulders

Old Hack

Such a nasty woman