I recently received a partial request (first fifty pages) from a legitimate agency, but the submission guidelines and personal request never stated if the partial should be double or single spaced to include the exact fifty pages. I wanted to know if I should double space the pages just in case, since I am sending them off via mail per the agent’s request, or single space to include the actual fifty pages.
Manuscripts, partials, or any submissions to agents and editors should always, always be double-spaced. There is never, ever an exception to this rule unless the agent specifically says she wants it single-spaced.
I’m not sure what you mean by exact fifty pages, but the fifty pages the agent is asking for are double-spaced, so those would be the fifty pages she’s expecting. If you have a chapter break that’s more than fifty pages, then you choose the end of the chapter that’s closest to fifty pages.
Typically this is a question I might answer under my Random Questions posts, except I had a bigger concern when reading this, and that’s a concern about your knowledge of publishing submission guidelines. Before you send anything out to agents I suggest you spend some time on agent blogs, web sites, or, at the very least, reading a book or two on what agents expect from submissions. This is an incredibly basic detail and one I think most of my readers have known or understood for a long time. If you’re asking a question like this my concern is that you are making even bigger mistakes in your submission process and could benefit from a little knowledge before reaching out to agents.
I have a feeling my readers will be able to provide you with a great list of resources and information to help you understand this business better.
Jessica
I got a question recently from an author who was distraught about a recent submission he had made. Two different agents had requested his manuscript, and like any good author he carefully went through the work, edited and revised and made sure he had sent his best work out. But, as we all know, mistakes happen, and while one agent received his best work, the other received one that was riddled with errors.
The author in question wanted to know how to handle the situation. Would it be appropriate to email the assistant of the agent with the mistake-riddled manuscript to ask if it would be okay to resubmit? Would it be a mistake to let the agent know you had made the mistake, therefore labeling you as unorganized and careless? I think you need to do what is going to make you feel better. And in all cases I would suspect that’s to get in touch with the agent or her assistant and ask if you can resubmit. The worst they can say is no. The truth is that you’re stressed about this. You’re thinking about it constantly and, if the agent does reject the work, you’re always going to wonder if it’s because she really didn’t like the book or because of the mistakes.
I receive emails like this all the time, and frankly the ones that bother me the most are the ones who have completely rewritten the work. My concern there is that you were sending out material much too prematurely, and I always doubt then that the material I do have is even ready. Just as agents will sometimes put the wrong letter in the wrong SASE, we understand that authors will sometimes put the wrong name at the top of the query or the wrong manuscript in the package. Mistakes happen and we could all do well to remember that none of us is perfect.
Jessica
I recently received the following question from a reader and it made me think of the style in which we write:
My question is about the dialogue dash. I love it. I write historical fiction, and I love the way the dialogue dash (instead of quotation marks) gives the speech a ‘foreign language’ nuance. Quotes seem too contemporary for the speech in my novel. I loved the effect in Cold Mountain and Cry, the Beloved Country.
I wonder, though, if it’s annoying to the reader, or worse—to the agent or editor! Would you reject a “dialogue dash” manuscript out of hand? Do you consider its use to be a barrier? I think my attributions are clear, even with the dash.
Not trying to be a “look at me; I use dashes” kind of writer. But putting my dialogue in quotes just makes it feel . . . different.
What do you think?
I think you should stick with quotation marks.
When we write we like to think that our voice stands out and makes our writing distinctive and many times I see authors try to add other things into their books, different styles of punctuation, art, etc., to make the book unique and different. However, what it comes down to is voice. You can can dress things up all you want, add shiny baubles and glitter, but in the end it’s the voice that’s going to truly matter. My suggestion here is that you should stick with traditional quotation marks. In fact, you should stick with traditional grammar style a la Chicago Manual of Style as much as possible. Once the book sells this is a discussion to be had with your editor. Converting quotation marks to a dialogue dash is easy enough and will come down to a matter of design, not so much writing style.
Part of getting the sense that an author can write is knowing the author has an understanding of basic writing skills. Now, I don’t expect any of you to be perfect. If you’ve read enough blog posts you should know that I am not a perfect grammarian in any sense of the word, but I also don’t want to read and discover that you have no idea where to place an apostrophe, not a clue about where to place dialogue or how to properly format it, or no sense of exclamation point usage (rare, by the way). Grammar is there to make reading easy and comfortable for us. When we see a quotation mark we know someone is talking. When we see a paragraph break in quotations we know someone new is talking. Simple, easy, and understandable. When trying to woo an agent or editor, keep it as simple and easy as possible.
I’d like to hear from readers though. Are you traditionalists or do you also think techniques like dialogue dashes make a difference in tone?
Jessica
It's Sunday, and you know what that means: time for a bit of quoteskimming.
On Poetry:
"Poetry began when somebody walked off a savanna or out of a cave and looked up at the sky with wonder and said, 'Ah-h-h!' That was the first poem. The urge towards 'Ah-h-h!' is very human, it's in everybody." ~Lucille Clifton
"Don't shackle poetry with your definitions. Poetry is not a frail and cerebral old woman, you know. Poetry is stronger than you think. Poetry is imagination and will break those chains faster than you can say 'Harlem Renaissance.'" ~Mark Flanagan
On Writing Poetry:
"One of the most definable characteristics of the poetic form is economy of language. Poets are miserly and unrelentingly critical in the way they dole out words to a page. Carefully selecting words for conciseness and clarity is standard, even for writers of prose, but poets go well beyond this, considering a word's emotive qualities, its musical value, its spacing, and yes, even its spacial relationship to the page." ~Mark Flanagan
"The imagery gets richer as I write. 'I walk the dog and it’s there' is fine for a rough draft, but I made it more specific in the final draft: 'I walk the dog and plot how it gets stamped on my ankle bone.' . . . I find this to be true of nearly all my rough drafts---the triggering words are mundane, the ending words, much richer. I get more 'live hits' the deeper in I go." ~Sara Lewis Holmes, in her notes about the construction of her poem, "Inked: On Memorizing Gerard Manley Hopkins". You can read Sara's poem, hear Sara read her own poem, and check out the rough draft and notes (from whence came this quote) at Sara's podcast site, A Cast of One.
"Writing a poem is like conducting an argument between your unconscious mind and your conscious self. You have to get unconsciousness and consciousness lined up in some way. I suspect that's why working to a form, achieving a stanza, and keeping to it—deciding that the first and third and fifth lines will have to rhyme, and that you're going to insist on so many stresses per line—oddly helps the poem to be born. That is, to free itself from you and your attentions to it and become a piece of art in itself. Heaven only knows where it comes from! I suppose working out a form diminishes the thousands of possibilities you face when you begin. And once you've cut down the possibilities, you can't swim off into the deep and drown." ~Anne Stevenson
On revision and critique:
This week, the lovely and talented Jennifer Hubbard spoke to a college class about the art of revising. "One interesting question that came up was what to do with criticism that seems to be based on a misunderstanding of your intent. I could think of 3 reasons for such criticism: 1) the person didn't read the work closely enough; 2) the person read into the work something from his/her own mind; 3) whatever was in your head didn't actually make it down on paper. Talking to the critiquer can help establish which one it is." You can check out Jenn's post and the comments here.
"Take a break. Let the story sit a week or two before you go back to revise. After all, 'revise' means 'see again.' You can't take a second look at something unless you first look away." ~David Lubar, quoted by Kate Messner in her speech to the NYS English Council. You can read more revision tips from others (including, well, me) in Kate's blog post.
On characters
What makes a memorable character, particularly in a children's book?
"'It has to do with an intensity of presence,' [Philip] Pullman says. 'Just as some people are so much there that you can sense when they come into the house, so some characters in fiction have the same authority or charisma. Some personal quality makes them more alive than their fellow characters. It has nothing to do with how good or friendly a characters is. They can be horrible, and you can still not lift your eyes from the page when they appear.'" From an article by Amanda Craig that appeared in The Times, called Creating Characters.
On character motivation, again from Jenn Hubbard (and if you aren't reading her yet, really, why aren't you?):
Some things that help me get in touch with the motivations of my characters--the secret and the not-so-secret motivations:
Asking myself, 'What does this character really, really want, more than anything?' (sounds obvious, but I can't believe how far into a first draft I can get before I remember to ask this!)
Writing some scenes from different characters' points of view
Writing scenes that don't appear in the final manuscript, but that help me see how characters interact in other situations
Rewriting scenes with different endings (I thought the scene went this-a-way, but what if it went that-a-way instead? What if the character said this, not that? Then where does the scene go? What am I learning about everyone?)
THE FIRST AUCTION STARTS TOMORROW! You can see precisely which flakes will be on the block this week at The Robert's Snow page. While there, you can find information on how to register to be a bidder, and can check out the bidding rules.
To check out the snowflakes featured in today's blogosphere, click on the Robert's Snow button. Jules at 7-Imp has posted two new 2007 snowflakes: an astonishing winged snowflake featuring "Cupid and Psyche" from Rebecca Guay, and Kathy Jakobsen's DC-inspired "Jefferson Memorial/Washington Monument". In addition, Jules and Eisha have also been keeping an ongoing list of blog posts thus far featuring snowflakes and the artists who created them.
.jpg?picon=418)
Well, first I think it is important that you read the guidelines for who you are querying.
Then you can check out this link.
http://thinkstokeep.com/blog/writing-tips/
She gives info on formatting an entire submissions doc.
Check out www.agentquery.com/format_tips.aspx
Also, scroll through the topics here at BookEnds. Jessica has always been incredibly helpful and informative.
RSinara
Just a note, for submissions that require pasting into the email-- it's almost impossible to do so double spaced.
Actually, if you're pasting the first few pages into an email, it is best to eliminate formatting entirely, paste in as plain text and then go in and manually put a break between each paragraph to make it easier to read. Trying to read either a big block of text or double-spaced emails id tough on the eyes. Every email program handles formatting differently; anything I get from Hotmail, for example, my Gmail account turns into gibberish if it is at all formatted.
But on any attached partials or fulls, absolutely double-spaced.
A very useful resource: Anne Mini is in the process of giving her excellent (twice-yearly) tutorial on manuscript formatting right now at http://www.annemini.com/
As for email submissions, don't even try to do them double-spaced (or use any other formatting from your manuscript, for that matter). Do as clindsay said; it's easy for the receiver to view it however they want if you haven't already tried to impose your own formatting on the email.
I edited an anthology a year ago and I was surprised at how many submissions I received with different formatting.
And some were pdf files, and some were other files I couldn't even open. And I thought I'd made it clear in the submission guidelines that I only wanted word docs.
I didn't penalize anyone, and after a few e-mails back and forth the authors I was interested in re-sent me their work as word docs and I re-formatted them myself. But it's always best to keep it simple. Double spaced, word doc, 12pt Times Roman. No one can say anything is wrong when you keep it as simple as possible.
Helpful post, but the tone is very condescending to the writer.
I agree with Jessica--sorry, but why waste a whole post on such a Mickey Mouse question? Look it up--don't bother a busy agent!
I didn't think the tone was condescending at all. It is a rather "kindergarten" type question -- but everyone learns somewhere. On my first query, I broke every rule in the book: compared my novel to Twilight, for god's sake, wrote a bunch of cliches, and said I had all kinds of ideas for new books. Of course I got rejected. *shrug*
But on my next time around, with my next book, I got a partial request for the first 50 pages, hard copy. I knew to send them double spaced. I was very careful to make sure I had nice paper, enough ink in the printer, and a great cover letter.
The day after I mailed everything, I discovered that my Word doc had only formatted the first 30 pages in double space, so the formatting went from double to single in the middle of the copy I'd sent to the agent.
D'oh!
But everyone makes mistakes. And sometimes they're forgiven. She's now my agent. :-)
Um, this is really embarrassing, but I didn't know the answer to this question. I've heard single space sometimes. Double-spaced is so much easier to read, that always sounded wrong to me.
So, I appreciate knowing it's double-spaced all the time. :)
Anon 1:13 -- Everyone starts somewhere, we all did -- sure it's a basic question, but at least the person bothered to ask. That alone shows a willingness to do things the correct way.
Jessica gave great advice -- to start reading agent blogs.
I thought everyone; who was at the query stage would know this answer. I would suggest reading up on all the proper ways to format a novel. It is vital to format it correctly; if is not it’s a rejection. I have read a few sites that give good advice, here is a good one.
http://kayedacus.com/2007/05/23/manuscript-101-introduction-basic-manuscript-format/
This site has tons of other information… hope it helps.
Here’s another one…
http://jetreidliterary.blogspot.com/2005/08/this-is-what-manuscript-page-looks-like.html
Also read this blog and listen to Jessica, can’t go wrong with her.
If you're pasting into email, I suggest that you copy and paste your 50 pages (or whatever's asked for) into a vanilla text editor first, then copy and paste this into email. Doing so will strip out Word's formatting which can cause havoc with some email clients.
And, as suggested by others, it's always a good idea to have an extra line space between paragraphs when pasting into email.
I agree with Jessica, this is a very basic formatting question. It reflects a need for quite a bit more research.
I appreciate all the info and the help received, but the reason I asked the question is because from reading so many agent/client/publisher blogs and doing more research over the last year and a half, I know that not all agents are one and the same.
In all honesty, I’ve had requests in the pasts where agents ask for entire manuscripts and want them single spaced to print off for themselves, some want copy and paste partials in emails w/out space, some don’t care (and yes, I’ve had one of those say that to me, just as long as they get the work, supposedly legitimate as well), no attachments, no cover page because it takes up too much room in the manuscript, request cover page to remember who you are, a partial as thirty pages instead of fifty, etc.
I was sure that the agent in question wanted my material double spaced which is why I sent it off in that manner months ago, days after receiving the request, but I wanted to be sure before I ruined my chances when I asked the question. I know the general consensus is double spaced for the most part, but some agents have their own policies (even if they aren't standard) that are not always specified and I know that not all queries and manuscripts are written the same. Thus, what may work for one agent may not work for another. Double and single space included.
Anyway, thanks for the helpful comments. Well all make mistakes, thus we learn from them. And the other anonymous was right, we all have to start somewhere.
Anon: I didn't think the question was Mickey Mouse at all. Some agents have different policies on how they want material presented to them, not all are the same, and not all are specified on blogs and websites. Why do you think there are so many questions on the matter, and so many various answers?
Easy, not all agents want material in the same way and not all have the same 'simple' policies of receiving work from new authors. Trust me, I've encountered many!
@Marsha Sigman
You can do plenty of research, I've done my fair share, but each agent will still have their own way of doing things, even if what they want and how they want it is not specified in the blogs or requested material email.
To be on the safe side, it's always good to ask just in case, even if the question is something as simple as manuscript formatting. I think it let's agents know you're serious and willing to work.
I think the safest thing to do in this case is probably to ask. I liked that the question was asked, even though I understood the average run of submissions should be double spaced instead of single spaced. It doesn't mean its not impossible to mess it up though.
It may be a big list, but here are writing sites I recommend: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/3316405. Check the sidebars on the sites for links to intros.
If you're uncertain about what's being requested, wouldn't it make more sense to ask the agent who made the request?
Some agents don't always respond to said request, if they respond at all. As I'm reading over some old #agentfail stories, it's possible. Maybe that's why the author asked on this site. Because it's a guaranteed answer? Hmm?
Anon 1:13
I see why you are anonymous because your statement was just flat out rude and uncalled for. Like someone else said, everyone starts somewhere, and unless you are a published author yourself that has never made even the slightest mistake when querying agents, sending out partials/fulls or asking questions, I suggest you take the attitude down a notch, get off your high pedestal, and keep the crudeness to yourself unless what you have to say in some way helps the author.
Snarkiness not included.
I also agree with Anon 4:39 when they stated agents have different submission policies that ARE NOT specified when requesting partials and fulls. (Look at the extensive agentfail requests.) I have submitted fulls in the past and some agents have many different ways of accepting materials that are in no way specific or helpful. I too had an agent email me AFTER she received my full submission to inform me that in the future she wanted her pages SINGLE SPACED, not double as I had been told by other agents in the past. So I, like another poster, am glad the question was asked.
Good info may be posted everywhere about manuscript formatting and publishing in general, but so is conflicting information, and it's no matter if the agents you submit to can't even bother to tell you how they want your work upfront. Even when you DO ask.
And that's MY two cents on the matter.
She must know enough ... she got a request for the fifty pages. The question I have is why is she asking you if she already has made positive contact with the agent. Shouldn't she be asking the agent?
@Anon 6:50
Maybe the author tried to get in contact with the agent or someone at the agency, but never received a response to her question about proper manuscript formatting for that particular agent's taste. It has happened to me before many times, thus the reasons why blogs like this exist.
If an agent is particular enough for it to be a make-or-break-it detail, chances are they'll specify. If they don't, go with old trusty (double spaced).