Deb writes with a great follow-up to yesterday’s question about formatting within your manuscript, to wit:
There are, of course, rules for manuscripts–each paragraph indented, double-spaced, et cetera. But what about when you copy/paste into an e-mail? Suddenly you lose formatting, fonts … what’s a writer to do?
It’s true, a lot of email services strip formatting [...]
I’m feeling SO GREAT about getting back within my two week response time for queries that I’m answering TWO Ask Daphne questions this week. Wheee! The first comes from Robin, who writes:
I am currently working on my second YA crime novel in which my protagonist is partially deaf. She communicates through texts on [...]
Double-trouble today, with our first question coming from Kathleen, who asks:
When agents (such as yourself) request a certain number of pages to be included in the query email, how do they want them formatted? If an agent asks for 3 pages, does that mean 3 pages single spaced 12 point Times New Roman font? [...]
Friend of the blog J.O. writes,”I have a question for your blog. It is a formatting question which, sadly, has me pulling out my hair. One of my manuscripts has a lot of numbers. Is there is a ’standard’ in publishing? For example, do they use APA for numbers in fiction publishing or is it a ‘whatever works’ and ‘looks good’ sort of situation? Do you have preferences as an agent?”
Jean writes, “I have an email formatting question for your blog. Many agents want writers to send writing samples (synopsis, first few chapters) along with their query. Seeing as there are a variety of different email programs out there that see things like tabs and italics differently, is there a ’standard’ or some advice that you can give for those of us who want to have our samples come out looking lovely (and readable) on the agent’s end?”
