pasting novel pages into a query letter

[J. Lee]

Folks:
I copy/paste my query letter from my documents file onto an email and looks great. When I copy/paste say, the first 5 pages of my novel being proposed, sentences and spacing become ridiculous. In the .doc version, there are proper indentations and double spacing; when I copy and paste it into the body of the email, everything is single spaced and all the tabs are off. I have to literally go through every sentence and eyeball it so it gives the resemblance of a real story.
Any tips? Thank you.

[Brenda]

Suppose you attach some pages as a pdf or a doc?
Unless the publisher asks for pages to be included, I would not include them in a query letter. Give them exactly what they ask for, in the format they demand.

[Rory]

Brenda wrote: "Suppose you attach some pages as a pdf or a doc?
Unless the publisher asks for pages to be included, I would not include them in a query letter. Give them exactly what they ask for, in the format t..."

I agree with Brenda - one page - short and sweet. There are some good guides on query letters on the internet. Agents and publishers want it a VERY specific way or they'll toss it in the trash-can.

[Mellie]

Paste it as plain text to strip out the formatting. No indenting, single spaced lines with an extra space between paragraphs.

[J. Lee]

Brenda wrote: "Suppose you attach some pages as a pdf or a doc?
Unless the publisher asks for pages to be included, I would not include them in a query letter. Give them exactly what they ask for, in the format t..."

The agent asks for the (for example) the first five pages of the novel to be pasted just below the query.They don't want attached anything. My query is concise. My problem is when I paste in the five pages from the novel, the format of that manuscript goes out the window and it makes my novel sample look like it was put together by a small child. I have to go in and fix everything, eyeball tabs, double space,etc. When an agent asks for the first 25 pages, good grief. I'm spending too many wasted hours on 'fixing' the look of my novel.

[Brenda]

You can't save it as text, and then paste it in?

[[deleted user]]

Start copying and pasting from an email you've already successfully corrected.

[Abigail]

Okay, this is gonna sound weird, but it will work. If you are using Word.

Open a new document.
Copy the first five pages from your MS into the new document. If you already have those five pages saved separately from your MS, copy everything but the last word.

Paste into new document and save it. (Don't forget to add that last word back in.)

Now try it.

You might have to play with the formatting in the email, but the doc will be clean. Good luck!

[Lance]

J. Lee wrote: " My problem is when I paste in the five pages from the novel, the format of that manuscript goes out the window and it makes my novel sample look like it was put together by a small child. I have to go in and fix everything, eyeball tabs, double space,etc. ..."

Copy your first five pages into Notepad. That will strip out all the formatting. Fix it in there, then save it as a text file. Copy from the text file to your email when you need to.

I have to do this with my resumes to keep online job application software happy.

Any agent who asks you to put 25 pages into the body of an email has her head on backward and is not someone you want to deal with.

[Angelo]

Lance wrote: "J. Lee wrote: " My problem is when I paste in the five pages from the novel, the format of that manuscript goes out the window and it makes my novel sample look like it was put together by a small ..."

I agree. Copying and pasting it all into notepad will get rid of any formatting (including that weird 'hidden' formatting that messes everything up).

From there, just add any tabs/indents/bolds/italics/etc that you need. It's time consuming and annoying, but at least you know it'll look exactly how you want it to look.