Following Directions

Failure to follow directions often means failure to launch. If an agent asks you not to include links or attachments, don't be surprised if they form reject the full query when you do. Agents usually offer reasonably clear instructions for queries. Find them, read them, follow them.

Still, agents should understand not everyone thinks the same way. Sometimes what makes a writer's work interesting is an odd perspective. Clarity is worthwhile for the agent as for the writer.

Some agents have rigid ideas of what a query should be, but many will entertain anything well presented, though 'well presented' is a matter of mood. I don't begrudge them their humanity. I'm sure they don't begrudge me the salve to my ego.

There are things I'd like clarified, though, and I hope some agents read this and try to make my task a little easier.

"Send a query and the first five pages of your manuscript..."

Assume 12pt, double spaced with one-inch margins in either Times New Roman or Courier... roughly 250 words/page. Yet I stress over details. Should I cut off in the middle of a paragraph? A sentence? If not, may I finish one begun, or must I end the page early? When you only have roughly 1,250 words, it matters.

Sabrina's novel has a sizeable prologue. It establishes history, setting, and expectations, but describes relevant events eighty years prior to the story of the book itself. While the voice and style are basically the same, the only character alive in the rest of the book isn't introduced until much later, well after five pages. Is that the "first five pages" they want? She's started ignoring the prologue and sends from the actual chapter one, but that's not the first thing a reader will see. We don't want to be disingenuous, either by including or omitting it. Which is correct?