MISS SNARK: It's word count that matters!
How much?
Culled from The Slush Pile that Ate Cleveland:
“I am seeking representation for….yadda yadda yadda …a 365 page (single spaced)...”
Holy Verbosity, Batman!
First. it’s word count that matters. In fact, it’s pretty much ALL that matters unless you are working in the graphic novel format.
Second. don’t ever, and I mean EVER send an agent a manuscript that is single spaced.
One of two things will happen if you do:
1. You’ll get an automatic rejection letter that might even say your work was read carefully. It wasn’t. It was discarded unread. It’s simply physically impossible to read single spaced text…so we don’t.
2. You’ll get an automatic rejection letter that says “this is not quite right for us” because we’re not sure exactly what it is, but we know we don’t want to read it.
Word count. Not page count. No single spacing.
Don’t get whistled out of the game on fouls before you have a chance to show off your best moves.
Posted by Miss Snark at 7/04/2005 07:10:00 PM and used with her permission.