Tip: In Actual Practice, Anyone You Send Work to Will Read Fifteen Pages

You know how agents, publishing houses, and editors often tell you to send a query letter only? And then you're all worried, because even if you write a kick-ass query letter, how can they possibly evaluate your work or your writing on the basis of a one-to-two page letter? Well, an agent who was visiting a class I was in long ago told us all, "In actual practice, anyone will read fifteen pages," and I have found that to be true. There is one agency, Jabberwocky, that goes on and on in its listings about how it only wants a query letter, any queries with accompanying manuscripts will be thrown away unread, etc. Well, that's fine for them. Maybe you don't want to be working with them anyway! But for sending work to anyone else, don't sweat it. You can feel safe sending a query letter plus fifteen pages. It won't put anyone off. Of course, always send a SASE for their reply, and if you need the fifteen pages back, send adequate postage for that. If you don't (and most of us don't in this computer age), just tell them in the query letter that there is no need to return the sample. (But still toss in a SASE for their reply no matter what.)

As always, good luck!