A few little basic nuts-and-bolts points are bothering me on covering letters and sample chapters. Small things but they might be rather important. Others may be asking the same questions, so anyone who can shed some light on them it would be very welcome.

SAMPLE CHAPTERS
How should the sample chapters be bound? Paper clips? Staples?
Should the “title page” of the novel be included?

COVERING LETTER
If like me you have some articles published in magazines, should you name the magazine and give the subject matter of the articles?
Should I mention my age, occupation and experience (a mini CV)?

As I said, basic stuff but these little things may mean a lot to some agents!

I may think of more....

Michael

Michael, don't bind them in any way (paperclips drive some agents nuts, and staples others) just loose pages, and if the stack's unwieldy, put an elastic band round it. I don't think title page or not is crucial. I think I usually put one in, if only because it protects the first page and gives you somewhere to put name, address and wordcount for when they lose your covering letter.

With publishing credits, I'd be inclined to mention generally in your covering letter that you've had articles published (i.e. someone other than your mother likes your writing enough to pay you for it), and then have a separate page with a mini-CV which is pretty light on anything not relevant to writing - the name-address stuff, then minimal listing of education and jobs, except where they're relevant to your novel, and a list of publication in some form like: 'title of article' in title of magazine (date).

Emma

Thanks Emma!

Priceless advice

Michael

In the best tradition of Colombo, just one more thing……my pen name is ever so slightly different from my real name (the addition of my mother’s surname, hyphenated).

Some sources suggest keeping the pen name on the manuscript and writing the cover letter and CV in my real name - because the agent will then understand that the novel is written in a pen name. But I am wondering whether I should mention this in the cover letter, to be clear.

Agents are funny creatures, aren't they? I read that particularly hated is paper clipping chapters together - i would have thought this ideal, the sheets aren't permanently bound and it's clear where the chapters are...

but then what do i know...

Casey

Michael, if I were you I wouldn't get into the two name thing. Pick one and stick with it, otherwise it will confuse them and make them think there's something odd here.

If I were you, I would use your real name for now, then, when you have the publisher, tell them that you want to publish it under a pen-name.

Paperclips can pick up things that don’t belong to them, which is one of the reasons agents don’t like them. They know where they are with elastic bands.

Dee

Or loose pages. I don't think I used elastic bands for any submission of a partial (which was always under 50 pages).

Yes, it's because paperclips eat other things - and ping off when you try to read the chapter - that they hate them.

No, you don't need elastic bands for a partial, but I would for a full MS. Though 3 chapters of TMOL was getting on for 90 pages, which gets awkward to handle.

Yes, I'd agree with Roger - stick to your own name for now.

Emma

Thanks for these replies.

The paper clip thing makes sense. As an ex civil servant I remember the annoyance of paperclips latching onto loose papers, and wondering what a stationary requisition was doing attached to the minutes of a meeting!

The paper clip thing makes sense. As an ex civil servant

Of course, instead of the elastic band you could always tie it up with pink (aka red) tape. My father was a civil servant, and we always had bits of it lying around at home...

Emma

Or a nice red ribbon like on a barrister's brief. Pink ribbon, perhaps, for romance. A nice plastic wallet with Scooby Doo on it for children's fiction. The possibilities are endless.

Rosy.

How about a lovely barrister's silk bag, complete with tassels?

Emma

I tied my last full ms request with a pink ribbon from my dressing gown cos I'd run out of elastic bands.

Agent thought it was a gift and took it home for her daughter. Still, I couldn't really say, 'The ribbon is from my dressing gown. Please return.'

The advice I've heard regarding pen names is to write something like this under your signature (in the cover letter): "writing as Jane Doe". This has come from the US, though, so UK conventions might be different. I did this in a couple of submissions, simply because I thought my strange-sounding name might frighten the agents;-D But I think I won't mention the pen name issue in future submissions, just to avoid misunderstandings and misconceptions.