When an agent or editor asks for material, they usually want some combination of four things. Having all four ready before you start querying means you can answer a request the same day instead of scrambling for a fortnight.
1. The query letter
Covered in detail in how to query a literary agent. One page, three paragraphs, in the body of the email — never as an attachment unless asked.
2. The synopsis
This is the document writers dread, and the reason is that they misunderstand its purpose. A synopsis is not a teaser. It is a structural X-ray, and it must include the ending — all of it, including who did it and why.
Write it in present tense, third person, one to two pages, single-spaced. Put character names in capitals the first time they appear. Cover the main plot only: if a subplot does not change the outcome, cut it from the synopsis even though it stays in the book.
What the reader is checking is whether the story holds together — whether the ending is earned, whether the middle sags, whether the protagonist actually causes the resolution rather than watching it happen. A synopsis that hides the ending fails that test by design, which is why it gets rejected.
For a mystery specifically, the synopsis must make the detection logic visible: what the sleuth learns, in what order, and how each discovery forces the next move. If you cannot write that chain down clearly, the book does not have one yet.
3. The sample pages
Send exactly what was asked for, from the true beginning of the book. Not a favourite later scene. Not a prologue you added because the opening felt slow — if the opening feels slow, fix the opening.
The first five pages have to establish a person, a place, and a problem. Most rejected openings fail because they spend those pages on weather, backstory, or a character waking up and moving through a morning routine. The reader has given you their attention on credit; the opening is where you show them it was a good investment.
4. The author bio
Three sentences, third person. Relevant publications, relevant expertise, where you live. If you have none of the first two, say where you live and what you do. Nobody has ever been rejected for a thin biography; plenty have been rejected for a padded one.
Formatting: the quiet competence test
Standard manuscript format has been stable for decades, and departing from it signals that you have not read widely in your own industry:
- 12pt Times New Roman or Courier, double-spaced, one-inch margins.
- First line of each paragraph indented half an inch. No blank line between paragraphs.
- Header on every page: Surname / TITLE / page number.
- New chapters start on a new page, a third of the way down.
- One space after a full stop. Em dashes for interruption, ellipses for trailing off.
- Italics as italics, not underlining — the underline convention died with the typewriter.
- Send .docx unless told otherwise. Never PDF unless asked; agents edit in Word.
Name your files properly
"Surname_TITLE_Synopsis.docx" and "Surname_TITLE_Partial.docx". An agent may be holding two hundred documents. "final_final_v3.docx" is an unforced error.
Have it all finished first
For fiction, you query a completed, revised, polished manuscript. Not a draft, not "nearly done". A request for the full manuscript is a deadline you cannot negotiate, and asking for six weeks to finish converts genuine excitement into doubt. Non-fiction is different — that sells on proposal — but a first novel sells finished.