Question on a book proposal

[Janice Ballenger]

I am preparing to send, per several agent's request, my book proposal. Problem is, depending on what you read, some say to bind the proposal by some means; others say to send loose, numbered pages. These specific agents did not specifiy any particular means. I realize I only have one shot with these agents and I want it to be right. They have some nice binding systems at Staples, but is that what I should be doing? Any advice would be greatly, greatly appreciated!!

[Brian Kavanagh]

Janice,
most agents and publishers indicate in their website just how they like submissions to be presented. But in most cases the manuscript should be unbound and printed on one side of the page with pages numbered. Some also prefer double spacing. Cheers,
Brian

[William Butler]

In the "old days" of typewritten manuscripts, the generally accepted format for submission (whether to editors, agents, or publishers) was unbound. The document format was one inch margins, double-spaced (as Brian mentioned), using a 12 point mono-spaced (rather than proportional) font, with numbered pages and the title and author name appearing on each page.

There is a book, Writer's Markets, that provides a great deal of information on submission guidelines. I do not know if the current incarnation remains the same, but previous issues contained samples of the suggested format.

Good luck to you,
William

[Karina Kantas]

I've never seen a recommendation to bind a manuscript/book proposal. I know when submitting screen plays you have to use binds, but for books, loose pages are the norm.

Best of luck.

[David M. Harris]

Bind it with a paper clip, nothing else. If they like the proposal, they may want to make copies, and any other binding will make that difficult, if not impossible.