Do most agents expect to see book titles in all caps or italics?
My editor at Writer’s Digest listed all the book titles (in sample queries) in caps, but not italics. This is also how many of the query letters were formatted when they were originally submitted to agents. How seriously should we take the stricture to use only Courier 12 pt. or Times New Roman 12 pt. in manuscripts, etc.? I tell writers to stick to Times New Roman 12 pt. because it’s standard. Courier is fine too. The point is to use a font and size that agents/editors are used to reading so they’re not distracted from your writing. Fancy fonts are definitely out, and so is enlarged (or tiny!) print. Don’t make an agent strain to read your query. It should be about the letter—not the letters! We know the one-page limit is carved in stone (unless I’m Molly Friedrich writing a fan letter to a potential client). But within that limit, is brevity really always best? When might it not be? I advise writers that one page is best, but that queries for longer manuscripts (such as historical ro
