How Would I Go About Sharing a Word Document to a Literary Agent?

Question

I was wondering, how would I go about sharing a Word document to a literary agent? I currently have all my professionally proofread novels formatted. They are formatted as the following: 1 inch margins all around, font is Times New Roman with a font size of 12, there's a title page, and there are running headers with the title and the author name. However, my book is single-spaced. Also, my paragraphs are indented at 0.5, first-line and there are chapter headings. When an agent requests to read my book, do I turn on Tracked Changes to track all suggestions they make? If so, do I utilize the password protect option found in Word? Would putting a password for this be considered rude?

Answer 1

Agents don't do any editing or suggesting until you've already signed a contract with them, unless they're asking for a revise and resubmit, in which case they're more likely to send you an email of suggested changes. When you've signed, they'll tell you how to best share your work for them. Mine, for instance, likes to give edits over the phone. In the querying process, go by what their websites say. First queries almost never should have attachments; in fact, they'll go straight to spam. Most ask for a certain number of changes (varies based on agent) pasted directly into the email below the query. I have never heard of anyone at all putting a password on something they've sent an agent, and I imagine it would be considered rude. If you wouldn't trust someone not to steal your work, you shouldn't send it to them... It's not like a password would make them unable to.