In response to the excellent presentation by Scott Eagan of Greyhaus Agency (Washington State), I have been preparing the business letter/query, the synopsis, and editing the first three pages of my women's novel to send to him.  I would not have believed it, because I have been writing query letters for years–many of them quite successful in gaining me assignments, but I re-wrote that letter five times–printing it out each time as I "see" mistakes better when they are on a sheet of paper than on the computer screen.  The 5th re-print came when I discovered that I had misspelled Scott's last name in the salutation.  I had spelled it "Egan" when it is supposed to be "Eagan."  I should be 100% sensitive to the spelling of names as mine is misspelled 99% of the time.  (I'm the only Wilma in captivity who spells her name Willma.  Misspelling an addressee's name is probably the most egregious error one can make in addressing someone you want to impress with your skill, your accuracy, your story.

That was not the only section I re-wrote.  The three-page synopsis, double spaced, also went from brain to fingers to printed page a number of times. I had to summarize the 70,500-word manuscript in the three pages, get in all the essentials, the main character, her personality, the crises she faced, her resolutions and an ending that shows the character having learned by her mistakes and points toward a brighter horizon.

Then the third piece of writing I was to include:  the first three pages (doble-spaced) of the manuscript, resulted in my re-reading my manuscript's opening to make certain EVERY WORD COUNTS in intriguing the reader and advancing the story.  I eliminated a number of words, re-placed some with more graphic dimensions.This went into the mail on Aug. 1.  I will report the results–good or bad–on this page–probably a month or more from now. 

Check and re-check your writing–everything from cover letter to the impact of the story in its opening.  If it does not engage the agent in those first few pages, you can be sure it will not "fly" into the hands of a publisher.