Preparing a good submission

Sending a submission shouldn't be taken lightly. If anything preparing a good submission is as hard, if not harder that writing the book itself - as I found. It would be such a waste to have gone through all that hard work of writing your book then send a sub-standard submission. Most of the time query letters are included within the submission guidelines. Take time preparing your query letter - get it right. I recommend you pick up the Writer's Handbook 2010 as this has a list of all publishers/agents and their submission guidelines, contact details etc. Some may ask for a query letter, first 3 chapters and synopsis while others may also want an author bio, chapter outline, first 10,000 words, a detailed proposal and even the full manuscript. Send to those publishers/agents who handle the genre of your book. Whatever they ask for, send - don't cut corners AND as a courtesy always send a SAE even if you don't want your submission returned to you. Present your work professionally AND STICK TO THE GUIDELINES! If you're asked to submit a single page synopsis, DO IT! even if it means re-writing it ten times. Good Luck!