I like sending a VERY brief e-mail query. A couple of agents have informed me that they no longer handle my genre. Saved me time and money. I'd bet that a snail query would have yielded a form letter. Be careful though.
Agents differ greatly in what they want via e-mail.
Some agents never write back but some have asked me to send chapters and partials. It's much more efficient. I've even found that a few agents only want e-queries. I suspect that policy may gain in popularity. Liz Send this topic to a friend.