Can You Deviate From Submission Guidelines

I saw a post a couple of days ago about what to include in a submission. This author was asking if, when an agent asks for the first three chapters, if it is OK to send an introduction chapter with it. My answer was, if this is a "PROLOGUE' and having it gave us a better understanding of the story, then include it. BUT, if the prologue was the length of a full chapter, then that would not be cool.

This post got me thinking about other situations. There are a lot of authors out there who seem to

think that submission guidelines are just that, guidelines. This, I am afraid, is not the same as Capt. Barbosa's perspective on things. These guidelines are there for a reason.

Too often, authors will try to do everything they can to get out attention as editors and agents. They will often submit material that is not requested, or send material in a format they prefer and not in a format that we want.

And then they wonder why they were rejected.

I have talked about this before, but when we have these guidelines, we do this because this is how we get through your material. We each read submissions differently. Some of us read on computers. Some read on their iPads and Kindles. Some print things off. Because we all read things differently, the formatting does matter.

This also says a lot about your ability to read and follow directions. Again, I have said this before, but if you cannot follow directions for submissions, then how will you do with meeting deadlines or working with revision notes?

So please. I don't care if your chapter 12 is amazing, if we don't want it, then don't send it!