Presubmission Inquiry

You have not mentioned whether you have performed any part of your research during your current employment. Also, you have not mentioned the types of entities you have been employed with – whether university, institute, or organization. However, as you have mentioned that you are required to show both affiliations and as you have been in your current role for about nine months, it seems your current employer has made some contribution to your research.As you have rightly shared, there are diverse views on the sequence of the affiliations. Based on what I understand from your query, if the major part of your research took place when you were with your previous employer or if it was a university (who would have made academic contributions to your research), you can mention them first and then your current employer. If the contribution by your second employer is not major, you could even consider mentioning them only in the Acknowledgments section. Also, if you have not already done so, you can look up the sites of the conference and your present employer for their guidelines on the affiliations, if any.Related reading:Which of the two affiliations I have should I prioritize in my...

Journals usually publish articles, not books. I don't think you can make an inquiry into a journal about a book chapter. Books are generally published by academic book publishers. You will need to find out which are the leading publishers of academic books in your field.  Take care to choose only those publishers that are reputed in your field. Please cross check with your supervisor, professors, and senior colleagues before you submit your book chapter. This is because there is an emerging breed of predatory book publishers who target naive authors. Once you identify a reputable publisher, the process is similar to sending a pre-submission inquiry to a journal. In your email, explain what your book chapter is about, mentioning what kind of book would be suitable to publish it in and who your target audience is. Another way to publish a book chapter is to collaborate with other authors from the same field and plan out a book in which each person contributes one or more chapters. Once all the chapters are written, you can approach a publisher together. Related reading:Should I accept an invitation to publish my journal article as a book?Should I accept an invitation to publish my academic work as a book?How...

I find it strange that the editor would ask for a draft of the paper during the pre-submission inquiry. Reputable journals would never do that. It's the norm of the academic publishing industry to not send/ask for the entire manuscript during pre-submission inquiry. The purpose behind pre-submission inquiries is that the editor would not have to spend time going through the entire manuscript. Sending a draft of the manuscript would defeat that purpose.I don't think you should send a draft of your paper to the editor. If the journal turns out to be a predatory one, it would be a great risk. I would suggest you check the journal website carefully and confirm that it is not a predatory journal before you continue your interaction with them.Related reading:Think Check Submit- The checklist that helps you choose a reliable journal

Your question is not very clear. Do you have a general question about your submission that you want to ask the editor? Or do you want to inquire about the progress of your paper and when it will be sent for peer review? In case you have a doubt or a question regarding any aspect of your submission, you can write to the journal at any point of time. However, if you want to know about the progress of your paper, it might be too soon to ask them. You should wait for at least another month, and if the status still remains the same, you can send an inquiry to the journal editor.