|
Writers: Subscribe and send in your brief bio and your best writing sample (up to 1200 words total) to apply to become a featured writer. Find free articles and markets to help you get published. Readers: Find your favorite author, anthologies, and great reading. Editors, send in your calls for manuscripts. Find writers and manuscripts to fill your anthologies.
|
Query Letter
Are You Sure Your Query Is Ready?
by Gary McLaren
Sponsored by
| This article sponsored by: | |
 |
|
 How
to Write Attention Grabbing Query & Cover Letters.
Your Novel Proposal: From Creation to Contract
|
One magazine. Hundreds of writers. Thousands of queries. One editor. One desktop
... and a trashcan that appears to be incredibly, almost unimaginably deep.
Where exactly will your submission go?
It has all the makings of an editor's nightmare. Stacks and stacks of
submissions, and some of them are dreadfully inappropriate and unprofessional.
It's enough to give our poor
editor a splitting headache at the very least. No wonder that some of these
submissions have only a brief existence before being filed in the circular bin.
How will you ever get through to an editor who is wading through scores of
submissions being sent by your competitors? That's right, your competitors. It's
important to think of those other
writers with that understanding. And it wouldn't hurt to keep in mind that some
of them may be reading this newsletter. Face the facts. Space in most
publications is limited. Very limited. Not
at all like your editor's trash. That trashcan really does appear to be as dark
and bottomless as a cup of Aunt Annie's coffee.
Do you want to be successful in the business of selling your writing? If so,
then having recognized your competitors for who
they really are, look at the challenge from a business point of view.
Your client has a project. The project is to provide the client with writing
services and writing material for publication. Your client has tendered their
requirements to you and to your
competitors. The project and the space in their publication are up for grabs,
and work will be awarded to the most appropriate tenderer. Keep in mind that the
lowest or cheapest proposal is
not always accepted. In fact in this business it probably will not be!
It is very common to receive Requests For Proposals (RFPs) in the business
world. Serious tenderers
The Magazine Article
How
to Write What You would not even consider
submitting a sloppy, hastily drafted proposal. For a submission to be
short-listed, the entire proposal has to be thoroughly researched, well written,
and carefully packaged. To successfully submit a writing query or manuscript,
you should be just as thorough and just as professional. Naturally your
submission will be much shorter and more concise than tender
documents in many other businesses.
So how can you make the shortlist with your editor? Firstly, you need a great
topic or idea but this article is not designed to
help you with that. Secondly, your idea or article must be professionally
presented. Here is a ten-point checklist to help you ensure your submission is
ready to send. Do some of the
items on the list sound elementary? Please check them again. You'd be surprised
how many queries are sent every day by
writers who fail to perform some of these fundamental checks.
1.Have I read the publication? Elementary? Indeed! Come on, be honest. Have you
ever read a publication's writer's guidelines at a web site or in a newsletter,
had a superb idea for an
article and queried - or even written the article - all without going to look at
the publication? Don't, don't, don't ever do this! You may as well play the
poker machines, if you intend to
leave your writing career to blind luck.
Especially since most publications have a web site, there is no excuse for not
studying a publication before querying the editor or submitting an article. Take
a look at other pieces they have been publishing recently. What types of topics
are they running? What style of writing was used?
2.Have I checked the publication's writer's guidelines? If they have
any guidelines, that is. This is more common for publications in North America
than in other continents, and the
type and amount of information contained in the guidelines varies widely. First
check a publication's web site to see if
there is a link to 'Writer's Guidelines' or 'Submission Guidelines' or
occasionally 'Contributions'. Sometimes you will
need to go first to the 'About' or 'Contact' page before you find this link to
their guidelines. If you can't find any link, you might drop the editor a
polite, brief email asking if they have any writer guidelines. Do you consider
obtaining and
reading writer's guidelines to be a waste of time? No way. In the last few
months my newsletter for freelance writers has received queries on a wild
variety of topics from archaeology to
gardening to European history. If there are guidelines, please read them. Ensure
your manuscript meets the requirements of
style, length etc.
3.Is my submission method correct?
A publication's writer's guidelines will often tell you how the editor likes to
receive submissions. Do they prefer to receive a query or a finished article? Do
they want submissions sent
through the post or electronically by email? If sending an article by email,
does the editor prefer attachments such as Microsoft Word or do they request the
article to be sent as
regular text within the body of your email. With the proliferation of computer
viruses, many editors now refuse to open attachments that may be carrying
dangerous macros or code.
If you really want your proposal to execute a rapid depth test on the editor's
trashcan, simply ignore this checklist item.
4.Does my opening catch the reader's attention?
If the editor only reads the first two or three sentences of your query, will
you have captured their interest? The first paragraph must be a winner.
Intriguing. Enticing. Like a fat, juicy worm wiggling on the end of a fishing
line. Read your opening again. Can you improve it?
5.Can I cut any unnecessary or redundant words? Many of us include unnecessary
or redundant words when we first draft a piece. The makers of some editing
software I know of
claim that their software typically removes 25 to 30 percent of unnecessary and
redundant words from users' documents. That's significant. Cast a critical eye
over your work again. If the
words add value to the piece, leave them. If you have waffled it may be
worthwhile to take a black marker pen and start striking
out any unnecessary phrases. Think crisp, think concise.
6.Have I checked my grammar?
It can be frustrating for an editor to read what would otherwise be a good
article but for the fact it is riddled with bad grammar. Some writers wonder why
editors haven't taken them
seriously, but they haven't even taken the time to proofread their own
manuscript before submitting it! Some good word processing software programs
will even check your grammar for you.
7.Have I checked the spelling?
Again your software can probably do this for you. If you are writing for a
publication in another country have you also taken into account any different
spelling for that location, e.g. British vs. American English? Also try to spot
any words that may be different from country to country, for example footpaths
and sidewalks, diapers and nappies.
8.Have I included some details about my
background? This may not be necessary if the editor already knows you.
Otherwise be sure to include a brief biography and list any relevant
credentials, clips, or links to your articles online.
9.Have I included the article's publishing history?
Remember the last time you had to clear customs at the airport? This is just
like that. 'Do you have anything to declare?' If the article has been published
elsewhere, you do.
10.Have I included my contact details?
If you want a reply from the editor, and hopefully one day to receive a check in
the post, be certain to provide your full contact details. Many writers making
submissions by email forget
to include any other contact details.
It's been a long day. The editor, red-eyed and wired on caffeine, is ready to go
home. Incredibly, the trashcan is nearly full now. A few crumpled manuscripts
lie scattered nearby
where they didn't quite hit the mark. 'One more', the editor thinks, 'then I'll
hit the road.' Finally your submission is opened, and the editor, for what seems
like the hundredth time today, wonders what this new writer has to offer.
Where will your submission end up? Have you helped yourself by sending in a
well-prepared submission? If you have followed the
advice given here, you're well on your way. Now let's hope your idea was a good
one.
Happy Writing!
About the author:
Gary McLaren is the editor of Worldwide Freelance Writer web site and
newsletter, a leading source of information on writing
markets around the world. Discover some of the best publications to write for
today, at
http://www.worldwidefreelance.com . A
free monthly newsletter is available by sending a blank email to
wwfw-subscribe@topica.com .
Also See
Building A Rock Solid Query Letter
Read More on How to Write a Query
Five Keys to Writing a Successful Query Letter