So here are some thoughts about writing query letters recycled from an email message I sent to my students in COMM 337 a year ago this semester.
There aren't many hard-and-fast rules about query letters, but there is a definite psychology. Remember: It's a sales document, one you're using to sell your article. Keep it short. Showcase your writing skills. Demonstrate your professional skills. Remember the old advice to writers? SHOW, NOT TELL. It works. *Show* the editor what you can do for him. Or her.Plus an example of a successful query I sent out by email last year. It was a little different from an "over the transom" query [*see below for explanation], because I'd talked with the guy's co-editor and they were expecting something from me. But it uses the same psychology:
Here's a common format that I like to use in my own free-lance writing. I'll outline it paragraph by paragraph, and copy below the query I used to sell my most recent magazine story to Dulcimer Players News:
FIRST GRAF: Get the editor's attention, and show why your article will appeal to the magazine's readers. Often this graf will sound like the lede of your story. Make it specific to the magazine. Show you've done your homework. (In the sample below, I said I'd been reading it. But I also referred to specific stories in back issues. It *showed* I'd been reading it.) I like to say very specifically something like, "I am offering (the story) for your consideration for publication." Again, it's a sales document and that's what salespeople sometimes call a close -- when you ask your prospect to buy what you're selling.
SECOND GRAF: Give your credentials. If you enclose your resume, mention it. In my letter, I also mention a conversation I had with one of the magazine's editors. There's more in the Writer's Digest Handbook. You can mention the research you did, any personal experience you have. Anything that demonstrates you know what you're talking about.
THIRD GRAF: This can vary. The Writer's Digest Handbook suggests you "showcase your skills and demonstrate some solutions. ... Explain what you can do to meet the magazine's editorial needs." I used mine to talk about artwork, file formats, etc. [the things that pros talk about], to demonstrate I'm a pro.
Subject line: psalmodikon article submission / attn dan landrumWhen I already have a working relationship with an editor, I don't always bother with a query. But I use the same general psychology - I send a cover letter, again an email message, beginning with a "hook" to get his interest. Since I already know the guy, I don't have to repeat the part about my qualifications. Here's another example:
Date: Sunday, July 11, 2010 7:58 PM
To: Dan Landrum, editor
Dulcimer Players News
From: Pete Ellertsen
Ralph Lee Smith says he got so excited when he heard from the folks who play a Nordic-American box zither called the psalmodikon, he nearly lost control of his car. (He was answering his cell phone at the time.) And he's had a couple of fascinating "Tales and Traditions" columns in DPN about them. I've been in touch with the psalmodikon folks, too, partly because the instrument comes out of my own ethnic heritage and partly because it's so much like the mountain dulcimer. So I visited their annual meeting in Wisconsin and started learning to play a psalmodikon. I've written an article and two sidebars from the perspective of a dulcimer player about the revival of interest in the psalmodikon, its historical background and the tablature used to play it. I've been studying back issues of DPN, and I believe the stories will be of interest to your readers. They are attached, and I am offering them for your consideration for publication in the magazine.
You may remember my work, because I had a historical overview of the Appalachian dulcimer and its European antecedents, called "Drones, Picks and Popsicle Sticks," published last year on the EverythingDulcimer.com website. I'm an old newspaper guy, recently retired from a full-time position teaching college journalism, and I'm looking for free-lance assignments. (My resume is linked below.) Stephen Siefert and I spoke briefly at the Dulcimerville workshop last month, and he suggested I contact you. When I got home, I started drafting a letter; the letter turned into an article, and the result is attached to this email message.
Attached as Microsoft Word files are: (1) a 1,950-word article on the revival of interest in the psalmodikon; (2) a 400-word sidebar on the tablature used to play the instrument; and (3) a 400-word sidebar on further reading. While pictures are embedded in the file I'm sending you, I can send you separate JPEG files in order to facilitate the editing process. The photos are mine, and the photocopies are from books in the public domain. ...
I look forward to hearing from you.
William FurryIt worked, too. The article was in the summer issue of Illinois Heritage. In writing both of these queries, the process helped me think through what I wanted to say in the article. But here's what I gained from doing it in the context of a sales pitch: It forced me to look at my story idea through an editor's eyes. What would he want to see in the story? What would interest his readers? It wasn't just about me and what I wanted to say anymore.
Illinois State Historical Society
Springfield, Illinois
Dear Bill --
Attached are a 6,000-word article and a 1,500-word sidebar for your consideration for publication in Illinois Heritage. They're about the voyage of the steamboat Talisman to Springfield in 1832 and one of the locally written poems that appeared in The Sangamo Journal to commemorate the occasion. The poem was a parody of a popular minstrel show tune of the day, and its appearance in the Springfield paper tells us something about the complexity of popular culture on the Illinois frontier at the time. The Talisman turned out to be the only steamboat ever to reach Springfield, but a rhymed satire in the local paper based on a song currently popular on the East Coast was a sign of an up-and-coming frontier town, riverboat or no riverboat. It also gives us a glimpse of the lives of young men in a frontier community; some of them had a surprisingly literary bent.
Some thoughts on artwork follow. ...
__________
* "Over the Transom" - I define it as an unsolicited article or query that you're writing "on spec" (which means you're doing it on speculation, ie writing it without an advance agreement that somebody will buy it). The website About Freelance Writing (which by the way is a good one) explains:
... A transom is a small, hinged window above a door. ... In the days before air conditioning, publishers would often leave these windows open, even over night, for circulation.My faculty office in Beata Hall used to have one of those transom windows over the door. But my students would usually slip their papers under the door.
Writers were said to hurl their unsolicited pieces through that window.
2 comments:
I can imagine that once the writer has established a relationship with a specific magazine's editor, it becomes more likely that in the future, the articles will be published effectively. Making an excellent first impression is a must, and will last a lifetime.
I would have to agree with "kato" here . When you get a relationship with anyone in the business it is probably more likely that you will get a job with them.
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