Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Examples of Writing Query Letters


By Lanee’ Blunt

A query letter is a detailed one page proposal of what you are intending to write. 
When writing a non-fiction article never send the publisher a completed manuscript on speculation.  They are only going to accept a query letter from you and if you send them your completed manuscript they will just put it back in the package and send it back to you rejected.  The editor has to get a query letter.
Write the editors name and address in the upper left hand corner of the letter.  Drop down two lines where you will write a subject line followed by a colon. Write the name of the story.

Make the query letter interesting.   Express the freshness of your idea in the query. State what the research is and how you will use it in the story. Make the query interesting as if a sample of what the article is going to be. You are only selling an idea.
Make sure that on your query you know the editor’s name, and what type of stories that she buys.  If you don’t know the editor’s name write story editor.

Your query letter should be one page.  Keep at least 10 queries in the mail until you receive a go-ahead.  Give the editor a chance to decide if they want you to write the article before sending it to another editor. Send a different query to each magazine you can not send out simultaneous queries of the same article. If you receive a rejection send that query to another publisher on your market list. Include a self addressed stamped envelope (SASE) so you can receive an answer to your query letter. Send a SASE with all of your query letters.
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