George Angus, Tumblemoose Writer

Welcome back.  In the first post I discussed the importance of writing a good query letter and I hammered home (I hope) the importance of obtaining the 2009 Writer’s Market.  Let’s continue on with this query letter best practices post to see the next chapter in the story.

Now that you’ve got your intended target in sight you essentially have one of two paths from which to choose.  Which path you take is dependent to some extent on the information you found either in Writer’s Market or by reading the submission guidelines at the publisher’s web site.  You can query by email or query/submit the manuscript via regular mail.  There are other options but these are probably the most common.

Query by email

This is becoming a more and more popular way for an editor to receive your query.  First and foremost, do not be fooled into thinking that just because you’re doing this in an email that the format should be any less formal then a regular letter.  This means you start with the date, four hard returns followed by the name, title and complete address.  Dear so and so is next, followed by the body, followed by the closing.

Some email pointers:

• Make certain you turn off your spam filter or specifically allow email from whoever you are sending your query letter to.  See this great post from an editor.  You want to read this.  I’m serious.
• Include your contact information in the email, just as you would on printed letter.
• If the submission guidelines say “no attachments”, guess what?  DON’T ATTACH ANYTHING!  I can’t even believe I had to make that point.  Put your stuff in the body of the email.
• Do not hound the editor.  If the guidelines indicate a 4 – 6 week response time, don’t you dare email that editor until maybe 8 weeks have passed.  The convenience of email is no excuse to not follow directions.

Query by regular mail

The first thing you want to do is to go read this post from an editor.  While it is specific to submitting a novel, many of the points here are important for any query or submission.

Did you read the post?  Good stuff isn’t it?  See, stick with the Moose and I’ll get you to where you’re going.

Regular mail pointers:

• Every component of your mailed query is advertising for you and who you are.  You cannot be too professional, you cannot be too perfect.
• The envelope is clean and crisp.  Use a standard stamp (save your “Nuke the Gay Whales for Christ” stamps for your Christmas cards.
• I know you wouldn’t dare forget to include the SASE.  If you’re submitting an entire manuscript and you’d like it back, make sure the envelope is the correct size with the appropriate amount of postage.
• If you are including the manuscript, do not bind it in any way.  No fancy page protectors, no cute butterfly hole-clasps – nothing!

In the last post of this series, we’ll get into the specifics of the query letter itself.  I’ll share the format that has worked for me every time I’ve used it.