Submitting 101: Cover Letter

Advice, Submitting 101

I’ve been editing The Harrow for over ten years, and this series will summarize the advice I’d give a beginning writer.

Now, before you submit your manuscript, check out the magazine’s staff box (or About or Contact page). What’s the editor’s name? If you can find it, and you should be able to in any zine worth your time, use it in your cover letter. If there’s more than one editor listed, choose the one who is in charge of the section to which you’re submitting your work (e.g., poetry, fiction, reviews, etc.).

Warning — take it from someone whose first name is the gender-neutral “Dru,” if you don’t know the editor’s sex, it’s better not to guess. Google the editor’s name and see if you can pick up any hints about whether the person is male or female from other sites. If you can’t, then you are safer using “Dear Editor” than guessing “Dear Ms. Tracy Smith” and realizing later that Tracy Smith is a man. I know writers have really done their research if they address their cover letter “Dear Dr. Pagliassotti” — which, for them, has the added advantage of being gender-neutral.

What should you say in your cover letter? Unless the guidelines ask for specific information, you might as well keep it short and sweet. Personally, I never particularly cared what writers wrote in their cover letters, back in the days before The Harrow moved to online, cover-letter-free submissions. All I cared about was the quality of their work.

So — unless the guidelines ask you for specific information, this is your general format:

Dear [Editor Name]:

I am submitting “[Story Name],” a [number]-word [genre] story, to [zine name] for your consideration. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]
[Your Contact Information]

Honestly. In most cases, that’s all you need. Don’t try to show off your charm or wit in your cover letter. Just get to the point and let the editor get to your story.

If a zine asks you to mention your other publications, then that’s your second paragraph, assuming you have other publications to list. If you don’t, there’s no need to make a big deal about it. Just write, I haven’t been published before. Don’t mention that story you got published in your junior high literary magazine. That’d just be embarrassing. If you only have one other publication, that’s fine. My story “Zombies Go Wild” was published last year in BrainDead. Good enough.

If the zine asks for a bio, add a few sentences about yourself. You may want to see what kind of bios writers who have been published in the zine already have written, and write yours to match. Usually, bios are written in third person (”Johannes Dhough is a…”) rather than first-person (”I am a…”), but after that, styles vary widely.

Now. You’ve chosen a zine that’s a good fit, formatted your manuscript correctly, and written a short, professional cover letter. Submit away! We’ll move on to waiting periods and queries next.

drupagliassotti @ February 20, 2008