The Heart of Your Query

Stay focused on the purpose of your query. Remember to include these eight ingredients:

1. Gain your reader's attention with an opening most appropriate for your story.
2. Awaken a need for your idea.
3. Tell how readers will benefit from your story.
4. Use facts, opinions and statistics from experts or other reliable sources.
5. Don't overdo details in your letter. Those are for your story.
6. Give the reader a reason to respond. Then make a confident request.
7. Don't assume your reader is convinced by prefacing your statements with, "As you know," or "I'm sure you agree."
8. Reveal your plan by with an outline of your story idea.

This is a chapter well worth the time and energy to study it in Queries and Submissions by Thomas Clark. In my next post, I'll discuss how to end your query. Until then, happy writing.

Six Ways to Open Your Query

The opening of your query letter should have all the impact of an article hook. Consider using a variety of techniques.

1. The straightforward lead jumps right into the topic with statements, contrasts, or quotes.
2. The surprise opening could be a clever turn of a phrase, a startling statistic, or a shocking situation. Overplaying or overacting this hook could have a negative impact on the editor.
3. Leading with a question can be tricky. What if the editor's first response is, "Who cares?" To use this opening, your answer must come quickly so the reader won't lose interest.
4. Opening with your article's lead is good if you're selling reprints of something you've already written. Otherwise it's like thinking backwards, since the query is used to see if there is an interest in the topic.
5. Starting with "why you" and "why now" will establish yourself as the right person to write on the topic. This works for specific stories, but is usually later in the letter.
6. A complimentary comment about an article you read that the editor wrote is another trick to have in the ways you open your queries.

Which of these is best for you? Which one is best for your story idea? More in depth descriptions of opening your queries are in the book Queries and Submissions by Thomas Clark. This is a must-have for your writing library.

Approaching the Query Letter

In the next few posts, I'll be gleaning important information from Thomas Clark's Queries & Submissions. The book isn't new, so if you follow along, you'll find it amusing to read about putting fresh ribbons in your typewriter before typing your queries. Part of Writer's Digest's "Elements of Article Writing Series," and recommended by Terry Whalen, I'm finding it a great writing tool.

The query letter is the most important manuscript you'll ever write to get the results you pray for. Editors judge your qualifications and fitness for assignments by what you say in your initial sales letter. It is considered a handshake or an application for employment. Your letter must show the following:

• Confidence in your idea, your talent and ability to meet the publisher's demands.
• Qualifications and credentials to write the manuscript.
• Immediate connection in your approach.

Although the query letter is written in business letter format and could be considered a business letter, it is much more. It's your opportunity to demonstrate your style and appropriate tone for the project. Do a little homework by researching as much about the editor as possible, so you can make a relevant comment. Maybe he/she or the magazine recently received an award.

Instead of mail-merging your query letter to several publishers, take time to study every magazine. Use the appropriate slant and tone for each editor. A stuffy business letter that reads more like "Dear Occupant" will find its way to the editor's round file.

Ten Steps of a Successful Query Letter

Would you like to cut down on your rejections? Who wouldn't? The query letter is key in a writer's success. Here are ten proven steps of great queries.

1. Make a thirty second phone call to the publishing house. Request the editorial department. Request the name of the editor who covers the topic of your proposed article or book topic. Confirm spelling and address.
2. Write an attention-grabbing story title and use it in the subject line of your letter after "Story Proposal."
3. Hook the editor in the first paragraph with your best creative writing.
4. Introduce something new, maybe provocative, that will make the editor want to read your manuscript.
5. Deliver your manuscript's focus. Tell why the readers will find value in your story.
6. Suggest the area of the publication where your story will fit. If you do this, the editor won't have to figure it out. One less job of him/her to do.
7. Give the approximate word count. The editor wants to know if it will fit in the section you suggested.
8. Tell why you are qualified to write the story. Do you have credentials or have you interviewed and/or performed the required research?
9. Tie up your query letter with a convincing statement that will make your project hard for the editor to reject.
10. Attach samples of your previous work and close with your contact information.

As a Christian writer, I start and end my letter with prayer, asking God to bless my efforts as well as go before and with my correspondence, trusting Him to lead me to the right projects and publishers.

I am offering Queries and Submissions by Tom Clark, and recommended by Terry Whalin, to the first five people to subscribe to this blog and leave a comment. Also, please e-mail me at suetornai@ymail.com with your mailing address.