The internet has actually been the answer to a writer’s prayer. I remember painfully that when I had a magazine deadline, I had to mail the material
in about two weeks ahead of time to make sure I got it in on time for publication. Then
came the Internet, and if I wanted to I could send it in the last hour of the last day and expect it to get there on time. In the last five or six years most of my magazine assignments came from editors by
e-mail.
Book publishers and editors had been slower to accept e-mail queries.
But, you now find many book editors as to them. You can check this in a Writer's Guide to Publishers, Editors, and
Literary Agents.
E-mail queries
should be prepared as carefully as regular mail queries and look as good as any letter. Today, with spell check, a writer
shouldn't have any spelling errors, yet I keep seeing queries that have a number of a number of spelling errors and have been
sloppily written. All of my material that goes to an editor gets at least three
readings before it goes to Outlook Express.
A rule that I use with magazine editors is that all e-mail gets answered
the same day that it comes in. This makes an impression. It also encourages the
editor to give you additional assignments. On the other hand, some editors think nothing about keeping your material for weeks
and months without telling you they're going to publish it or not. Unfortunately,
a writer must be patient when it comes to the editor. Complaining can get you
banned from publication at that magazine.
While e-mail queries contain many of the same elements as traditional
"paper" queries, they also contain elements that need special attention. With e-mail, you can't impress an editor with colored
paper or a snappy letterhead. Instead, you must rely on your header to provide vital information about yourself and your query.
Be sure to put the right information in these sections:
- To: If I'm approaching
a magazine I usually try to send my query to the managing editor by name. If this is the first time I've approached that magazine
it may be hard to find the managing editor. You should, however, be able to get
it from the magazine's masthead or from the website. Again, I'm going to that
editor by name.
- From: I have gotten
e-mail from editors who simply sign with their nickname. Since I don't know very
many Reggie’s or Alf’s this doesn't help. To avoid confusion on your end I suggest you always sign your query
with your full name.
- Subject: I start with the words “Suggested Query,”
and the title of the proposed article. If the title is a little difficult to
understand I include another sentence to explain it.
The Text
Write your query letter just like a traditional query letter. It has a hook, a what's it about section and a paragraph or two which explains how you're going to put
the article together. It also contains a sentence or two of why you're qualified
to write the article. My e-mail query letter runs from two or three paragraphs to one-page.
I can include, why I'm qualified to write the article somewhere in the query at the end. It depends on how it fits the particular magazine you are querying.
Here’s an example:
" Business Writing for Results."
Often writing by business and government employees winds up with an almost incomprehensible babble of words. The National Commission on Writing survey of Fortune 500 companies found that US businesses spend as much as 3.1 billion annually helping
employees overcome writing deficiencies. Says Mike Huckabee, chairman of the
national Governor’s Association, “another cost, it is impossible to calculate is the cost of lost ideas. As a result many spoken or written ideas probably aren't given the attention they
deserve.”
Business Writing for Results will cover the importance of plain talk, how to check your writing with a. readability
index, how to say it in the fewest number words, how to eliminate clauses and phrases, using a word projector and much more.
Duane Newcomb taught Business
Writing for Results for the U. S. Chamber of Commerce, Institute of Organizational Management
at Notre Dame, MSU, University of Delaware, Colorado
University and others. He also conducted many seminars on the subject.
Name and
Address
In an e-mail query I always put the name and address at the bottom, below
my typed signature:
Duane Newcomb
P.O. Box
3632
Rocklin, CA 95677
916 791-1779
dnew@surewest.net
The ability to contact editors electronically has made life much easier
for writers around the world. To retain this ability, however, we must make sure that we make life as easy as possible for
our editors as well!
