Getting the most out of e-mail queries

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.

Magazines have actually changed faster than book publishers.  Most magazines today, accept e-mail queries and expect the manuscript to come in as an attachment. 

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!