Query Series: Anatomy of a Query Letter
You’ve done your homework, and now you’re ready to write your one-page pitch. But how? Here’s a breakdown of the sections of a query letter, using as an example a query that landed me a feature article in Poets & Writers magazine (Nov/Dec 2007).
Greet the Right Person
“Dear Madam/Sir” isn’t nearly as effective as “Dear James McMahon.” Find out which editor is the right one to receive your query. This may be as simple as checking the masthead or submission guidelines. If neither makes it clear, call the magazine’s office and ask. While you’re at it, get the person’s correct title.
To Mary Gannon, editor, Poets & Writers:
Hook the Editor
The first paragraph, especially the first sentence or two, must grab an editor’s interest or your query is sunk. Think of the most compelling way to engage a reader with the story and use it to hook the editor. Remember what you learned about the magazine and its audience: what do those readers aspire to? Find a way to speak to that aspiration in your hook.
It’s been a whirlwind year for emerging writer Benjamin Percy. The 28 year old just won the short fiction trifecta with his story “Refresh, Refresh,” the story of a teenage boy and his best friend as they cope with their fathers’ deployment and eventual deaths when their Marine Reserve unit is ambushed in Iraq. “Refresh, Refresh” garnered the $10,000 2007 Plimpton Prize for an emerging writer of great promise (last awarded to Malinda McCollum in 2004); won a 2007 Pushcart Prize; and is included in Best American Short Stories 2006, edited by Ann Patchett. Percy’s first collection of short stories, The Language of Elk, was published in 2006 by Carnegie Mellon Univerity Press; his second collection, Refresh, Refresh, is due in October 2007 from Graywolf Press.
Pitch your Idea
Now that you’ve got the editor hooked, make your pitch. Sell your piece by choosing the right kind of article, the length the magazine likes those articles to be, and what you plan to include in the piece.
I propose a 1,500-word profile of emerging writer Benjamin Percy for Poets & Writers. Percy’s writing is brutal and beautiful. His characters-boys, or men who remain boys in some essential way-confront their lives, loves and demons in the high desserts of Central Oregon, in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains. Percy’s men are at war with each other, with nature, even with life on the home front. In the profile, Percy discusses working on the screenplay of “Refresh, Refresh” with filmmaker James Ponsoldt, selling his first story collection without an agent, and why posting that sale on Publisher’s Lunch was the best career move he’s ever made. He also talks about the interface between genre and literary fiction, where he places his own writing, and how teaching composition and literature makes him a better writer.
Close the Sale
Use this paragraph to give the editor a few more reasons to say “yes” to your article. That might include what others say about the person/place/thing/issue you’re pitching. It might be some history or background. Use whatever additional pieces of information necessary to close the sale.
More about Benjamin Percy: Brady Udall describes his writing as “epic, beautiful, shocking, funny, brutal, brilliant.” Peter Straub calls him “one of our most accomplished young writers.” Ann Patchett says the stories in Refresh, Refresh “mark the beginning of what is bound to be a long and brilliant career for Benjamin Percy.” And Daniel Woodrell says he “is unafraid of story, plot, and writes of plain lives in crisis without blinking, in sinewy, rippling prose, the rhythms of his sentences ever taking us more deeply inside.”
Sell Yourself
Use this short last paragraph to show the editor why you’re the right person to write this article for her magazine. Don’t brag. Be factual and professional. And if you don’t have a lot of writing credentials, don’t sweat it. If you’ve done your job in the first three paragraphs, this is the one that matters least.
My writing has appeared or is forthcoming in The Christian Science Monitor, Porcupine Literary Arts Magazine, Rosebud, Wisconsin Trails and The Writer’s Chronicle, and in the anthology Sacred Fire (Adams Media, 2005). I write a weekly column for the Lake Country Reporter. I have attached two samples of my journalistic writing.
Best regards,
Your Name
Address
City, State ZIP
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e-mail address
Not sure you nailed it? I’ll cover troubleshooting your query in tomorrow’s post.
This is part 3 of a series on query letters.