Cover letter question

[JuliePgh]

I was reading Tor's guildelines which say to include a 1-2 pages synopsis, chapters 1-3 and cover letter listing any awards or previously published books. Since I'm already including a synopsis and I haven't published anything yet, what should I put in the cover letter besides Name of Manuscript, Genre and Word Count? Should I give a 1 -2 sentence overview of theme? Thank you.

[James D. Macdonald]

The purposes of a coverletter are three-fold:



To give the publishers a piece of paper they can file with the author's name, address, and phone number on it.
To help them figure out which editor to send it to.
To give the editor somewhere to put his coffee cup so the embarassing brown coffee ring won't go on the first page of the manuscript.
In other words -- if you don't have any publication credits, and there isn't anything you want to remind the editor of (like "You asked me to send you this when we met at [Writer Conference]") leave it at title, wordcount, and genre.

What else is there to say?

One word of caution: Spell the editor's name right if you're sending it to a particular editor.

Next note about genres: Just get it into the ballpark. No need to figure out if it's near-future military romance, or medieval retro-western thriller, or what-may-have you.

If you have any special credentials (the book is about dirty deeds in a DNA lab, and you work in a DNA lab), you might mention them. Briefly.

If you need the money for your Mom's appendicitis operation, this doesn't go into the cover letter. If you're sure this book will be a best seller and make everyone rich, this doesn't go into the cover letter.

[JuliePgh]

Thank you, UJ. As always, you've clarified what I need to do. Thank you again!

Julie

[Lenora Rose]

I did include a short "taster" paragraph -- *not* a summary of the story but a vague impression what it was about (Basically, a mention of main character, a hint of problem and of theme. I left plot for the summary). Less than I did when the query letter had to be launched alone, but probably more than I ought to have included on a cover letter.

I was also given a form rejection. I don't think the cover letter was the deciding factor, but it is something to keep in mind.

I always mention what else I've included in the package, be it chapters and synopsis, SASE, chocolate or whatnot. Two reasons for this:
A: If a stack of papers falls and scatters across the room, they know what all to look for.
B: They know I read and followed their guidelines. When I sent the same chapters et. al. to several agents, one wanted the first ten pages, the next the first fifty pages, the next two chapters. Whatever you hear, there isn't one exact standard.

I like Shawn R. Howen's suggestion (Elsewhere on this site) to include a note about what attracted you to that particular publisher/agent; if they had a hand in a favourite book, some professional or particular thing they have done, a brief meeting at a convention. But I've only followed that occasionally.