Help with a Cover letter?

[DTKelly]

Hello,

I have a problem; I've never written a cover letter before. Most of the submissions I've done have been online, not needing one.

I've read articles and things about what to include in a cover letter, but it doesn't make it any easier. Basically, the item I would be sending it for an area I've never worked in before (I'm typically an aduly crime writer, this happens to be a children's picture book, and no, no crime in it. ;) )

I don't know what I should put in the cover letter, and I want to resist the 'Hi, I'm sending you tihs because I'm a parent and read a ton of children's books and I think this one is better.'

So, any help? Please? :Hail:

[Torgo]

This is pretty much all you need to say:

Dear Such-and-such,

Here is my picture book story, "Such-and-such", which I hope you will consider for publication.

Yours sincerely,

Towerkel

For a novel, it's handy to have the word count as well.

[mommie4a]

You might go visit the Share Your Work - Children's writing forum and private message some of the members who post there (with work to share) re: your questions. Good luck! When it doubt, I always start with Google - "how to write a cover letter for children's writing" seriously - you'd be amazed at what you can find. Some publishers include samples. I'm not sure, but Jenna might even have a sample cover letter on www.absolutewrite.com (http://www.absolutewrite.com) - I know there's a sample nonfiction book proposal there.

[Lauri B]

To tell you the truth, I barely glance at the cover letter. I have no idea what most people put on them, although I'm sure it's pretty much what Torgo says:
Hi, here's my manuscript. Hope you'll publish it.

What I want to see well done is the proposal and the work itself.

[DTKelly]

Thank you for the helpful comments!


One more question, if I don't know the name of the editor, do I just put, Dear Editor, ?

[mommie4a]

You call the publishing house or magazine or market and find out the name, how to spell it and whether it's a man or woman (As in, Pat??? Chris??? etc.)

Good luck!

[Torgo]

From my point of view, this is what happens when an unsolicited manuscript turns up with the name of an editor on it: the editor opens it up, sees that it's an unsolicited, and sends it right back downstairs to join the slushpile, where it's dealt with on the same terms as all the others. We reject manuscripts anonymously and are chary of giving out names or other contact info for editors, as it's very possible to get drawn into mutually unprofitable correspondence with authors. Nevertheless, MSs arrive with all sorts of names on them, including the finance director and people who left the company years and years ago...

[Torgo]

Yep, absolutely, although it's amazing what people write in their cover letters. Some recent disturbing insights include the woman who said she would be great at writing for children because her husband says she is mentally still a child of seven. I don't know if it was supposed to come across quite so creepily as it did!

[mommie4a]

the woman who said she would be great at writing for children because her husband says she is mentally still a child of seven

OMG!!!

[Mr Underhill]

To tell you the truth, I barely glance at the cover letter. I have no idea what most people put on them, although I'm sure it's pretty much what Torgo says:
Hi, here's my manuscript. Hope you'll publish it.

What I want to see well done is the proposal and the work itself.This was my question as well, since I'm about to send out a batch of cover letters for short story submissions.

I've been an editor myself, though not in acquisitions nor in fiction, and I don't think I would spend much time looking at a cover letter. Whatever it said, I would be mentally reading it to myself as blah blah blah, here's the title, blah blah blah, please publish it, blah blah... Perhaps I might make some brief notice of any relevant qualifications and whether the author has been previously published, but that's about it.

So short but sweet is the way to go, yes?

[Lauri B]

Short and sweet is what I'd recommend. Torgo, you win the prize for the weirdest cover letters. The saddest one I received was a woman who said she wrote the manuscript she submitted because her therapist said it would help her heal from being abused. And then I had to reject it--I felt terrible. Another recent submission was by a mother on behalf of her teenage daughter: she queried me about a book that her daugher would write because her daughter needed a good project for the summer, and if she could get paid for it, it would make it like a summer job. Hmm.

So here's a caveat to people submitting: please don't put anything in your cover letter that makes you sound desperate or pathetic. It's not the way you want to represent your work. Just stick to the facts. If you have relevant expertise in a field, sure--include it. Otherwise, just keep your cover letter to, Hi, here it is, let me know, and put the selling into the proposal.

[Torgo]

Those are difficult, aren't they? I have a special letter for children's submissions, because it's too much to ask children to take a form rejection impersonally. (Adults, I feel, ought to be able to handle it...)

[aruna]

From my point of view, this is what happens when an unsolicited manuscript turns up with the name of an editor on it: the editor opens it up, sees that it's an unsolicited, and sends it right back downstairs to join the slushpile, where it's dealt with on the same terms as all the others. We reject manuscripts anonymously and are chary of giving out names or other contact info for editors, as it's very possible to get drawn into mutually unprofitable correspondence with authors. Nevertheless, MSs arrive with all sorts of names on them, including the finance director and people who left the company years and years ago...

So, what exactly is solicited? On my query, a really good publisher asked me to send in my full ms.
So, does that mean it is solicited, and does not go on the slush pile? Do I need to send a SASE in this case?

[Torgo]

Well, that depends. When we get query letters we have a form letter which goes back to the author saying, essentially, 'yes, please do send in your manuscript.' It's signed anonymously, so when the MS comes back it goes into the slushpile. That's one of the reasons we prefer to just get the MS the first time: replying to queries takes up almost as much time as dealing with submissions. We feel that in most cases it's better to evaluate the work itself rather than a query. As an unsolicited, do send a SASE.

Other publishers may look on query letters as a good filter for submissions, so you may have had a signed letter from an editor; in that case I'd imagine that if you send the MS to that person it'd get treated more quickly.

In the latter case, where you have been contacted by an editor in person, I think you only need to send a SASE if you want your work to be returned to you. It's always good to include an email address so that if the editor wants to reply to you via email they can do that. But, as they've shown positive interest, you shouldn't necessarily have to bear all the costs of the correspondence.

[aruna]

Thank you.
Yes it was the editor's PA who signed the mail. However, I don't want the ms back so I'll let ehm know that.
Thanks
A.

[DTKelly]

Okay, instead of starting a new thread, I figured I'd dig this one up.

Yes, I was bad. I never sent. :(

But I am now.

and my question... Let's say you know the editor's name, Francine Remo. When you address the letter, should it be

Dear Francine,

Dear Ms. Remo,

Dear Francine Remo,

??

[jchines]

If you're not sure of gender, I'd use the full name. Otherwise, Dear Mr./Ms. LastName.

Unless you know and are on a first-name basis with the person, don't use the first name. And even if you are, I'd be a little hesitant.... When in doubt, keep things professional.

[Cathy C]

BTW, Towerkel, just to make one thing clear.

When you say "cover letter" do you mean:

1) a letter that is placed on top of a partial or full manuscript; or

2) a letter that is requesting permission to SEND a partial or full manuscript?

#1 is a cover letter
#2 is a QUERY letter

They contain different things. The answers you're getting here are for a cover letter, which is what your title stated.

Just wanted to make sure... :) If you mean a query, then we'll need to talk some more about the contents.

Good luck with sending it!

[DTKelly]

Cover Letter is what I needed.


thanks for looking out for me though. :)

[Melisande]

I just got off the phone with an agency. They asked me to send them
1) A cover letter
2) A short autobiography
3) the first three chapters of my book
and finally they said that I could enclose a couple of sample drawings I've made to illustrate my book if I wanted to.

Is a full page too long for the autobiography?

Is five lines too short for the cover letter?

PS
Could anyone explain all the different abbrevations that are being used here?

[HapiSofi]

Short and sweet is what I'd recommend. Torgo, you win the prize for the weirdest cover letters.I have a collection. I'll stack my weirdest up against anyone's.The saddest one I received was a woman who said she wrote the manuscript she submitted because her therapist said it would help her heal from being abused. And then I had to reject it--I felt terrible.Don't. People are forever writing books as a form of therapy. Most of them are awful. If it was therapeutically useful for the author to write the book, then rejoice: there was actually some use to the thing! It's more than you can say for most submissions.Another recent submission was by a mother on behalf of her teenage daughter: she queried me about a book that her daugher would write because her daughter needed a good project for the summer, and if she could get paid for it, it would make it like a summer job. Hmm.Mmmm, a definite keeper. I hope she submits to me next. I'd love to have that one for my collection.So here's a caveat to people submitting: please don't put anything in your cover letter that makes you sound desperate or pathetic. It's not the way you want to represent your work.Do not enclose a deeply unflattering photo of yourself smiling anxiously while you hug your giant teddy bear. Do not enclose a photograph of yourself wearing only a swimsuit and a pair of feathered wings. Do not describe in detail how your sister's hateful behavior during the reading of your parents' will led you to write the book. Do not enclose a copy of the psychiatric evaluation in which the doctor mentions the fact that you're writing a book as evidence that your new anti-psychotic meds are working. Do not mention sexual relations of any kind, in any context whatsoever.Just stick to the facts. If you have relevant expertise in a field, sure--include it. Otherwise, just keep your cover letter to, Hi, here it is, let me know, and put the selling into the proposal.Amen.

I know slushreaders who've gotten to the point where they'll only look at the cover letter after they've read the submission. They've come to assume that any extraneous information is only going to irritate and distract them, and they want a clear head when they're assessing the manuscript.