Cover letters for short stories

If you click above on 'search this forum' and type in 'cover letters', it will pull up several threads where this has been discussed...with varying opinions.

I include a cover letter in email subs where they request an attachment, just because I'm uncomfortable sending a blank email with an attachment, and yes, I include relevent credits. Short and to the point, no description of the plot of the story, but I do mention the title and word count.

When sending snail-mail, I typically only send a cover if requested in the guidelines, because all the relevant information is on the first page of the story (i.e. where to send the contract and the check).

I pretty much do the same as Siddow for cover letters for short fiction, except I also send even if they don't specifically ask for them in the guidelines. If the submission is for a specific edition of the magazine (if it's themed or something), I'll add that somewhere in the letter.

And I send basically the same thing for email submissions. I hate sending a blank email with just "Submission: _____" whatever as the subject.

Here's my standard:

Dear _____ (Editor name if you have it):

I would like to submit my short fiction piece,______, for consideration for publication in _____. It is approximately _____ words.

My fiction has appeared in _______.

I have included an SASE for your response. I look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you for your time and consideration.



Hope that helps!
Leesa

Mine is almost identical to Leesa's.

One thing I'll add. When I list credentials, I rarely list more than two or three, and I only list credentials that might carry some weight. In other words, a non-paying credit might be good if you're submitting to another non-paying market, but a top-tier market probably won't care.

And a Publish America credential is worse than none at all.

These days, my novels might get me out of the slush with certain markets, but mostly it's the story itself that will make or break you. Keep the cover letter short and to the point, and let the story speak for itself.

Cover letter

List your best sales in the first paragraph. If you list them last, an editor may not read them. Thinking the editor will read past the first paragraph is a mistake.

I've also known quite a few editors who hate it beyond measure when writers tell them they're sending the story so you'll consider it for publication.

Why else would you be sending the editor a story, for God's sake? What, you just want him to read it and send it back?

And, what, you don't have the word count on page one?

And do not tell the editor about the story in the cover letter.

A good cover letter is about you, not about the story. If you have credits, or something else that qualifies you to write a story, list them up front. But if you have nothing to say, then say nothing, rather than wasting an editor's time telling him you have nothing to say.

Jamesaritchie said:

List your best sales in the first paragraph. If you list them last, an editor may not read them. Thinking the editor will read past the first paragraph is a mistake.

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Which brings up the question: If you don't have any useful credits to brag about, why send a cover letter at all? If the editor isn't going to read beyond the first paragraph of a submission, I'd prefer the first paragraph he isn't going to read beyond to be the first paragraph of the story, not the first paragraph of the cover letter.

And if the editor is going to be so hung up on prior credits that he won't read any of the story if you don't have any, what's the point of submitting to that editor, anyway? Every time I see a request for "previous publications" or the like, it sets a red flag waving in my head.

caw

At work I look over a lot of pieces of paper with the same general layout. I scan them quickly to see customer name, jobsite, and the major rental items they have out. I would have to imagine that editors are much the same way. They don't read cover letters, they scan them. 'Fantasy', '4000 words', 'Story X in F&SF July 2006' is all they see.

Jamesaritchie said:

I've also known quite a few editors who hate it beyond measure when writers tell them they're sending the story so you'll consider it for publication.

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I guess that's the thing, isn't it? "Some editors". Each editor has their individual preferences and if it's not spelled out in their guidelines, take your best shot at it.

I mean, what's the worst they're going to do - reject you?!?!

And my word count is always on the first page of a story, but I figure if they're asking for a cover letter, they probably want to see the word count somewhere on there, too. I've been wrong before, though.

Blacbird, I see red flags with editors that ask for prior publishing credits, too. I'd like to think they actually give as much consideraition to those withou, but sometimes I think I might be too optimistic.

Tymolee said:

I mean, what's the worst they're going to do - reject you?!?!

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They can hire Italian guys with nice suits and sunglasses to come to your house and kidnap your first-born son.

. . . which, come to think of it, might not be such a bad . . .

caw

Tymolee's skeleton cover letter is good to go. But the real secret is sending good stories. ;-) Really, if your cover letter makes you sound like a genius, and your first paragraph is unreadable, forget it. If you always send good work, just a hello will do. The story is the final word on whether they will like the story or not.

I know when I was an editor, I'd see some names that made me want to open them right away, and others that were, "Oh no, not the crazy guy from Kansas again."

The word count belongs on page one, a.k.a. "standard manuscript format." The main factors in a cover letters are:

- sounding human (preferably a polite human)
- if the work is a reprint, where it has been published before

Good luck.

blacbird said:

Which brings up the question: If you don't have any useful credits to brag about, why send a cover letter at all?

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Because it's the accepted professional practice. Not to mention common courtesy.

Would you be happy about getting your MS back with nothing attached? Not even a form rejection slip?

blacbird said:

They can hire Italian guys with nice suits and sunglasses to come to your house and kidnap your first-born son.

. . . which, come to think of it, might not be such a bad . . .

caw

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And if it were my son on a bad day, they'd promptly bring him back.

Cover letter

If you have no credits, or anything else that tells an editor why you should be writing the story, a cover letter most often isn't necessary. Editors don't buy cover letters, they buy stories.

Flay said:

Because it's the accepted professional practice. Not to mention common courtesy.

Would you be happy about getting your MS back with nothing attached? Not even a form rejection slip?

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Jamesaritchie said:

If you have no credits, or anything else that tells an editor why you should be writing the story, a cover letter most often isn't necessary. Editors don't buy cover letters, they buy stories.

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Stands to reason that both views are valid.

Without mind-reading powers I can't tell how many editors mind the envelope with nothing in it but the manuscript and SASE aside from those who have explicity said so. Most editors should at least be used to it since it is recommended often enough for it to be common (assuming it's a writer without significant credits).

On the other hand, I've read some editors consider the cover letter a simple professional courtesy, like wearing a tie to a job interview. Obviously they consider the story more important, but basic courtesies and first impressions count too. They are also factors to determine whether you want to do business with the other person, albeit small ones.

I agree that getting a manuscript back with no rejection slip -- and since I send disposable manuscripts, in my case the analogy would be receiving my business-size SASE back empty -- would be annoying indeed and make a horrible impression on me regarding that publisher or editor. I can't imagine how an extremely brief cover letter could be nearly as annoying. Although I'm in favor of making a cover letter the skeletal kind that requires no more than a glance, there's such a thing as minimum professional courtesies whether everyone insists on them or not. I'd rather err on the side of caution in assuming that turning my cover letter aside is not a big deal to a normal editor already doing the job of unpacking my manuscript.

AzBobby said:

Although I'm in favor of making a cover letter the skeletal kind that requires no more than a glance, there's such a thing as minimum professional courtesies whether everyone insists on them or not. I'd rather err on the side of caution in assuming that turning my cover letter aside is not a big deal to a normal editor already doing the job of unpacking my manuscript.

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I certainly agree that "the skeletal kind" is best. An editor with a great stack of MSS to plow through may not pay much attention to a cover letter anyway (except for those always-entertaining ones that begin with large blocks of all-caps, obscenity-laced paranoid ranting).