getting ready to submit

[emeraldcite]

I'm getting ready to submit a story that deals with religion, but it is not "christian fiction." I don't want a mag to think that the story is within this genre. Should I specifically mention this in my cover letter that the story contains religious content but is not "christian fiction"?

[Summonere]

emeraldcite:

Unless they asked for a cover letter, don't bother with one. Just send the story. They'll decide whether they like it or not. They'll also decide whether they think it's a "Christian fiction" story or not. Question is, does the story you wrote fit the requirements of the market? If it does, everything's cool. If not ... well, perhaps there are other market more closely to be considered.

[aka eraser]

I think there's a couple of ways around it, including Summonere's suggestion. Even if you do send a short cover letter, it needn't do much more than introduce your story by title and word count. Let the content speak for itself.

If you do want to give the editor a one or two sentence precis, perhaps you could use a word like "spiritual" and avoid the words "religion" and "christian."