Cover letters

gettingby

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Are you guys writing detailed and personalized cover letters for your short story submissions? Is a cover letter that shows you read the magazine and are familiar with the works they publish going to help you in any way? Or is it just the same to have a generic cover letter you use for all submissions? I'm just wondering if this matters at all. I've done it both ways, but I'm not sure if it makes any difference. If they are sending out form rejections, can we send out form cover letters? When I take the time to write a cover letter catered to a magazine sometimes I feel silly telling them what I think of an issue. Why would they care what I think? I thought I was being all deep in a cover letter to a pretty big journal. Now, I think I will be lucky even if they look at my submission after such a ridiculous attempt to look smart in a cover letter. And that submission is still out. I guess cover letters are just something I'm unsure of and haven't quite figured out how to use them to my advantage. Would love to hear what some of you think.
 

Alma Matters

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I keep it simple. Address it the the editor/s by name, mention my story title, word count, thank them for their time. Sign off and hope.

I've not tried to expand on this, and have nothing published, but don't think the two things are related...

ETA: That blog post is pretty much it.