The Perfect Cover Letter: Advice From a Lit Mag Editor
When submitting your short-form literature to a magazine or journal, your cover letter is often the first piece of writing an editor sees. It serves as an introduction to your thoughtfully crafted art. As such, it is significant, but it shouldn't be intimidating or even take much time to write. As editor at 2 Elizabeths, I see a variety of ...
How to Write a Cover Letter for a Literary Journal Submission
If a magazine lists Fiction Editor, Poetry Editor, or Nonfiction Editor on its masthead or about page, address your cover letter to the specific editor. If no names are provided, simply address it ...
How to Write a Cover Letter for a Literary Journal, Magazine, or
If you truly can't find information about the editor, consider using "Dear Editors," "Dear Readers," "To whom it may concern:" or "Dear [Journal].". 2 Short and simple. Your first sentence should convey why you are writing this cover letter. If you're submitting a short story, editors will often want to know the word count.
How to Write a Literary Magazine Cover Letter
So, there you have it: the perfect cover letter for a literary magazine submission. One more tip: although you don't want your letter to be overly familiar, if you share a genuine connection ...
Cover Letters: Advice from a Literary Magazine Editor
This advice is unique to this editor and to prose, but I'll wager it covers a lot of things folks like to see in cover letters in general. The no nos are easy: Don't "Dear editor" me. Don't say something like "most people think I'm drunk or on cocaine when they read my work.". And for God's sake, do not say your writing is ...
How to Write a Cover Letter for a Poetry Submission
3 Elements of a Good Cover Letter. As a general rule, the perfect cover letter will accomplish three things: 1. An introduction: Introduce yourself and the work you are presenting. 2. A respectful tone: Show proper respect for the literary journals, magazines, or publishing houses to which you are submitting. 3.
How To Write a Covering Letter
An agent's advice. Here is the advice of literary agent Simon Trewin on writing an introductory letter: " Life is short and less is more. No letter should be more than one side of A4 and in a good-sized (12pt) clear typeface. Sell yourself. The covering letter is one of the most important pages you will ever write.
6 Tips for Perfect (Professional) Cover Letters for Literary Magazines
As Michael Nye, Editor of the Missouri Review says, sending a cover letter with your submission is "like wearing a suit to an interview." Don't let your submissions to literary magazines show up naked! It's easy to feel stressed about this part of the process of submitting to literary magazines: the cover letter (duh-duh dun….).
How to Write a Submission Cover Letter That Will Wow Literary Agents
Use a standard business letter format with your contact information at the top, followed by the agent's details and the date. Address the agent by name if possible, as it shows you've done your research and personalized the letter. Next, introduce yourself and mention the title of your manuscript.
Submission Series
How to Craft a Cover Letter. Most literary magazines and journals will ask you to include a brief cover letter to accompany the packet of poems you're submitting. Although most publications will not disqualify a submission based on the cover letter, it is important to make a professional first impression.
How to Craft the Perfect Literary Cover Letter
Sign your name on a white piece of paper. Take a picture of it. Send the picture to yourself. Save it on your computer as a JPEG. Position your mouse at the spot where you would like the signature to go in your cover letter Word doc., and click. Go to the toolbar -> Insert-> Picture-> Picture from file.
Submitting to Literary Magazines
Writing Cover Letters: The Adroit Journal has a great piece explaining the ins and outs of cover letter writing. Submission Opportunities: Driftwood Press: Where Else to Submit The Invisible Art of Literary Editing: an in-depth look into the inner workings of literary magazines.
Cover Letters for Literary Magazines • Mandie Hines Author
A cover letter to a literary magazine may be the simplest thing you can write, and yet writers often overcomplicate the process and make the wrong impression. ... Following the instructions very carefully for Clarkesworld Magazine's online submission process, my cover letter resulted in one substantive sentence, the salutations, and my ...
Lit Mag Submissions 101: How, When, and Where to Send Your Work
How Literary Magazines Read Submissions. ... Cover letters are typically given only a quick glance and are almost never a deciding factor for a submission. Your cover letter should be short and sweet along these lines. Dear [editor's name], I loved [piece X and Y] from your last issue. My own work has been previously published in [list three ...
How to Properly Format Your Prose Submission
Submitting your work to literary magazines can be fraught with uncertainty about everything from what to put in the cover letter (lucky for you, we've already answered that here) to how you should format your submission.As a former reader at The Masters Review and for Carve's 2017 Raymond Carver Short Story Contest, I read more than 600 submissions last year, and it's clear that many ...
Submitting to Literary Magazines [The Ultimate Guide]
Submit an article to one of the groups at a time starting with the group of the 5 most desirable magazines you'd like to be published in. Once you've received rejections from all of those, then move on to the next 5, and so forth. It's also ideal if you have more than one polished piece available.
cover letters for lit mags
A cover letter for a poetry literary magazine has few elements, and you can basically just use a template with a few optional add-ons. Here is an example cover letter from one of my submissions: Here is another: Both of these examples had poems accepted from these submissions, so at least that's some evidence I'm not wildly out of touch ...
Writing Submissions for Magazines: How to Submit Writing to a Magazine
When it comes to fiction, magazines expect writers to submit the complete manuscript with a cover letter or note (more on that below). Most short stories run 1,500 to 5,000 words. Anything shorter is usually considered flash fiction or short short stories; some places do accept longer works, but it gets more difficult to find markets.
Strange Horizons
Here are a few examples of good cover letters. Feel free to use any of them as a template for your own letter. Very Basic Cover Letter: Dear Editors, Please consider the following story for Strange Horizons. Thank you. Sincerely, A. I. Robotsky. Cover Letter with Credits:
Answers to Writing Questions
A cover letter accompanying a submission to a journal or magazine can be short and simple. Indicate that you're submitting the work for consideration, but don't say much—if anything—about the work. In these kinds of submissions, you include the story, essay or poems along with the cover letter. So, let the creative work speak for itself.
Writers who have experience submitting to literary magazines, what's
Don't pad your cover letter with a bunch of dumb junk. Editors don't care. Dear editor, A sentence or two, then a bio at the end. Don't say how much you loved x issue or x writer. If your work is good it says more about you if you're just professional and let the work speaks for itself. Keep an excel spreadsheet of your submissions.
How To Submit Your Short Story To The New Yorker
If you want to submit your own literary short story, you'll need to make sure your work and cover letter stand out among the competition. If you're short on time, here's a quick overview: To submit to The New Yorker, email your story as a Word doc or .rtf file under 5,000 words. Include a cover letter with details about your work.
COMMENTS
When submitting your short-form literature to a magazine or journal, your cover letter is often the first piece of writing an editor sees. It serves as an introduction to your thoughtfully crafted art. As such, it is significant, but it shouldn't be intimidating or even take much time to write. As editor at 2 Elizabeths, I see a variety of ...
If a magazine lists Fiction Editor, Poetry Editor, or Nonfiction Editor on its masthead or about page, address your cover letter to the specific editor. If no names are provided, simply address it ...
If you truly can't find information about the editor, consider using "Dear Editors," "Dear Readers," "To whom it may concern:" or "Dear [Journal].". 2 Short and simple. Your first sentence should convey why you are writing this cover letter. If you're submitting a short story, editors will often want to know the word count.
So, there you have it: the perfect cover letter for a literary magazine submission. One more tip: although you don't want your letter to be overly familiar, if you share a genuine connection ...
This advice is unique to this editor and to prose, but I'll wager it covers a lot of things folks like to see in cover letters in general. The no nos are easy: Don't "Dear editor" me. Don't say something like "most people think I'm drunk or on cocaine when they read my work.". And for God's sake, do not say your writing is ...
3 Elements of a Good Cover Letter. As a general rule, the perfect cover letter will accomplish three things: 1. An introduction: Introduce yourself and the work you are presenting. 2. A respectful tone: Show proper respect for the literary journals, magazines, or publishing houses to which you are submitting. 3.
An agent's advice. Here is the advice of literary agent Simon Trewin on writing an introductory letter: " Life is short and less is more. No letter should be more than one side of A4 and in a good-sized (12pt) clear typeface. Sell yourself. The covering letter is one of the most important pages you will ever write.
As Michael Nye, Editor of the Missouri Review says, sending a cover letter with your submission is "like wearing a suit to an interview." Don't let your submissions to literary magazines show up naked! It's easy to feel stressed about this part of the process of submitting to literary magazines: the cover letter (duh-duh dun….).
Use a standard business letter format with your contact information at the top, followed by the agent's details and the date. Address the agent by name if possible, as it shows you've done your research and personalized the letter. Next, introduce yourself and mention the title of your manuscript.
How to Craft a Cover Letter. Most literary magazines and journals will ask you to include a brief cover letter to accompany the packet of poems you're submitting. Although most publications will not disqualify a submission based on the cover letter, it is important to make a professional first impression.
Sign your name on a white piece of paper. Take a picture of it. Send the picture to yourself. Save it on your computer as a JPEG. Position your mouse at the spot where you would like the signature to go in your cover letter Word doc., and click. Go to the toolbar -> Insert-> Picture-> Picture from file.
Writing Cover Letters: The Adroit Journal has a great piece explaining the ins and outs of cover letter writing. Submission Opportunities: Driftwood Press: Where Else to Submit The Invisible Art of Literary Editing: an in-depth look into the inner workings of literary magazines.
A cover letter to a literary magazine may be the simplest thing you can write, and yet writers often overcomplicate the process and make the wrong impression. ... Following the instructions very carefully for Clarkesworld Magazine's online submission process, my cover letter resulted in one substantive sentence, the salutations, and my ...
How Literary Magazines Read Submissions. ... Cover letters are typically given only a quick glance and are almost never a deciding factor for a submission. Your cover letter should be short and sweet along these lines. Dear [editor's name], I loved [piece X and Y] from your last issue. My own work has been previously published in [list three ...
Submitting your work to literary magazines can be fraught with uncertainty about everything from what to put in the cover letter (lucky for you, we've already answered that here) to how you should format your submission.As a former reader at The Masters Review and for Carve's 2017 Raymond Carver Short Story Contest, I read more than 600 submissions last year, and it's clear that many ...
Submit an article to one of the groups at a time starting with the group of the 5 most desirable magazines you'd like to be published in. Once you've received rejections from all of those, then move on to the next 5, and so forth. It's also ideal if you have more than one polished piece available.
A cover letter for a poetry literary magazine has few elements, and you can basically just use a template with a few optional add-ons. Here is an example cover letter from one of my submissions: Here is another: Both of these examples had poems accepted from these submissions, so at least that's some evidence I'm not wildly out of touch ...
When it comes to fiction, magazines expect writers to submit the complete manuscript with a cover letter or note (more on that below). Most short stories run 1,500 to 5,000 words. Anything shorter is usually considered flash fiction or short short stories; some places do accept longer works, but it gets more difficult to find markets.
Here are a few examples of good cover letters. Feel free to use any of them as a template for your own letter. Very Basic Cover Letter: Dear Editors, Please consider the following story for Strange Horizons. Thank you. Sincerely, A. I. Robotsky. Cover Letter with Credits:
A cover letter accompanying a submission to a journal or magazine can be short and simple. Indicate that you're submitting the work for consideration, but don't say much—if anything—about the work. In these kinds of submissions, you include the story, essay or poems along with the cover letter. So, let the creative work speak for itself.
Don't pad your cover letter with a bunch of dumb junk. Editors don't care. Dear editor, A sentence or two, then a bio at the end. Don't say how much you loved x issue or x writer. If your work is good it says more about you if you're just professional and let the work speaks for itself. Keep an excel spreadsheet of your submissions.
If you want to submit your own literary short story, you'll need to make sure your work and cover letter stand out among the competition. If you're short on time, here's a quick overview: To submit to The New Yorker, email your story as a Word doc or .rtf file under 5,000 words. Include a cover letter with details about your work.