How to Write a Query Letter for an Essay
Whether your passions and talents as an essayist focus on personal experiences, travel or observations about the state of the economy, there's no shortage of nonfiction literary magazines in the U.S. and abroad that welcome fresh voices. Since the competition for placement in these publications can be fairly stiff, many editors prefer to read a query letter first rather than be inundated with avalanches of manuscripts that might not be consistent with the publication's vision or appropriate for its target demographic.
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
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Identify the literary magazines that best fit the essay you've written or plan to write. This can be accomplished by perusing titles in the magazine racks at your neighborhood bookstore or looking under the Literary and "Little" consumer magazines' listings in the table of contents of "Writer's Market" (published annually by Writer's Digest Books). Familiarize yourself with the language, tone and prevalent themes of a magazine to assess whether your work is a suitably strong match.
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Review the submissions guidelines of the publications you're interested in. These guidelines can be found in the front pages of each magazine, under listings in "Writer's Market" and on the various publications' websites. Examples of the latter include: "The Antioch Review," "Quarterly West," "The Sun," "The Literary Review" and "The Atlantic."
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Compose a one-page pitch letter in which you concisely identify the nature of your essay, your personal/professional qualifications to write this piece and why you believe it will specifically appeal to the target readership of the magazine. As appropriate, use bullet points to draw attention to the most significant elements of your proposed content.
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Specify the word count of your article and whether your material is strictly a concept, a work in progress or has already been completed. For works in progress, identify your anticipated completion date. If you have won any writing awards or have prior writing credits with comparable publications, be sure to mention this.
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Send your query letter to the appropriate editor, per the publication's submission guidelines.
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Tips & Warnings
Use good quality stationery for your query letters (if not sending by email) and keep the content to one page. Editors should be able to see at a glance what your proposal is about, as opposed to wading through paragraphs of superfluous background.
Use an easy-to-read 12 pt. font such as Courier, Times New Roman or Bookman.
While many literary publications have now moved toward electronic queries, this is no excuse to let good manners slide. Always err on the side of formality in your email correspondence. If you do send a traditional letter of inquiry, always include a self-addressed, stamped envelope.
If six weeks have elapsed without a response, it's permissible to follow up on the status with a short note. Do not, however, become a pest and resort to a succession of pesky phone calls.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit Mensch und Computer 2 image by Sven Rausch from Fotolia.com
