Saturday, January 1, 2011

Cover letter help

To the people who have done this:

I have finished my short story (going through the editing phase) and have written a cover letter as well. However, I am unsure if I did it correctly. Please have a read, and let me know if you see any mistakes.

Dear Susan Burmeister-Brown and Linda B. Swanson-Davis

I would like my first short story, Strophic, to receive a “full read” and become a nominee for the Very Short Fiction Award by Glimmer Train Press, Inc.

Living in California, I am a full time student who will be majoring in Creative Writing at Humboldt State University in the Spring of 2012. Most recently, I have been contributing to my community college’s athletics website to challenge my writing, as well as posting on my blog for reflection.

As a potential writer, I appreciate this opportunity and will continue to observe Glimmer Train for its sincere fulfillment.

Thank you,

MYNAMEHERE

P.S. To explain the "full read" comment - Susan (who edits first) said in an interview "If I want to turn the page, I mark that piece for “full read”. I do my full reads in a separate session..." Thanks!

3 comments:

  1. I don't know all the nuances for cover letter as opposed to query, but you usually want a sound bite of your short story. I think These people will read your cover and then decide based on the sound bite whether to read everything else. No one enters this contest to not get a full read so cut that part along with some other over explanations. I have a sample of my query letter to agents on this post. http://chrisphillipsclp.blogspot.com/2010/12/day-late-and-dollar-short.html

    Hope it helps.

    Also some suggested revisions below.

    Dear Susan Burmeister-Brown and Linda B. Swanson-Davis



    I am submitting my short story, Strophic, to become a nominee for the Very Short Fiction Award by Glimmer Train Press, Inc.

    I am a full time student who will be majoring in Creative Writing at Humboldt State University. Most recently, I have been contributing to my community college’s athletics website to challenge my writing, as well as running a writing blog. Thank you for your time.

    Sincerely,

    MYNAMEHERE


    Good luck!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I don't know much about this works as opposed to the query format, but I too think that you should add a tidbit of the story in. The way it is now it doesn't give me a clue about what would be in the "full read"

    - Amy

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm in agreement with much of what Chris said, and liked the suggested rewrites. I agree that you don't need to state what you are hoping for (why else are you submitting?) just keep it clean and professional. And I don't think the last para ("As a potential write...") does you any favours. All this is similar guidelines to query letters, especially if you follow Query Shark and the Open Query Slushpile.

    Unlike a query, though, I'm not sure that a cover letter really needs tp say anything much about the story. If you have a one-sentence sound bite which describes what it's about, then maybe, but I don't think it's needed. Remember that, unlike querying for a novel, you always send the story in along with the cover letter, and I believe the editor will go straight there rather than spending much time on the letter.

    It's a long time since I hawked a short story around for publication, but the cover letters I sent were extremely bare. I'm sure I did a lot of research on this at the time to uncover "best practice". Mind you, I didn't succeed in getting it published either, so please take any of my advice with a grain of salt :D

    Good luck
    Ian

    ReplyDelete

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