I’ve been involved in various writers communities of one description or another for around ten years now. I’ve read a lot of articles, forum posts, blog posts, and so on about the proper way to query editors. The general rules that are presented include:
- Use a query letter.
- Meet your deadlines.
- Submit your best work.
- Follow any stated guidelines to the letter.
- Be professional.
I’m sure there’s more to it than that, but that’s good for a start and are good general guidelines to follow.. 
Everywhere you read, these general rules are stated over and over and over again. Why? Is it really necessary to state these rules over and over again?
Judging by the kinds of queries we get at C3 magazine, yes. I don’t deal with writers and their submissions directly, only upon editing accepted articles, but with Fahim as the editor, I’ve seen most of the communications he’s had with writers, and generally, the vast majority of writers don’t follow the simple rules stated above, whether those writers are Sri Lankan or from the US or Canada or elsewhere. And let me tell you, some of the queries have been interesting!
But fact number one is that, if you’re a writer looking to publish your work, whether it’s fiction or non-fiction, books or articles, what you don’t want to do is give an editor, publisher, or agent a reason to roundfile your query. What you do want to do is give that editor, publisher, or agent every reason in the world to want to read more. The best way to do that is to follow the rules: be professional, polite, and courteous; follow the guidelines; write good quality query letters, articles, novels, or whatever you’re submitting following the punctuation, grammar, and spelling rules of the language you’re writing in; meet all your deadlines; and… Yep, that’s it.
It’s really not that hard to get the basics right and it’s well worth the time and effort involved. Over the next few days, I’m going to post a series of entries about the mistakes that are made and how to correct them.
Meanwhile, feel free to chime in with what you’ve learned about the query process.
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This post is part of a series. They can be found here:
- On Freelance Writers and Magazine Editors
- What’s In A Query Letter, Anyway?
- What’s In A Name?
- B ProfeshNul, Ya?
- Deadlines? What Deadlines?
- B ProfeshNul, Ya?
- Deadlines? What Deadlines?
- What’s In A Query Letter, Anyway?
- What’s In A Name?
- To query or not to query?
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
It sounds so simple, doesn’t it? I’m sure you have some *very* bizarre stories about writers.
Oh, yeah! I think pretty much every editor, agent, publisher, slush pile reader does.
Laurie, why not occasionally post a representation of that latest incoming query that Fahim say “You won’t believe this”
Hello Laurie!
Great post an the beginning of a super series, I expect! I would add the value of discovering an appropriate editor’s name and attempting to submit specifically to that editor.
My problem is proofing my own work. It’s so easy to skip over totally lame mistakes, and then kick yourself all over the living room because you see what you’ve just emailed an editor;)
Hey, Tony, here’s the catch about publishing other people’s emails. They own the copyright, not me, so unless I was doing an expose on a dirty business or something along those lines, I can’t just publish them here without getting the permission of the person who wrote those emails. But yes, I did notice you said “representation”. I’ve been thinking about how to do that…
The other problem is that I don’t want to alienate any potential writers or readers for the magazine. You know, thin line and all that. So I have to be a bit vague, I feel.
Kelly, you’re absolutely right! I knew I was forgetting something, but couldn’t remember what, and honestly, compared to all the other deficiencies I’ve seen, that’s really the least harmful of the lot. If a writer got everything else right but the editor’s name, personally, I’d probably still hire ‘em, you know? Especially with how hard it is to get decent writers (in English, specifically) here.
Thanks for your comments.
Good points. It all sounds so simple, but I guess a lot of people just don’t get it. Now if only I could get more editors to fall in love with my ideas…