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Title: Freelance Writers: Don't Waste Your Time with Query Letters
Author: Susan Daffron
Article:
Virtually everything ever written about freelance writing and
getting published says that you need to write query letters. Yet
in the Internet Age, the truth of the matter is that query
letters are almost always a huge waste of time.
Certainly some people do get work by writing query letters. But
the query process soon turns into a numbers game, almost like a
direct mail campaign. You have to send out so many queries to
get meaningful responses that you won't have much time left to
do any actual work. A good query letter must be carefully
crafted and painstakingly personalized. To compose one that
doesn't sound cutesy or contrived is difficult and
time-consuming.
The reality is that you must think of editors as your potential
customers. They control the budget and whether or not to buy
from you. It is NEVER a good idea to harass or inconvenience a
customer. For many busy editors, query letters are annoying.
Often they are just another form of junk mail.
Now you're probably thinking, "If editors don't read query
letters, how does anyone ever get published?" What the writing
books don't tell you is that article topics are often defined
far in advance. At many magazines, editors figure out a monthly
or yearly plan. Barring some earth-shattering catastrophe, the
editors stick to that plan. The standard query letter is usually
a waste of time because with the calendar of topics decided well
in advance, off-topic queries are ignored. In other words, your
carefully crafted query letter gets round-filed, not because
it's bad, but because it had no hope of being used.
The fact that query letters are often thrown away doesn't mean
editors don't use freelance writers; they do. But the reality is
that editors tend to rely on a stable of writers who have proven
themselves experts on the magazine's chosen topics. So if you
want to be published, your task is to discover those topics and
become one of those experts.
From an editor's point of view, few decent writers actually
exist out there in the big world. Editors have simple needs:
they want articles that are original, easy to read, accurate,
and on time.
Flakey writers that don't meet deadlines are the bane of every
editor and publisher in the industry. If you meet your
deadlines, every time with no excuses, you will stand out from
the pack. If you consistently send articles that are:
* precisely focused on a topic the magazine wants to run; *
written in the magazine's chosen style and tone; * 100% accurate
and error free; * formatted the way the magazine wants them; *
and arrive BEFORE the deadline
an editor will notice you!
Okay, so what if you've never written for that magazine before?
Instead of querying, do some research on the magazine. After you
have read the magazine and any available writer's guidelines,
write a polite letter to the editor to ask for an editorial
calendar and explain your expertise.
This method is far preferable to any query letter, no matter how
clever or well-written. Why? With some concise information about
you, often an editor can tell whether or not your writing will
be a good fit for my publication.
For example, if you say that you have written articles for
managers about "enterprise computing" and the editor works for a
"how to use Microsoft Word step by step" magazine, it's likely
that you won't be the right writer for that magazine.
However, if you explain that you spent two years teaching
"introduction to word processing" classes at your local YMCA,
and that you wrote handouts for your students about how to get
started using Microsoft Word, that same editor might just
encourage you to submit a few articles! At the very least, the
editor might send you the editorial calendar.
Don't forget the basics! Simple little things often make you
stand out from the crowd and help your chances of getting
published. For example, when writing an e-mail or letter to an
editor, always remember that you are writing to someone who
spends a lot of time with words and probably has a degree in
English or Journalism. Double-check your spelling, grammar, and
punctuation. Format properly. If you don't compose your e-mail
competently and professionally, editors won't believe that you
can write a good article.
And finally, be truthful. Don't inflate your credentials. Don't
fib about how much you know about a topic. Don't gush, and don't
sell. Just state your credentials concisely, clearly, and
correctly. Editors don't need to be sold and they have no
tolerance for hype. They're just too busy to put up with it.
About the author:
Susan Daffron is the President of Logical Expressions, Inc.
(http://www.logicalexpressions.com) and has written more than
300 newspaper and national magazine articles. She regularly
publishes ezines on computers (http://www.LogicalTips.com), pet
care (http://www.Pet-Tails.com), and other topics.
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