by Joelle Steele
Querying is something that every writer needs to be able to do in order to get articles and books published. Many books and articles have been written about querying, and the Writer’s Market usually includes a section on querying methods. This is how I handle querying.
Query letters are almost entirely done by email these days. They require five things: 1) one short introductory paragraph that describes the article or book; 2) one short paragraph that describes why the publisher’s readers would like to read your proposed article or book; 3) one short paragraph that describes your credentials for writing the article or book; 4) a short closing paragraph that says something along the lines of “Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to hearing from you soon”; and 5) all your contact information – name, address, phone number(s), email address, and website address.
That first introductory paragraph does not need to be cutesy or “captivating.” I start mine by simply saying “I am seeking a publisher for my (article/book) entitled “Blah blah blah.” In the second paragraph I mention that my article or book might be complementary to or a good companion piece to certain articles or books they have published previously. As for the third paragraph, if you haven’t been published, you should state that you have a degree in English (or some other subject), or that you write the newsletter for a club you belong to, or you write reports for your employer, etc. If you have several article ideas for the same magazine, you can mention in the fourth paragraph that you also have some other ideas they might want to consider, and that they are at the end of the email where you can write just a very short paragraph for each, something along the lines of “Title: This article is about the …” In that way, I have often sold as many as eight articles to a magazine in one fell swoop, although they will not all appear at the same time.
As for knowing what subjects to query and who to query, I go to the library and go through the Writer’s Market once a year and write down the names of all the magazines for which I have sufficient subject knowledge to write an article. Every week, I go to the library to look at magazines, and I do the same online. I also subscribe to magazines that are not listed in Writer’s Market and that don’t publish everything online that is in their print editions. For every magazine that I think is a potential market for my writing, I get a copy of their writer’s guidelines. All this research allows me to familiarize myself with what everyone is publishing and how my article ideas might fit in – or not. I don’t want to query a publisher for a subject they already published last year or last month, and publishers want writers who are familiar with their publications, the style of the writing, the subject matter, and who their readers are.
I query a lot of publishers on a lot of subjects, and I send out my query letters every month, often every week. This is especially important for those who are trying to get published for the first time, which usually means an article in a magazine. Trying to get a book published when you have no published credentials to back up your writing ability is a waste of time for most first-time writers. Although these days it is a little easier to get a book publisher’s attention if your book is already written, and professionally edited, and proofed.
Querying monthly (at the very least) helps prevent sales slumps that occur when you query like crazy in March, get writing assignments from those queries in June, then write the articles from July through September that won’t be published until November and December, for which you won’t get paid until February. And during all that time, you have no writing income and have to start querying all over again, and a year has gone by!
Get a good-sized desk calendar and map out when, what, and who you are going to query. Many or most magazines publish their editorial calendars that show the kinds of articles they will be publishing during certain times of the year. Query them on those topics at least six months before the article would likely appear if accepted. The more often you query and the more publishers you query with a wide variety of article ideas, the more likely you are to get published and be able to make your living, at least in part, from your writing.
