Writing Cover Letters
November 9, 2009
I saw a great post about writing cover letters while Googling on the topic. (Wondering if there is something I should show my creative writing students, or if talking about publication is too misleading when they aren’t ready to publish — is it good to get some info early, or will it just be a distraction for them?) The post is geared towards people writing SF but relevant for any writer, really.
When I edited dandelion, one of my pet peeves was when people summarized their stories in cover letters. Writers do this because many books and articles on writing cover letters suggest it for some reason. Don’t. Don’t summarize your story in a cover letter. Don’t provide a one-sentence “hook” to convince the editor to read the story. Don’t say it is like story X by author Y. Just don’t.
You may have done this, and had your story published. That means your story was good enough for the editor to overlook this horrible flaw in your cover letter. It means that despite your best attempt to defuse interest and kill suspense, or otherwise oversimplify in the grossest terms and sell your story short, you managed to craft a compelling fiction. So congratulations to you, and don’t do this again in your future cover letters.
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