Pack Rat File #1: Mastering the E-Query

Here's a fabulous little article full of good stuff for you nonfiction magazine query writers out there. I love writing queries myself (sick person, I know) and love giving advice on how to get them done. This article gives some great insight and thoughts on what to include in your e-query regardless of what level of writing you're at.

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Original Link: http://www.absolutewrite.com/freelance_writing/mastering_the_equery.htm

Mastering the E-query, or How I got in, got out and got the assignment

By Victoria Groves

After years of agonizing over my e-mails to editors, only to rarely hear back one way or the other, I've changed my approach. The subject line, the greeting, and each sentence in the text is purposely placed and this streamlined way of doing business has made my response rate and my freelance income increase over the past year.

An editor's mailbox fills up fast and the click of a mouse is all that separates the acceptance from the rejection. While I still enjoy putting together a query letter to an editor and attaching color copies of my clips in a precise order, I know that I'll hear back much sooner by sending it via e-mail. Most of my clips are available online, and I can easily point an editor to my website for additional information about me and my writing.

I've boiled my e-querying down to a science. In an ideal world, I would break into 10 solid publications and then make a living writing for them over and over again. But when an assignment stream dries up, a magazine folds, or when I just want to add some diversity to my clip stack, I sometimes try to carve out a new relationship with a publication outside my regular realm.

Subject line

Obviously, if you don't come up with a solid subject line, what you write in your e-mail message is irrelevant. With spam filters in place at most publications, it's important to stay away from anything that sounds too sales-y, while still enticing an editor to click and read.

If you're sending a straight query, identify it as such while also giving a hint of what the idea is about:

SUBJECT-- Query: Creating an emergency car kit

If you are responding to a query from an editor needing freelance staff, you'll likely use a subject line that is a bit different:

SUBJECT-- Freelance inquiry
SUBJECT-- Responding to your call for freelancers

If you've been referred to a particular editor by a writer already working for that publication, you're in a great position to name drop. I like to get it right in the subject line so he or she knows that I'm not querying the publication out of the blue.

SUBJECT-- Freelance inquiry, referred to you by Joe Smith

E-mail body

Congratulations! You've passed the first test and convinced an editor to open your e-mail. Now is the time to get them to read through to the end, check out your clips and hopefully give you the assignment.

Here's one approach:


Dear Mr. Freeman:

Every fall, millions of butternut squash come out of the fields of New England, and every fall, almost everyone complains about peeling them.

Now, Richard Smith has come up with the answer: the Smith Automated Butternut Peeler.

After watching area farmers struggling to find efficient ways to peel butternut squash and turnips, Smith, a welder, invented his apparatus, which now has a patent pending.

I propose a 900-word article on this new automated way to peel the squash's outer skin, leaving a thinner peel with more of the vegetable intact.

I am a freelance writer and have most recently been published in Baltimore Magazine, Chesapeake Family Newsmagazine, and the Boston Parents' Paper. I am enclosing clips for your review. Please contact me if you feel this article would be a good addition to Fresh Cut Magazine.

Here's a different approach:

Dear Ms. McIntosh:

As a Washington World reader, I would like to complement you and writer Nadja Najow for the interesting and informative article "The Wonders of Depression Glass" in the February 2003 issue.

I am a freelance writer living outside Washington D.C. and I currently write for Chesapeake Family Newsmagazine and the food department of Baltimore Magazine. I would like to propose a 1000 word article for The Home Page section of your publication called "Dinner Party Basics". The article will include quick and classy recipes and entertaining shortcuts for the Washington area hostess. Organizing a dinner party, whether for business or pleasure, does not have to an all-consuming or stressful experience. I will include interviews with area cooks, as well as a sidebar of hints on foolproof parties.

In addition to my regular assignments for local magazines, I have also been published in Womens ENews, Family Fun Magazine, and Blue Jean Magazine. I am also the writer and editor of the Dollar Diva monthly e-newsletter, a publication that teaches economic independence, entrepreneurship and philanthropy to girls and women.

To view some of my clips, please visit www.victoriagroves.net. Please contact me if you would like to discuss the possible publication of this article or any other potential assignments.

Clips

The last thing to do is to add in a way for an editor to easily access your past clips. Many editors are leery of opening attachments, so unless you don't have copies of your clips any other way, avoid presenting them in this format.

The best way to show off your skills is to direct an editor to your website. Even if you're not a web expert, there are easy and inexpensive options like www.dynamod.com. Another choice is to add links right into the body of your e-mail. But make sure that if you use the same set of links over and over again, that you check them regularly so you don't send a dead one to an editor.

By streamlining your online querying efforts, you will not only get more assignments, but you'll also find that you can send out more queries in less time. That alone should make 2008 a good one for your portfolio and your wallet.

Victoria Groves is a freelance writer living in Boston. She has been published by a variety of regional and national publications and also teaches writing courses on writing for teens and tweens, newslettering, and breaking into newspaper stringing. For more information, visit www.victoriagroves.net.