Mridu Khullar

In my first year of freelancing, my querying habits went a little like this: send a query, finish the assignment, query another magazine, finish the assignment, and so on. When the assignment for the first magazine would be done, I’d neatly wrap it up, complete with thank you notes and meticulous records, and then concentrate on the next assignments I had in line. Next time an idea struck for the same magazine, I’d query them again.

But in my first year of freelancing, I also lost out on getting personal with my editors and in turn, commanding more assignments. Once you finish an assignment for an editor, you stand a much higher chance of landing another one immediately. Since I’d keep waiting for another hot idea to strike, I was beginning each new assignment on a fresh note. Too much time would have gone by and I would then have to rebuild each relationship, recreate the trust and re-negotiate each contract. I was getting frustrated.

Had I chucked that “the editor’s the boss” advice right down the drain where it belonged, I’d be getting more assignments with less effort. Now, I finish each assignment with an informal note, “Great working with you! Is there anything else you might need for upcoming issues?” or I’ll just send another query. Or when I get my contributor’s copies, I’ll write to the editor to thank her for sending them and let her know what I thought of how the article turned out.

That way, my name is constantly in front of the editor, and the next time I send a query letter, I won’t have to remind her that I’m the writer who wrote the cover story last year. She’ll already know.

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