Mridu Khullar Relph » Query Letters That Sell

Magazine articles are known for their reader-friendliness and the ability to impart useful information in an easy-to-understand manner, not literary prose. Bury your thesaurus in the stacked office paperwork and quit trying to be perfect. Chances are, no matter how many times you rewrite that lead, you still won’t be 100% happy with it.

While how you write is, no doubt, very important, the core of the query letter is your idea and how you propose to execute it. Don’t spend hours and hours poring over each word making it ooze will excellent; write it to the best of your ability, proofread a couple of times, and send it out. A query that’s amazingly witty, well-written, and funny at all the right places does no one any good if it doesn’t ever get sent out.

My course of action is to write the pitch, proofread it a couple of times, and hopefully catch any glaring errors that may have skipped past me the first time. Then I send it out. The less I dwell on each query letter, the better for both my productivity and my ego.

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Keep ‘em on the Move

When a query comes back rejected, what do you do? Cry? Yeah, me too. But what do you do after that? Jot down a quick note in your submission tracker, place the e-mail in a special “Rejected” folder and hope that your luck will be better next time?

How about increasing the circulation?

No, not your dead brain cells. I mean the query. Whenever something comes back to me rejected, I copy the whole pitch to a new e-mail message, hunt out another market where that article could be placed, change the name of the editor and magazine, fill in the e-mail address, and send it off. Immediately. How much time did that take? Ten seconds? Fifteen maybe?

I’ll then take a close look at the market it came from. If it’s a market I’m particularly interested in, I’ll probably have a couple of ideas lying around for it already. If not, I’ll browse through the magazine’s website again, check out back issues, and do whatever I need to do to find another idea that would fit into that magazine. Another query is written and sent off to the assigning editor with “I’m sorry you couldn’t use that idea. Here’s another one that might better suit your needs”.

That’s two queries sent out for each rejection. Not only am I making sure that all my ideas stay in rotation, but that no market is left untapped of its potential. And I just sent two queries. That’s a day’s worth of queries I just ticked off my schedule.

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Boss Yourself Around

It’s one thing for me to keep blabbering about sending out five queries a day; it’s a whole other battle trying to do it. Most writers will kick off their week by feeling productive and sending out dozens of pitches. By the end of the week, it’s a different scenario. Their hair will be ruffled, why-am-doing-this thoughts reign high, and the mounting pile of rejections brings a whole new meaning to the word depression. Don’t worry. It happens to the best of us.

But there’s a way out: goal-setting. At the beginning of each week, set targets for yourself that you simply have to meet. If you don’t, you have to work overtime just like you did when you worked a regular job. If you’ve assigned yourself the task of getting three query letters out by six in the evening, make sure that when six in the evening arrives, you’re done with your work. Glue your butt to the seat if you have to, post a “Do NOT Disturb… unless you have cash” sign outside your office door, turn off the e-mail software, and vow to stop being lured by daytime television. You’re a professional, and you have work to do.

One way that’s worked for me is to keep a weekly tab, instead of a daily one. If I know I need to send ten query letters a week, I might start the week by sending out five on Monday and Tuesday, and then one or two till the end of the week. As long as I’ve finished my assigned number, I’m doing okay. That way, if I’m busy on another project or feeling completely deprived of energy one day, I don’t have to beat myself up about it. Just so long as I’m making up for it by the end of the week.

You might have other ways to motivate yourself or set and accomplish goals. But however you choose to do it, keep yourself accountable.

***

Follow Nike’s Advice– Just Do It!

There’ll come a time when you’ve done everything you need to– organized your entire writing material, collected markets and ideas, scheduled time for writing, and even warned to throw out your boyfriend’s iPhone should he disturb you. Now the only thing left for you to do is write.

So stop the planning and get down to it. Talking about writing is good, but actually writing? Even better. There’s no point to any of this advice if you don’t actually do it. Half the part of becoming a successful and well-paid writer is to walk the walk, so to speak. Don’t wait until tomorrow for the next writing newsletter to arrive with more markets, or for a new hot idea to strike. Work with what you have. The process is never-ending. The market list will never be completely finished. You’ll hopefully continue to come up with brilliant ideas. But eventually, you’ll run out of time. Make sure you’re doing more than just the planning.

Get started this week, this hour, this very minute. In fact, close your browser window right now, and get started on today’s queries.

Good luck! May your ideas never go out of vogue!

***

And with that, dear writers, we finish the lessons. I’ll post successful query letters in the coming days. In the meantime, share with me your successes, what worked for you, and what didn’t.

20 Feb 2008 QLTS: 10.2 - Smart Querying 1

Author: Mridu Khullar Relph | Category: Query Letters That Sell | Tags: organization, Query Letters That Sell, systems | Leave a Comment

Beg, Borrow or Steal… Time

Everyone’s busy. I’m busy, you’re busy, your neighbor’s dog is busy. And while that’s become the catchphrase of this generation, don’t let it become your crutch. Don’t get paralyzed into thinking that because you have a life full of responsibilities, you can’t have anything else. Many successful writers have written books while working full-time jobs, managing kids underfoot, and living through financial, emotional and physical hardships. They wrote, published and promoted their books in the same twenty-four hours that you have. The only difference is that they probably learned fairly quickly that dreams come with a price tag. They needed to give up something in order to get that finished novel, book or query letter.

Your dreams have that price tag, too. The question is, what are you willing to give up in return for them? When I found that my day was falling too short, I started keeping a daily journal of time spent. What that did for me was tell me how much I’d achieved each day, and whether I was really working as hard as I thought I was. Turns out, checking e-mail every 2.6 seconds does into your time. As does posting on message boads, answering writing group e-mails as soon as they arrive, and discussing with fellow writing class participants why my mom is being unfair in thinking I should learn to cook.

Point being, even if you’ve been convincing yourself that you’re only networking with fellow writers so that you have another person who’ll help promote your book, or a friend to guide you when you get that contract from Random House, or someone who could maybe refer you to Oprah, you’re only pretending to write. A lot of work is writing-related but it’s not writing. Keeping a tab on your time will help you eliminate the unnecessary jobs and write.

Cut back on the luxuries, too. What’s more important: watching daytime television or finishing that query letter?

And finally, figure out what your high energy times are. Some people like to get up early in the morning before everyone else is awake, and use that morning freshness to bring sunshine to the page. Others, like me, find they’re less distracted at night when doorbells don’t ring, people don’t call, and there’s a huge stretch of time lying in front of them. Whatever be your preference, stick to it. If you’ve decided to get up at five in the morning each day to write two queries, get up and do it.

Sacrifice. That’s what success is all about.

***

Three at a Time

I rarely come up with a single idea. I come up with them in multiples of three. That’s because I take the initial spark of an idea and try to transform it into something that would fit into a number of different magazines. So my query on how busy women can keep fit won’t just be sent to a women’s magazine, but a magazine for working women (”The One-Minute Fitness Program for Executives”), a parenting magazine (”Fitness Tips for the Time-Crunched Mommy”), and maybe a general women’s magazine (”Fitness on a Stopwatch”).

That way, while the basic query letter remains essentially the same, I’ve re-slanted it to meet the needs of several non-competing markets. Much better than simultaneously submitting. Not just that, I’ve also kept my daily goal of two queries, plus a nice extra.

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Fill-in-the-Blanks

In order for this fast, machine-like approach to work, you need to have a query letter that has a good chance of selling. Sending out pitches by the dozen isn’t going to do you much good if it’s riddled with mistakes and editor turn-offs. You need to develop something that’s not only tried-and-tested, but something that works for you.

For service pieces, I have a handy template. All I really need to do is fill in the blanks with my material and I’m good to go. You’ll probably develop your own templates in time. Meanwhile, feel free to borrow mine.

(A word of caution: this template will NOT work for profiles, trend pieces, or news reports. Only straight-up service pieces, usually ones with several subheads or bullet points.)

Dear [Name of Editor]:

[Intriguing hook + short introduction]

[Why the article is important to her readers + quote from expert]

“Name of Article” will discuss [precise angle of my piece]. Some of the major points that I’ll cover are:

* A bulleted list
* of main points
* of the article.

I’ll include many more ideas on how to [solve the problem]. For the piece, I plan to interview [name of experts, if appropriate].

A bit about me: I’m a freelance journalist based in New Delhi, India. I have written for [list of credits].

Thanks for your time and attention. I look forward to hearing from you.

Warm Regards,
Mridu Khullar

***

Become a Market Collector

A common problem among writers is that after they’ve come up with their ideas and succeeding slants, they simply can’t locate the markets to place them. Trying to mix and match then, is a lost cause, and a huge waste of time. That’s why I suggest collecting markets as and when they come to you. Don’t hit the delete key when you receive a newsletter with aviation markets; you never know when it could come in handy. If you’re concentrating on being a fitness writer, but come across a listing for a high-paying personal finance magazine, store it away for later. Who knows, a few months later you may have changed gears or might have a fitness idea that could do well in a personal finance magazine, like how to find the best deals on workout gear, maybe?

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Join the Dots

Putting together a pitch is like joining together pieces of a puzzle. Your ideas sit in one folder on your computer, markets in another, and your query template in another. Now all you need to do is match each of the elements. You pick out an idea, match it to a market, get the relevant experts from your Rolodex, and write up the query.

Sounds easy, doesn’t it? And while this methodology may seem mechanical and lacking in creative energy and luscious prose, it’s really not. Once you’ve put together the elements, you’re free to pump in as much creativity as you want. A preliminary step-by-step approach simply ensures that you don’t waste all your time and energy in hunting for ideas and markets instead of focusing it on the actual writing.

The best way to do this is, of course, to stay organized. Keep a separate idea notebook where you can jot down all ideas that strike, make a separate folder on your computer for experts, and store all the markets you’ve ever come across in clearly identified folders. Organization’s not my forte, but hey, once in a while I do get around to doing it, and when I do, it works!

19 Feb 2008 QLTS: 10.1 - 5 Queries a Day?

Author: Mridu Khullar Relph | Category: Query Letters That Sell | Tags: assignments, productivity, Query Letters That Sell | Leave a Comment

I don’t know about you, but I’ve found that the more queries I send out, the more responses I receive. And the more responses I receive, the more acceptances come popping into my world. So if my acceptance percentage is 11% and I’m sending ten queries a week, I know I’ll probably land one assignment by the end of the week. Whenever the going’s a bit rough, or I need more work, I need to send double that amount.

I wrote the above paragraph about three years ago, when my percentage was indeed, 11%. Today it’s about 90%. Needless to say, if I send out about five ideas out each month, I’ll get four assignments. However, this is only with the markets I’m already working with. Since I also aspire to break into new and higher-paying markets each year, I intentionally bring down this percentage by pitching to markets that are new to me, and sending them ideas that while I could have easily sold elsewhere, may not be accepted by new-to-me editors.

But coming to you– if you’re a new writer, your percentage initially may be between 5-10%. That’s normal. But to get an assignment then, the number of queries sent out need to be more, too. A 10% success rate means you’ll get one assignment for every ten queries you send. That’s why successful writers advocate sending out as many query letters as you possibly can. And that’s probably where the whole 5-queries-a-day idea came from.

As ridiculous as it may sound, it is possible to send out five queries a day. I’ve done it. Many new writers I know do it. It’s highly unlikely that you’ll want to continue on this strict regimen in the long run though. For one, you’ll increase your acceptance rate as you get more familiar with editors and better at spotting good ideas and writing these pitches. And two, you do need the time to actually do the assignments these query letters bring in, right?

A lot depends, too, on how dedicated you are to writing articles for magazines, how genuinely fantastic your pitches are, and how many other writing projects and commitments you have. If you’re already working a day job, writing a book, and are a single parent with three kids under the age of five… are you kidding me? Go get some sleep! On the other hand, if you can positively take out a couple of hours each day to not only send pitches, but to complete the incoming assignments, you should most definitely do it.

The 5-Query-A-Day routine is a fantastic way to boost your career and land more, hopefully lucrative, assignments. But don’t kid yourself. Sending five queries– heck, sending two queries– a day, requires dedication, commitment, and a partner who can handle objects flying across the room. You’ll also need to set aside a specific time in your day planner to devote just to writing queries.

Finally, don’t compare. Sure, the pompous woman in your writing group does it (or so she says), but that doesn’t mean you can, too. Maybe she’s a full-time writer with nothing but magazine writing on her agenda, while you’re a full-time mom with six kids and a husband who doesn’t know how to cook. For all you know, all her queries may be missing their mark, while your three-a-week is working quite well for you. Or maybe– and I’ll say this grudgingly– she’s a faster writer and can reach that limit quite easily. In any case, you’re not her. Instead of trying to be her, or like her, set your own achievable limits. You can always increase them later.

Instead of doing five a day, you could shoot for two a day. Or twenty a week. If you’re getting regular assignments as it is, you have no need to read further. After all, the purpose of sending out more pitches is to get the maximum number of assignments that you can handle. There’s no point in getting fifteen high-paying assignments a month when you know you don’t have the kind of time to pull them off!

Tomorrow, I’ll share techniques I’ve used to push my query writing capabilities to their max.

15 Feb 2008 QLTS: 9.3 - Additional Tips 3

Author: Mridu Khullar Relph | Category: Query Letters That Sell | Tags: editor, freelancer, relationship, writer | Leave a Comment

Make it Personal

In my first year of freelancing, my querying habits went a little like this: send a query, do the assignment, query another magazine, do the assignment, and so on. When the assignment for the first magazine would be finished, 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, while I did write dozens of articles and many more smaller pieces, I also lost out on getting personal with my editors, and in turn, commanding more high-paying assignments. Once you finish some work for an editor, you stand double the chance of landing another one immediately. Since I’d keep on 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 re-build each relationship, re-create the trust, and re-negotiate each contract. I was getting frustrated.

Had I chucked that “an 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, “Great working with you. Is there anything else you might need for upcoming issues?” or I’ll just send another query. Or if I get my contributor’s copies, I’ll write to the editor to thank her for sending them and say something like, “I really enjoyed the piece on studying techniques. Here’s another idea that might work well in that section.”

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

***

Get Off the Computer!

Query letters are proposals. And proposals don’t necessarily have to be made on a white sheet of paper, single-spaced with hone-inch margins. They can be made via e-mail, by picking up the phone, or even while sitting in front of your editor, sipping coffee.

In their book The Renegade Writer, co-authors Linda Formichelli and Diana Burrell say that they often meet up with editors over coffee and propose ideas on the spot. If you’re in the same city as an editor you’ve written for (or discussed ideas with), call her and ask if she’d be open to meeting with you. I usually prefer to visit an editor’s office, but some writers I know like meeting outside of work.

Or let’s say you have an article idea that is extremely time-sensitive and you need the editor to look at it immediately. Relying on postal mail may not work. E-mail could easily be ignored. Why not call or fax in the idea?

Another thing to do is to keep in touch. I frequently chat on IM with one of my editors, and we often discuss things other than work. If I have a good idea for her magazine, guess how easy it will be for me to propose it to her?

An editor-writer relationship doesn’t need to be a boss-employee one. It should be one of colleagues, or friends. Most editors are terrific people, and all you really need to do is get to know them. While the editor is giving you work, there’s not reason why you can’t have a friendly relationship both in and outside of work. Get friendly. It helps.

14 Feb 2008 QLTS: 9.2 - Additional Tips 2

Author: Mridu Khullar Relph | Category: Query Letters That Sell | Tags: acceptance, letter, Query Letters That Sell, rejection | Leave a Comment

Too Much on Offer?

Many of us are so desperate when we’re starting out, we’ll promise the world for an unpaid byline in a local newspaper with a circulation of fifty. I’ve been guilty of over-hyping my queries, too. One of my first pitches to Woman’s Day (via e-mail, no less) promised a brilliant new twist on cancer prevention.

Foolish, I know.

I did some research online, located a few high-profile experts, and sent off my neatly-crafted query with the promise of interviewing a prominent author (who never responded to my four e-mails), tips that had never been featured in the magazine before (I’d never once seen the magazine), and quotes from people who’d used these techniques. Okay, you can laugh now.

Boy, was I glad that query never pulled through.

The first sign of danger is when you’re praying the assignment doesn’t come your way rather than the other way around. But more importantly, here’s why mine didn’t: the editor probably knew right away that I was new to the game. I had no similar clips, no major publications in my resume, and yet, here I was proposing not only a tough article, but one that had every challenge possible in an assignment. Ambitious maybe. But I wasn’t giving any evidence that I was actually equipped to be handling such a tough idea (no expert quotes, no actual tips, no real interviews, not even statistics.) The editor was wise. She never responded.

That’s not to say I’m unprofessional. If that editor had taken her chances, she’d get an impeccable article with quotes and tips on her desk at 9 a.m. two days before deadline even if I had to travel to the other end of the world to get them. But she had no reason to believe that based on my query letter.

Editors know how to distinguish hype from fact. If she’s working in the health department of a magazine, there’s no way you’re going to give her health advice she hasn’t heard before. If you’ve just received a press release on the best foods to eat during pregnancy, she probably got it, too. Keep the over-sell out. Pitch your topic and your idea, but don’t promise the world. You sure as heck can’t deliver it.

***

It’s Not a Grocery List

Being enthusiastic and having a notebook full of wonderful ideas is one thing. Irritating the crap out of an editor by sending her a laundry list of thirty is quite another. While you may think you’re giving her a good choice of articles that she can file away for later use, she’s probably thinking you have no clue which ideas will fit into her publication. While you may happily assume she’s going to think you’re capable of coming up with several good ideas at a time, she’s probably wondering, “Why is this writer wasting my time?”

Not good.

In fact, even if an editor does like most of your ideas, chances are, she can’t assign all of them right away. She’ll probably pick her favorite, reject the rest and send them back to you. The next time you’re querying, you’ll need to come up with more ideas because you don’t know whether she rejected them because she didn’t like them or because she couldn’t afford to buy them. What a waste of effort!

I advocate sending one, maximum two ideas at a time. Exceptions to this rule, however, would be when the editor has requested that you send her a list or if you have a regular working relationship with her. Unless you’ve worked with someone before, they have no way of knowing whether you’re really capable of writing the article, or you’ve just bought a freelance writing book and copied query formats from there. Sure, you have some good ideas, and yes, you’ve even managed to write two coherent paragraphs. But will you stick to the deadline? Will you provide references and phone numbers for the fact-checker? How much editing will your piece need? An editor might take a chance on a new writer with one assignment, but she’s unlikely to give you another one until you’ve proven beyond doubt that you’ll be an asset and not a pain in the ass.

***

Simultaneous Queries = Simultaneous Frustration

The first time I heard a writer say that simultaneous queries weren’t going to come back and haunt you, I was relieved. The next time, I felt like heading across the oceans and strangling her.

My worst fears came true when after sending out a query to a national magazine and not receiving a response, I decided to try my luck with a smaller market. I was lucky all right. The idea sold immediately, I quickly wrote up the piece, filled it with humorous anecdotes and clever zingers, and sent it off to the assigning editor, who loved it. The piece was to be published three months later.

Then I heard from the national magazine. They wanted it too.

I cursed the writer who’d said that simultaneous submissions rarely got accepted at both places, decided I must be an outstanding one-of-a-kind writer and then freaked out. Big time. There was just no way I was going back to that editor telling her I wasn’t going to come through and killing any future chances with that magazine. I told her I’d do it, and with bated breath, waited for the contact to arrive. In the meantime, I pictured the two magazines coming out in the same month, the editors of each red with fury, and me lying by the roadside mourning the death of yet another career choice.

Thankfully for me, the contract came bearing good news. The editors at both magazines wanted completely different things, and the article I wrote for the national magazine wound up being half the size of the first, focusing more on expert quotes than my own experiences. It also ran almost a year later. Phew!

However, you may not always be this lucky. If you’ve been following my advice so far, you’ve been very specific with your ideas, you’ve given names of experts, offered photos, maybe even described a couple of points. How can you suddenly decide to change the focus of the article if the editor has liked what you’ve shown her? Nope. Doesn’t work.

So should you stop sending simultaneous submissions? Absolutely not! Just get a little creative with them, so that if two magazines come back with acceptances, you don’t have to think about saying yes.

This is what you need to keep in mind:

* Don’t offer the same idea to competing magazines. If both of them like it (which is unlikely, but possible) you’ll be in a very unenviable position. Instead, reslant your ideas. Sending a cancer-fighting foods query to Woman’s Day while you propose a libido-enhancing foods idea to Redbook works for everyone.

* If you’ve worked with an editor before, it’s only decent that you give her the first right of refusal. So if you’ve written for The Writer, let the editor reject your query before asking Writer’ s Digest to give it a look. It’s just a matter of building good relationships. If you’re sending the same idea to both, your editor at The Writer will not be pleased if she’s interested and it has already been picked up by her competitor.

* Send simultaneous submissions to markets with different target audiences. For instance, I recently sent a “Fun with Digital Pictures” idea to a parenting magazine (”Fun Photo Gifts for Christmas”), a women’s magazine (”Snap it up for Romance”), a technology magazine (”What’s the Fate of your Digital Pictures?”), and a teen magazine (”Picture Perfect for Friendship Day”). Not only is the research the same, the ideas in all the above articles will be the same as well. If I can teach parents how to make a cartoon strip featuring their kids, I can certainly teach a teenager to do it for her best friend, too. Of course, I’ll present the same idea to all editors as perfect for their audience, but if you think about it, such gifts are great for just about anybody!

***

To Follow up or Not to Follow up

It isn’t enough that we get rejected a gazillion times before an acceptance, write and rewrite articles and essays to perfection, deal with the loneliness of the profession, and work with editors who disappear just when we’re getting close. But now we have to send e-mail to stingy editors to remind them of our queries when they don’t have the decency to send a simple “No thank you”? Why should you be bothered?

Because you’re the one trying to make a sale.

Sorry, but that’s just the way it works. You’re providing a service, you’re trying to make a sale, so you’re the one who needs to follow up. If it increases the chances of making a sale by even one percent, do you really want to miss out?

I’ve received word on a number of queries simply by e-mailing and asking their status. I’d rather have the satisfaction of knowing whether my proposal is in or out. Even if it’s a rejection, at least I know.

Maybe the editor just misplaced your letter or accidentally deleted your e-mail and has no way of contacting you. By following up, you’ll get another shot at acceptance.

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