Gift Wrap Your Manuscript - Part 1
By: Renee Kirchner
I will never forget a truly disastrous gift exchange with my husband when we were newly married. It was my birthday and my husband told me he had a gift for me. He then handed me a paper sack and said, “I’m sorry, but I didn’t have time to wrap it.” The smile on my face was gone and was replaced with a look of disappointment. To this day I can’t tell you what was in that sack because the joy was over for me. I opened the bag and held it upside down. The gift fell into my lap. There were no fancy ribbons, no pretty paper and there was no card. I thanked my husband for the gift, but he could tell by my expression that I was not happy. He got the message loud and clear and he has never done that again in our 19 year marriage.
Now, imagine you are an editor at a magazine. You open up an envelope and expect to find a neatly wrapped package containing a cover letter, a manuscript, and a SASE. You dump the contents on your desk and find a sloppy manuscript, single-spaced with no cover letter and no SASE. What a disappointment!
GIFT WRAP OR GIFT BAG?
You must write a cover letter for every manuscript you submit to a publisher, period. If you took the time to polish your manuscript and check it over carefully for mistakes, then you should take the time to write a sparkling cover letter to go with it. The cover letter announces the arrival of your manuscript just like a birth announcement tells about a new arrival.
Not all cover letters need to be formal, dressed up in ribbons and bows. If you are submitting your manuscript through the mail, you will want a more traditional cover letter, or gift-wrap. Your cover letter will contain three or four brief paragraphs: the first will introduce the manuscript; the second will tell about your publications, the third will tell why you sent it to this publisher and thank them for their time. If you submit a manuscript electronically you will still need some type of cover letter. The email cover letter is more like a gift bag, than a traditional gift-wrap. My experience has taught me that you can be a little less formal in email correspondence. However, the first time you send a manuscript to a particular publisher it is best to be very professional. After you develop a relationship with an editor, your cover letters can take a more casual tone.
Topics: Uncategorized |