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You don't always need a query.

A tip for beginners --

You don't always need a query letter.  In some cases you are better off 
just writing the story and sending it in with a short cover letter.  For 
certain kinds of stories, you may need to write the whole thing even if 
you have serious credits.

With humor, personal essays, poetry, or short stories (fiction), usually 
you just write them.  No one can tell whether they want to buy it until 
they see it.  Even extensive credentials might not help much.  You will 
probably need to just write it, then send it to an editor with a short 
cover letter.  

Many beginners spend years writing for free or almost for free, hoping 
someone will notice them and give them an actual real assignment.  And 
it often works.  However, it is only one possible career pattern for a 
writer.  Some writers start more or less at the top with a major sale 
for major money. If you can write a good enough story, you might be able 
to sell it to a major market right out of the gate.  Then you have 
"broken in."  You have your first major serious credit, the one that is 
the hardest to get.  

The first gardening piece I ever wrote was bought by Roger Swain at 
Horticulture.  The first humor piece I ever wrote was bought by Redbook. 
 In both cases, I wrote them first.  I actually never did a piece of 
writing for free until this year.    

To understand how to break in to a major magazine without long years of 
freebies, start by look at the situation from the point of view of the 
editor.  There is simply no reason to believe that an unknown can do a 
good story.  On top of that, beginning writers can be a pain just from 
their unfamiliarity with the business aspects (contracts and negotiating 
for example), or with the editing process.  ("What!?!  You want to 
change some of my pristine words???  Are you implying I'm not perfect?  
Surely you jest!"  (I actually said this to an editor once, but I was 
only kidding.)  (Experienced pros are likely to be mellow and 
cooperative about editing.  Beginners often feel that their work is so 
wonderful that it shouldn't be edited.)   There isn't much reason to do 
a contract with a beginner for a major article for major money.  It's a 
big risk, and for no reason.  There are plenty of regular writers to buy 
from whom the editor knows can do the job.  Furthermore, most editors 
really don't count most of the freebie or low-end writing you might do 
in order to impress them.  

However, if you send the editor an exciting, very original story, he is 
then not risking your being unable to deliver.  He still risks  that you 
might be a pain in the butt to work with.  But he will probably be 
willing to take a chance on you.

If you send in a finished story, your lack of credentials doesn't 
matter.  The story IS your credential.  If you find yourself cringing at 
writing a query and enthusiastic about writing the story, consider just 
writing the story.  Your cover letter can give just the contact info on 
your letterhead, and a sentence or two saying, "Here is xxxx.  I hope 
you like it."

To break you in to a major market, your story must be original.  It must 
be something that the editors of the magazine would not be running 
except for your contribution.  You can't recycle stories that you've 
seen elsewhere in order to create a break-in-quality piece.  

If you have looked in the magazine and said "I could write as well as 
that," it isn't relevant.  The routine stuff that is average for the 
magazine is most often cranked out faster and cheaper by staff.  To 
break in, you need to offer something much better than the norm for the 
magazine.  

Keep your cover letter short.  Don't try to tell the editor that he will 
like the story.  Don't say anything about how great it is.  The editor 
will be cynical about such remarks, so it's better to be low-key.  Don't 
say who else likes the story.  The editor only cares whether HE likes 
the story.  Don't claim writing experience or credits if it was for free 
unless they are high-prestige-free (such as certain literary magazines.) 
 Not in this context.  An editor at a major magazine is not going to be 
impressed by your editing or contributing to your high school yearbook, 
or, for that matter, by any amount of vanity-published books, or by any 
amount of writing for free on the web, or any kind of self-publishing.  
Usually.    

In fact, plenty of "real" credits "don't count" with various editors in 
various contexts.  A fiction editor may be totally unimpressed by all 
nonfiction credits and vice versa, for example.  An editor may discount 
all short pieces and count only articles with serious numbers of pages.  
Many editors "count" only magazines at the same or higher "prestige 
level" as their own, or in the same field.    However, When you submit a 
complete story, the story itself is your evidence.  Your credits or lack 
thereof is no longer the major issue.  

Don't bother feeling arrogant about your writing.  It is often 
instructive, and usefully humbling, to look up the editor you're 
submitting to.  He or she very often has an impressive track record as a 
writer, with major pieces in all the most prestigious magazines 
including the one he/she edits, even multiple book credits, etc.  There 
may be some editors who are strictly editors, but not very many in the 
magazine world.  Most are writers too, and, if you are a beginner, 
writers with way more credits than you.

Beginning writers are often incredibly arrogant.  A SF-writing friend of 
mine says she thinks it is because the beginner compares the credits and 
accomplishments he imagines himself having some day with the credits and 
accomplishments other people really have.  An editor may convince 
himself that he is willing to try out a beginner, but that doesn't mean 
he will put up very long with an arrogant beginner.  And your real 
object, of course, is to sell the SECOND story.  So keep your situation 
in perspective.        

A big disadvantage to just writing the story is of course that you have 
no guarantee that anyone will buy the story.  So it's best to start with 
a story for which there are multiple market possibilities, not one that 
would only work in one particular magazine.

A second disadvantage is that you will probably not get nearly as much 
money for a story that you have already written.  If you have the option 
of selling a major story for major money on a contract, you will 
probably get more than if you write it first.  This is because you have 
more leverage when you haven't yet done the work and can easily just not 
do it.  But if you have no major credits, you probably don't have the 
option of making a major sale on contract.  And getting the first major 
credit is probably more important than the money.  

Use proper manuscript format.  Unless info from the magazine says 
otherwise, use mail, not email.  Double space.  (Don't use 1 1/2 line 
feed.)  Use generous margins.  Use good quality black printer ribbons.  
Most editors will not read faded print, single-spaced stuff, or anything 
that runs margin to margin.  It is just too hard to read.  Editors do 
huge amounts of reading, and they simply cannot afford to abuse their 
eyes any more than is unavoidable.  Enclose a self-addressed-stamped 
envelope for the reply.  

Little copyright signs on manuscripts, by the way, are an almost sure 
indicator of a beginner.  Leave them off anything you send to a 
professional editor.  (You might want to put them on stories you are 
circulating among non-writer friends who might not understand the 
legalisms.)  

I suggest that you send your manuscript to just one editor or magazine 
at a time.  (If you submit to many places at once, you might have the 
story bought by a less-coveted magazine instead of the most desirable 
one that wants it.  Send to where you would most like to be published 
first.)  In my opinion, two months is a reasonable time to wait for a 
response.  If you have not heard in two months, write the submission 
off, print another copy, and send it somewhere else.  Don't call or 
write to find out what happened to your ms.  Just write it off.  They 
might have simply thrown away all the slush pile that month.  They are 
under no obligation to read unsolicited mss or queries from anybody.  
The good "finds" per hour of work are almost nil.  Consider it an act of 
generosity that many magazines still read unsolicited submissions at 
all.    

If someone answers your approach later than the two months, go ahead and 
sell them the piece.  However, quickly write to wherever you have 
subsequently sent the story and withdraw it so that the editor does not 
waste time on a story that is not available.    

If you're doing fiction short stories, this pattern of write-it-first 
and then circulate it is the norm.  You just write, and you take your 
risks.  

So if you find yourself more excited about doing the story than the 
query, and willing to take a gamble, try just doing the story.  And, 
hey, best of luck!!!


Carol Deppe
Author of BREED YOUR OWN VEGETABLE VARIETIES:  THE GARDENER'S AND 
FARMER'S GUIDE TO PLANT BREEDING AND SEED SAVING (See table of contents, 
excerpts, & reviews at http://www.chelseagreen.com.)  

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