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Re: You don't always need a query.


It's possible that you're
dealing by mail with editors who know you or know of you.


No. If I already have a relationship with an editor, I never enclose return postage. It isn't necessary in those cases.

For those, I

pitch the story by phone rather than writing either a story or query. 


This raises an interesting point. Selling by phone can be effective----Friend Wife sells about 70% of her work that way. But, having sat behind the editor's desk for as many years as I did, I can't bring myself to do it.

When I was editing, if you called to pitch a story, one of two things would happen. Either you'd get a flat "no." Or, if the idea sounded interesting, I'd tell you to send me paper on it. I would _never_ make a snap decision like that. So, unless it's an editor with whom I have a really special working relationship, I generally stay off the phone.

I'm talking about cold submissions outside of a field in which you are
known, or submissions from beginners who aren't known at all in any
field.  


Those are precisely the ones to whom I include just postage. No envelopes.

I think something else beginners have to be aware of is that, in general, there are no hard and fast "this is right, this is wrong" rules. There are guidelines to what works. What works for me, after more than two decades freelancing fulltime, may not work for somebody else.

In my e-course on how to freelance I combine both. I present the generally accepted rules, modified by my own experinces. That seems to work, too, as there hasn't been a student who hasn't sold work rather quickly using the lessons I teach.

Beginners need to learn, too, to put themselves in the editor's shoes. Once you understand his/her needs, concerns, and pressures, you can better work with that person.

Your earlier point about eyestrain is a good case in point. I can remember chastising many of our colleagues back in the days when matix dot printers were common. Long about three in the Pip Emma, and it's the 15th manuscript of the day, a dot matrix garnered an automatic rejection. It had nothing to do with the worth of the idea. The editor never got to read the idea.

What I'm trying to say overall is that selling one's work often has little to do with the quality of the writing. It has to do with marketing, which is a whole nuther ballpark. But it's a ballpark that anyone who wants to freelance successfully had better learn to play in.


Brook


 
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