cover letter for literary magazine

The Perfect Cover Letter: Advice From a Lit Mag Editor

Today’s guest post is from Elise Holland, co-founder and editor of 2 Elizabeths , a short fiction and poetry publication.

When submitting your short-form literature to a magazine or journal, your cover letter is often the first piece of writing an editor sees. It serves as an introduction to your thoughtfully crafted art. As such, it is significant, but it shouldn’t be intimidating or even take much time to write.

As editor at 2 Elizabeths , I see a variety of cover letters every day; some are excellent, and others could stand to be improved. There are a few key pieces of information to include, while keeping them short and sweet. In fact, a cover letter should only be a couple of paragraphs long, and no more than roughly 100-150 words.

A little research goes a long way

Seek out the editor’s name, and address the letter to him/her, as opposed to using a generic greeting. Typically, you can find this information either on the magazine or journal’s website, or in the submission guidelines.

Read the submission guidelines thoroughly. Many publications will state in their guidelines the exact details that need to be included in a cover letter. With some variation, a general rule of thumb is to include the following:

Editor’s name (if you can locate it)
Genre/category
Brief description of your piece
If you have been published previously, state where
Whether your piece is a simultaneous submission (definition below)

Terms to Know

The term simultaneous submission means that you will be sending the same piece to several literary magazines or journals at the same time. Most publications accept simultaneous submissions, but some do not. If a publication does not accept them, this will be stated in their guidelines.

Should your work be selected for publication by one magazine, it is important to notify other publications where you have submitted that piece. This courtesy will prevent complications, and will keep you in good graces with various editors, should you wish to submit to them again in the future.

The term multiple submission means that you are submitting multiple pieces to the same literary magazine or journal.

Cover Letter That Needs Work

Dear Editor, Here is a collection of poems I wrote that I’d like you to consider. I have not yet been published elsewhere. Please let me know what you think. Bio: John Doe is an Insurance Agent by day and a writer by night, living in Ten Buck Two. He is the author of a personal blog, LivingWith20Cats.com. Best, John Doe

What Went Wrong?

John Doe didn’t research the editor’s name. A personal greeting is always better than a simple “Dear Editor.” Additionally, John failed to include the word count, title and a brief description of his work.

There is no need to state that John has not yet been published elsewhere. He should simply leave that piece of information out. (Many publications, 2 Elizabeths included, will still welcome your submissions warmly if you are unpublished.)

John included a statement asking the editor to let him know what he/she thinks about his work. Due to time constraints, it is rare that an editor sends feedback unless work is going to be accepted.

Unless otherwise specified by the magazine or journal to which you are submitting, you do not need to include biographical information in your cover letter. Typically, that information is either requested upfront but in a separate document from the cover letter, or is not requested until a piece has been selected for publishing.

Cover Letter Ready to Be Sent

Dear Elise, Please consider this 1,457-word short fiction piece, “Summer.” I recently participated in the 2 Elizabeths Open Mic Night, and am an avid reader of the fiction and poetry that you publish. “Summer” is a fictitious tale inspired by the impact of a whirlwind, yet meaningful, romance I experienced last year. In this story, I gently explore the life lessons associated with young love, with a touch of humor. This is a simultaneous submission, and I will notify you if the piece is accepted elsewhere. Thank you for your consideration. Kindest Regards, John Doe

What Went Right?

In this letter, John includes all pertinent information, while keeping his letter clear and concise. In his second sentence, John also briefly states how he is familiar with the magazine. While doing this isn’t required, if done tastefully, it can be a nice touch! Another example might be: “I read and enjoyed your spring issue, and believe that my work is a good fit for your magazine.”

I hope these sample letters help you as you send your short works to magazines and journals for consideration. While you’re at it, I hope you will check out 2 Elizabeths ! We would love to read your work.

Elise Holland is co-founder and editor of 2 Elizabeths , a short fiction and poetry publication. Her work has appeared in various publications, most recently in Story a Day . Through 2 Elizabeths, Elise strives to create value and visibility for writers, through writing contests , events , and more!

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[…] To get into literary magazines, you need a cover letter, so Elise Holland lays out how to write the perfect cover letter for a literary magazine. […]

Love this! The letter is short and to the point, and covers all the necessary information. Great tips! I always worry that the only publishing credit I have is the winning entry in a short story contest through the local paper. Should I mention that? And writing conferences I’ve attended?

As Elise says, it’s OK if you’re unpublished. Don’t worry about it. But feel free to mention your winning entry. If the writing conferences would likely be known to the journals’ editors, you might mention one or two.

[…] recently wrote a full article on the perfect cover letter, here. Check it out for clear, simple instructions, along with sample […]

[…] publication. Her work has appeared in various publications, most recently in Story a Day, and at JaneFriedman.com. Through 2 Elizabeths, Elise strives to create value and visibility for writers, through writing […]

Thanks for the concise and useful information! I’ve heard that it’s also a good idea to include a sentence or two that makes it clear that you are familiar with the kind of work the magazine has published in the past. Is this generally advised, or would you consider it nonessential unless specified in the submission guidelines?

How to Write a Cover Letter for a Literary Journal, Magazine, or Publication

A cover letter is your chance to create a positive first impression for the editors and readers who are reviewing your work. An unprofessional (or even a long-winded) cover letter can warrant unenthusiastic consideration of your work.

However, a concise and well-written cover letter encourages editors to begin reading the submitted poem, manuscript, or short story proper. As Michelle Richmond, publisher of Fiction Attic Press, writes , “It might surprise you to know that the most forgettable cover letters are often the best.” And if you’re submitting to Adroit , it might be a good idea to review our cover letter guidelines here .

Here’s an example of an efficient and entirely fictitious cover letter that works, with footnotes to explain what to incorporate into your cover letters. A caveat: Different publications may have different requirements for their cover letters. Don’t assume that our template will work everywhere. That being said, this is a solid starting point.

Dear Peter LaBerge, Chris Crowder, Heidi Seaborn, and Adroit readers, 1

Please consider my poem, “No Regrets.” 2 I’ve been a long-time fan of Adroit , and I particularly enjoyed Jennifer Tseng’s “ First Son ” from Issue 27. 3

This is a simultaneous submission. If “No Regrets” is accepted elsewhere, I will withdraw it immediately. 4

Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to hearing from you. 5

Sincerely, Peter Rabbit

Peter Rabbit is a senior majoring in statistics and comparative literature at the University of Vermont. Their work has previously been published in Winter Tangerine and Vagabond City . Some of their other work can be found online at peterrabbit.wordpress.com. 6

1 Referencing editors’ names shows that you’ve done your research and adds a personal touch to what may be a copy-and-pasted cover letter. For your convenience, I’ve linked the Adroit masthead here . If you truly can’t find information about the editor, consider using “Dear Editors,” “Dear Readers,” “To whom it may concern:” or “Dear [Journal].”

2 Short and simple. Your first sentence should convey why you are writing this cover letter. If you’re submitting a short story, editors will often want to know the word count. Also include the category or genre of the piece.

3 Referencing a piece or two previously published by a literary journal shows editors that you’ve done your research. Editors can assume that you’re familiar with what kind of work they publish, and that will set their mind at ease. Of course, don’t fake it. If you have a truly personal connection with the editor, feel free to add it. But make sure it’s not as inane as “I noticed that we both have a dog! I love dogs.”

4 Simultaneous submissions are submitted to multiple journals at the same time. It’s a common practice accepted at many journals, but individual journals might have different requirements. Always include information on simultaneous submissions as a matter of professional courtesy.

5 Simple, courteous, and a good lead to the actual content.

6 Many journals, like Adroit , will ask for a short bio. Include some general details about your current occupation, your training or education, and some of your most recent publications. It’s important to emphasize that editors will keep reading even if you haven’t had any publications or if you aren’t formally pursuing a creative writing degree (whether graduate or undergraduate), so don’t feel like you’ve got to conjure up some accolades or fluff. You probably want to leave out superfluous details like your job as a babysitter in sixth grade or your last sandwich order.

There you have it. A quick but professional way to open your submission to a literary journal, magazine, and publication. You seem human, but you are first and foremost a writer. And writers want their work to be read and published. Good luck!

Thank you for visiting The Adroit Journal . For more writing-geared content, be sure to sign up for updates using the form below!

Darren Chang

Darren Chang is an undergraduate student at Cornell University, where he participates in intercollegiate policy debate, writes a column for the Daily Sun, and devours large quantities of ice cream. Academically, he is interested by the intersection of different cultural perspectives, especially Asian American and disability scholarship. You can also catch him reading memoirs and autobiographies, playing ping pong, and laughing at memes of his home state of Indiana.

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6 Tips for Perfect (Professional) Cover Letters for Literary Magazines

By now, if you’ve been following my Submission Bonanza! series, you should have picked the pieces you want to send to magazines and compiled a list of magazines that you want to submit to . It’s time now to write a cover letter to send along with your submissions. As Michael Nye, Editor of the Missouri Review says, sending a cover letter with your submission is “like wearing a suit to an interview.” Don’t let your submissions to literary magazines show up naked!

It’s easy to feel stressed about this part of the process of submitting to literary magazines: the cover letter (duh-duh dun….). It’s understandable because this can be the first impression that you are giving to the editors of the magazine. We definitely want to put our best foot forward and present ourselves as professional, competent writers.

But also, keep in mind that you are not being judged on your cover letter. Editors want solid writing. So make a nice, neat little cover letter and spend the majority of your time stressing about whether you should put that extra comma in your new creative nonfiction piece.

So here are some things to think about when writing a cover letter:

1. Follow the guidelines of the literary magazine.

This seems self-explanatory, but a lot of literary magazines ask for different kinds of information in the cover letter. Some of them want word counts or genre. Others want a short bio about you. Some even ask for no cover letter at all. If you are submitting simultaneously, you’ll also need to note that. Make sure you follow their specific guidelines.

2. Address the letter to a person.

This is not a “To Whom It May Concern” letter. It’s pretty easy to find most of the staff at a literary magazine under their masthead. Some magazines even tell you in the submission guidelines who to address it to. Be as specific as possible. If you’re submitting poetry, address it directly to Ms. Sally B. Poetryeditor. If you can’t pinpoint a specific name, you can address it to the editor.

3. Keep it short and simple.

Don’t forget, a lot of editors are reading hundreds or thousands of these. This is not a query letter, so you don’t need to describe your piece to them. You don’t need to tell them how you came up with the idea or list the twenty-seven other literary magazines you’ve been in. For example, the Colorado Review suggests this cover letter:

Dear Editor,

Enclosed is my [fiction/nonfiction/poetry] submission “Title of Manuscript.” Thank you for considering it for publication in Colorado Review.

[*If submitting via mail] I’ve included an SASE for [response only/the return of my manuscript].

Full Contact Info

4. Keep it professional.

Naturally, you want to make sure that the grammar and punctuation are flawless and that it is in a professional format. But also, you don’t need to be cute or catchy to get the editor’s attention. Let your writing do that. That’s what they are looking for.

5. Add a short bio (Optional).

Some magazines ask for a short bio or you may feel that it’s in your best interest to include one. This should only be a line or two of relevant information. Don’t tell your life story, just one or two tidbits that are interesting or pertinent. Don’t include a whole list of the hundreds of places you’ve been published. Just pick 3-5. Also, if you haven’t been published, don’t be ashamed to include that too. As Nye suggests:

If you’ve never been published before? Say so. “If accepted, this would be my first published story.” All literary magazines love being the one to publish a writer for the first time, so acknowledging this possibility can only help.

6. Add a note about what you read in the magazine or how you know the magazine (Also optional).

If you want to personalize it a bit for the magazine, some editors might like to know that you did actually take the time to read past issues or that you have had past correspondences with them. But again, this step could be optional.

In the end, I really like this bit Nye’s advice really calmed me down:

A professional cover letter is all we ask, and even minus that, if the work is excellent, we don’t really care. We want to publish the best work we read, regardless of whether or not you’re an emerging writer or an established one.

So don’t stress too much about your cover letter. Get it done, and make it professional, so you can get back to your craft.

So, the goal for this week:

Make a template of your cover letter and bio. Have them ready and at hand when you want to submit. I personally made a template that had all the information I could possibly want to send to and editor (word counts, genres, bio, etc) and then cut or edited from that for each literary magazine. Once this work is out of the way, you’ll be nearly set to start submitting!

Need more help?

You can read Michael Nye’s article on The Art of the Literary Magazine Cover Letter.

You could also look at advice about what not to do by Michael Kardos at Writer’s Digest .

Or take a look at this sample cover letter from The Review Review .

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How to Craft the Perfect Literary Cover Letter

If you are a fiction or nonfiction writer and plan to submit a short story or personal essay to a literary magazine, your handshake and introduction of yourself and your work comes by way of a literary cover letter.

A literary cover letter is a short professional letter, typically only a few paragraphs. It is designed to introduce the piece you are submitting for publication, say why you have chosen to submit it to this particular publication, and share a bit about your writing background.

Rather than go in cold, your literary cover letter is your congenial foot in the door. It’s meant to briefly pave the way for your work by giving a bit of your personality and some foundational info to the editor that they’ll hold in mind when turning to the first line of your work.

Because of this, as it can make or break an editor’s deciding whether to accept your work, your cover letter has got to represent all the best parts of you.

Why Do You Need A Literary Cover Letter?

Even though ideally your work should stand on its own merit, a writer is entwined with their work. As a result, that human introduction to your piece is industry standard for all literary magazine submissions. Whether you’re submitting a a single haiku, a 25-page long short story, a personal essay or anything in-between, it’s got to be introduced by you first.

How the Perfect Literary Cover Letter Should Look

The template.

Think about how you’d dress for a job interview, and apply that crisp shirt and polished shoes metaphorically to your cover letter template.

Go to Microsoft Word and find “letter” in templates, or use a platform like Canva, where you can find clean pre-made templates that can be saved as PDFs.

Your address, email, phone
The literary magazine’s address, email, phone
The editor’s name
Warm professional greeting
The title of your work, the word count, and the genre.
Mention of the work being a simultaneous submission if you have also sent it out to other magazines.
Why you have chosen to send your work to this magazine/editor.
Your background/bio that is relevant to your writing (where possible).
Warm, solicitous closing
Your name and signature

Formatting Specs

The following are industry-standard formatting practices for crafting your literary cover letter:

A common easy-to-read font (no cute fonts or script) like Times New Roman, Courier, or Garamond
1” margins all around
White background with black letters
1.5 line space paragraphs with an additional space between the paragraphs

*Don’t have a digital signature? Here’s how you make it:

Sign your name on a white piece of paper
Take a picture of it
Send the picture to yourself
Save it on your computer as a JPEG
Position your mouse at the spot where you would like the signature to go in your cover letter Word doc., and click
Go to the toolbar –> Insert–> Picture–> Picture from file. Choose your JPEG and there you go!

*If you decide to turn your Word doc into a PDF later on, make sure you do that only after you’ve inserted your signature.

*Need proper formatting details for your manuscript ?

How to Craft the Perfect Literary Cover Letter: The Dos and Don’ts

Bear in mind that any time you submit your work for publication, you are up against hundreds or even thousands of other writers- writers who have carefully rendered their short stories, poetry, and personal essays with heart and soul just as you have.

The little things you do in your literary cover letter that are gracious, intelligent, and clear and the things you don’t do that will undermine your efforts will help your work along measurably.

Always address the editor by name . Yes, this requires some legwork. Yes, you have to do this for every single submission even if you’re sending out to 94 different literary magazines. Such is life, but it’s an investment. Any letter that speaks to the editor by name engenders a relationship and establishes goodwill right off the bat. Any letter that starts with “Dear Editor” may as well walk its own self right into the rejected pile.

Why do they care?

If an editor feels your work is right for their magazine, both because it fits in with their magazine’s ethos as well as would work nicely for a particular issue, they will present your work to their editorial board and argue why they should publish your piece in their upcoming issue. Once the issue is in place, it’s a delicately balanced Jenga tower.

You can only publish your piece with one literary magazine (most all of them require non-exclusive first rights) so if your work is accepted elsewhere and you haven’t warned the other magazines that they might have to pull yours out of their issue, it not only throws their balance off and makes them have to scramble to find another that’s similar, but it’s considered bad manners to not have managed that expectation in the first place.

If you do not tell them it’s a simultaneous submission, and it is accepted by one of the many magazines you submitted to, when you alert the other magazines, at the least, they will never consider your work again, and at the most, they may share your name with other magazines so they will know to avoid you as well. (It’s a small community)

And if the magazine in its submission guidelines says “no simultaneous submissions allowed”?

Then you either have to respect this and patiently wait to be rejected or accepted by them before sending your work elsewhere, not submit to that magazine, or play your odds (which is not recommended).

If your work has been prepared on a typewriter or a program that does not have a word count feature, you can know that each page of your manuscript (if formatted to industry standards) will be between 250-325 words/page.

*And to avoid embarrassing yourself and wasting everyone’s time by submitting to a magazine that only takes a certain type of piece or genre that’s not what you submitted.

In your second paragraph, reference those pieces and/or any reason you have approached this particular magazine. This will show the editor you’re not simply spraying your work all over but have been intentional with your submissions.

If you have not ever published or have no particular literary experience yet, it’s perfectly fine to give a bit about your education or background and say “This is my first submission” in lieu of publications or awards. Being an emerging author won’t count against you; in fact, many magazines delight in being the ones to discover new voices!

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Proofread! Have your cover letter proofread by an editor or writer friend. Like you would do for all your work, ensure it gets in front of another person’s eyes so they can catch any errors, typos, or issues of clarity.
Avoid a Cluttered Letter Template or Unique Formatting : Don’t get fancy with your template or go off-roading with your formatting. Keep it simple and clean. Follow the guidelines. There are loads of templates in Microsoft Word and Canva that are colorful, have spots for your photo, and graphic design elements and such pretty fonts, but avoid the temptation to be splashy.
Don’t be impersonal : Once more for the back row: “Dear Editor” is not recommended.
Avoid sounding anything but gracious and humble: “This is the story you’ve been waiting for,” or “You’re going to want to publish this story,” kind of sentiments, whether meant in earnest or in jest, tend not to land well.
Don’t summarize your story or talk about it in any way : in Paragraph 1, stick with the facts.

*Sending blindly without at least skimming the magazine or reading about it online is not recommended.

*Note: if you wish to write something brief about your personal life, or you have a unique situation such as, “I was raised in Malaysia, went to the Sorbonne where I received my degree in Criminology, and I now live in Honolulu with my husband and two children and work for the State Department,” that’s OK and humanizes you nicely (plus, it sets you apart in the editor’s memory). Totally up to you.

By following these steps, keeping your literary cover letter brief, clean, professional but warm, you’re sure to have the perfect paper handshake that will prep any editor for wanting to read (and eventually publish!) your work.

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How to Write a Submission Cover Letter That Will Wow Literary Agents

As a writer, you spend countless hours perfecting your manuscript, pouring your heart and soul into every word. But did you know that the cover letter you include with your manuscript submission is just as …

Written by: Adam

Published on: November 20, 2023

Author writing a cover letter draft on a pad

The purpose of a submission cover letter is to introduce yourself and your work to literary agents. It gives you the opportunity to make a strong first impression and convince the agent that your manuscript is worth their time and consideration. While the content of your manuscript is undoubtedly important, a well-written cover letter can help it stand out from the slush pile and increase your chances of getting noticed.

Understanding the purpose of a cover letter for manuscript submission

Before diving into the nitty-gritty of writing a cover letter for manuscript submission, it’s crucial to understand its purpose. A cover letter serves as a professional introduction to your work and provides a glimpse into your writing style and personality. It should be concise, engaging, and tailored specifically to the agent or agency you’re submitting to.

When a literary agent receives a submission, they often have limited time to review each one. A well-crafted cover letter can pique their interest and make them eager to delve into your manuscript. Think of it as a teaser, enticing them to read further. It’s your chance to showcase your writing skills and convince the agent that you’re not only a talented writer but also a professional who understands the industry.

Essential elements of a cover letter for manuscript submission

Now that you understand the purpose of a cover letter, let’s explore the essential elements that should be included. First and foremost, your cover letter should be professional in tone and format. Use a standard business letter format with your contact information at the top, followed by the agent’s details and the date. Address the agent by name if possible, as it shows you’ve done your research and personalized the letter.

Next, introduce yourself and mention the title of your manuscript. Briefly explain why you chose to submit to that particular agent or agency. This demonstrates that you’ve done your homework and are genuinely interested in working with them. Highlight any relevant writing credentials or experience you have that make you uniquely qualified to write the manuscript. Keep this section concise and focus on the most impressive aspects of your background.

Finally, provide a brief summary or pitch of your manuscript. This should be a compelling and concise overview that captures the essence of your story and leaves the agent wanting to know more. Avoid giving away too much detail or spoiling the plot. Instead, focus on intriguing the agent and creating a sense of curiosity. Think of this section as a movie trailer – it should leave the agent eager to dive into your manuscript and discover the full story.

Tips for writing an attention-grabbing opening paragraph

The opening paragraph of your cover letter is your chance to make a strong first impression and grab the agent’s attention. Start with a compelling hook that will immediately engage the agent and makes them curious about your manuscript. It might be an intriguing question, a shocking statistic or a captivating anecdote. The key is to make the agent want to keep reading.

After the hook, briefly introduce yourself and your manuscript. Mention any relevant writing credentials or experience that make you stand out. Highlight why you chose to submit to that particular agent or agency. Show them that you’ve done your research and are genuinely interested in working with them. This personal touch can make a significant impact and show the agent that you’ve put thought into your submission.

Remember to keep the opening paragraph concise and to the point. Agents receive numerous submissions every day, so they appreciate brevity. Avoid rambling or providing unnecessary information. Instead, focus on crafting a strong and attention-grabbing opening that leaves the agent eager to read more.

How to showcase your writing credentials and experience

When it comes to writing a cover letter for manuscript submission, showcasing your writing credentials and experience is essential. This section allows you to demonstrate your expertise and convince the agent that you’re a talented writer who is worth their consideration. Here are a few tips to help you effectively showcase your credentials:

Highlight any relevant writing achievements: Focus on the writing credentials that are most relevant to your manuscript and the genre you’re targeting. This could include published (or self-published) works, writing awards, or any other accomplishments that demonstrate your skill and experience (such as building an audience on social media).

Provide details but be concise: While it’s important to provide some context and details about your writing credentials, remember to keep it concise. Agents have limited time, so make sure to highlight the most impressive aspects without overwhelming them with unnecessary information.

Tailor your credentials to the agent or agency: Research the agent or agency you’re submitting to and tailor your writing credentials accordingly. If they have a particular interest or speciality, highlight any relevant experience you have in that area. This shows the agent that you’ve done your homework and are genuinely interested in working with them.

By effectively showcasing your writing credentials and experience, you can establish yourself as a credible and talented writer. This increases the agent’s confidence in your abilities and makes them more likely to consider your manuscript.

Crafting a compelling summary of your manuscript

Perhaps the most crucial part of your cover letter for manuscript submission is the summary of your manuscript itself. This section is your chance to give the agent a taste of what your story is about and entice them to read further. Here are a few tips to help you craft a compelling summary:

Keep it concise: Your summary should be brief, typically no more than a few paragraphs. Focus on the main plot points and the core themes of your story. Avoid getting bogged down in unnecessary details or subplots.

Capture the essence of your story: Your summary should give the agent a clear idea of what your story is about and what makes it unique. Highlight the main conflict, the protagonist’s journey, and any intriguing elements that set your manuscript apart.

Create a sense of curiosity: The goal of your summary is to leave the agent wanting to know more. Don’t give away all the details or spoil the ending. Instead, create a sense of curiosity that compels the agent to dive into your manuscript and discover the full story.

Crafting a compelling summary takes time and careful consideration. It’s often helpful to draft multiple versions and seek feedback from trusted peers or writing groups. Remember, your summary is your manuscript’s first impression, so make it count.

Do’s and don’ts of writing a cover letter for manuscript submission

To wrap up our guide on writing a submission cover letter, let’s go over some essential do’s and don’ts to keep in mind:

Address the agent by name if possible.
Tailor your cover letter to the agent or agency you’re submitting to.
Highlight your most relevant writing credentials and experience.
Keep your cover letter concise and to the point.
Proofread your cover letter for any grammatical or spelling errors.

Don’t:

Ramble or provide unnecessary information.
Oversell or exaggerate your writing credentials.
Give away too much detail or spoil the plot in your manuscript summary.
Forget to personalise your cover letter for each submission.
Forget to follow the submission guidelines provided by the agent or agency.

By following these do’s and don’ts, you can ensure that your cover letter is professional, engaging, and tailored to the agent you’re submitting to. Remember, the goal is to get a foot in the door, make a good first impression and convince the agent that your manuscript is worth their time and consideration.

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Cover Letters: Advice from a Literary Magazine Editor

A guest post by Yi Shun Lai

Since 2014 I have edited prose for the Tahoma Literary Review . This submission period we had a little over a thousand submissions; by the time I’m done, I will have read somewhere between 350 and 400 pieces of fiction and given feedback on a little over half of those. (We have awesome fiction readers at TLR to help with the remainder of the workload, and poetry makes up a massive chunk of those thousand submissions.)

Over the past few weeks, we’ve had some commentary and questions on what makes a good cover letter for a literary submission, so I thought I’d address that.

First, some notes:

My policy with cover letters is so: I try to only read them after I’ve done with the submission. There are a lot of reasons for this, unconscious bias being chief among them, but because our submission engine defaults to showing me the cover letter when I open the submission, I usually will get a glance at them despite my best intentions before I get to the short story or essay itself.

Literary magazine cover letters are different from the query letters you would write to a consumer magazine in that your piece for a literary magazine is already complete. But in some ways they are the same.

This advice is unique to this editor and to prose , but I’ll wager it covers a lot of things folks like to see in cover letters in general.

The no nos are easy : Don’t “Dear editor” me. Don’t say something like “most people think I’m drunk or on cocaine when they read my work.” And for God’s sake, do not say your writing is “picaresque,” or that it “redefines literature.” (I don’t know. This last one might be a personal thing. *twitches.*) These are all things that have appeared in this reading period, by the way.

With that said, here are the YES, DO THISes of cover letters:

Please customize your letter. The person reading your submission is a person. With a name.

Please give me something that tells me you have actually read my magazine and/or know something of what we like to publish.*

*This is a gimme. Our editors are all online, as are our readers, and the magazine’s digital footprint is considerable.

You don’t have to tell me about your story or essay, but in nonfiction it can be especially helpful. In fiction I find people have a terrible time summing up their own work.

Please tell me a little bit about yourself. This is not a bio in third person. This is one or two lines about your most recent publications, maybe.

With all of that said, here’s what my standard cover letter for a literary submission looks like:

Dear XXXXX,

Thank you for taking the time to read my submission. I admire X publication’s [insert unique feature here]

We met [XX HERE] and I was happy to hear that you [UNIQUE THING ABOUT THIS EDITOR YOU LIKE OR WHATEVER HERE.]

I’m a prose editor for the Tahoma Literary Review, and my fiction is most recently published [XXX here]. My nonfiction can be found [XX].

Thank you very much. I look forward to hearing back from you.

Yi Shun Lai

Generally, it follows very basic rules:

Be concise .
Be polite and human . Remember you’re writing to a person, not a ‘bot. I’m not a fan of the one-line “cover letters” for this reason: it looks like I’m screening for data points rather than reading for a good essay or story.
Please don’t aggrandize your own work or style. That’s what I’m here for, should you publish with me, and your work should speak for itself, anyway.
Remember that your job is to do honor* to the work you are presenting to me. So you shouldn’t, as a friend described it to me recently, feel icky or gross about it. Look at it as giving your work due credit. Start there and you won’t feel icky–doing honor to something is not the same as, um, pimping it.

Okay? In the end, I think it comes down to this: Where are you writing this letter from? Are you writing it from a position that says you want to put something new into this world of reading? Yes? Then put that foot forward.

Okay. Now. Go forth and write. TLR opens to submission again 1 January 2018. Until then, ask me any questions below.

*I stole this from Alex Maslansky, bookseller at Stories Books and Café in LA. I have used it a bajillion times and I’ll keep on using it. It makes sense.

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Columns > Published on April 13th, 2021

How to Write a Cover Letter That Won’t Kill You

Original image by vickie intili.

Most literary journals ask for a “cover letter” to go with their submissions. This, of course, sends many writers into an anxious frenzy. What should the cover letter say? Should it talk about the meaning of the piece submitted? Should it include a bio? What does it all mean??

As usual, we’re overthinking it. Cover letters to accompany literary journal submissions are simple. Title of the piece, word count, and if it’s a simultaneous submission is all that is required. Most editors actually prefer you not to include any information about the piece itself, if submitting to a literary journal, which is very different than when pitching an editor for a magazine or other service outlet. But if you have a relationship with the journal editor, or have received personalized submission responses before, you can include that information in the letter.

Here are some examples from cover letters I have personally used on pieces that have since been accepted for publication.

This is a basic cover letter for a literary journal submission. I was such a babe in the woods, I didn’t have any bylines to my name yet. And you know what? This long-ass story got accepted to Carolina Quarterly, no-name bio and all.

Here it is:

To [insert actual editor’s name], Please find attached my story, 'Formation.' The length is about 7,500 words. This is a simultaneous submission; I will notify you immediately if this piece is accepted elsewhere. Thank you, Lisa Bubert

See? Short, sweet, and yes, this one landed an acceptance. It truly is about the quality of your work, not your bio. Now let’s expand on this template to include some unique situations.

Sometimes you have a story where who you are or what you do for a living is key to showing that you know what you’re talking about. You can include that in the cover letter, but keep it brief. Editors are busy people who want the story in the actual story, not the cover letter.

Here’s a basic cover letter that includes some biographical information specific to the story I submitted. The story was set on a ranch in South Texas with an old, angry cowboy as the main character. I am very familiar with old, angry cowboys from South Texas ranches. Here’s how I included it in the cover letter:

To [insert actual editor’s name], Please find attached my story "Strange Birds". Total word count is about 5,100 words. The setting takes place on a South Texas ranch, much like the one I was raised on. Thank you in advance for reading my work. This is a simultaneous submission; I will notify you immediately if this piece is accepted elsewhere. Sincerely,

Lisa Bubert

The rule of thumb is to not explain your work in the cover letter. But if you have a really good hook, you can certainly include that. Notice, I said “hook,” not “hook, line and sinker.” If you can’t boil the premise down to one sentence or even a half-sentence like I did here, just don’t include it. Again, when it comes to literary journals, the work always speak for itself.

Here’s a basic cover letter that includes a story hook:

Maybe you have a piece that has received accolades elsewhere (usually a contest placement, definitely not the accolade of “My critique group/mom loved it!”) but is still unpublished. Heck yes, you should toot your own dang horn! Here’s how to do it with style:

To [insert actual editor’s name], Please find attached my story 'Woman Hollering,’ about a young woman who is being followed by the ghost of La Llorona after experiencing sexual assault. It totals 7,150 words. It was recently selected as a top ten finalist in the Colorado Review's Nelligan Prize for Short Fiction. This is a simultaneous submission but I will be sure to notify you should it be accepted elsewhere. Thank you, Lisa Bubert

Are you sensing a pattern here? Keep it short, keep it sweet, keep it brief and to just the facts, ma’am. But again, if you’re submitting to literary journals, most editors only read the cover letter after they’ve read your submission—if they get that far. The work must always, always be your best work if you’re going to submit it. No amount of accolades and platitudes and impressive bios can stand in for solid, well-written work.

Now I don’t want to hear any more crying about cover letters. Y’all been told.

About the author

Lisa Bubert is a writer and editor for hire with All Things Words. Her work has appeared in The Rumpus, Puerto del Sol, Washington Square Review, Carolina Quarterly, and more. Her story, “Kitten,” which appeared in Pidgeonholes, was nominated for Best Small Fictions 2020. Her story, “The Coma,” which appeared in the final issue of Natural Bridge journal, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Learn more at www.allthingswords.com .

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An Editor's Guide to the Do's and Don'ts of Literary Journal Cover Letters

Updated: Sep 24, 2019

Part of what makes cover letters so intimidating is that no one tells you what editors expect from them. Writers do their best to figure out what works from past experience and hearsay, but there are few guides on the subject compared to what you can find on professional cover letters. Luckily, you're not alone. I'm Fiction Editor Ethan Brightbill, and after ten years working for lit journals including Passages North , Literary Orphans , Lake Effect , and more, I'm here to dispel some common misconceptions about lit journal cover letters and author bios.

The most important thing to remember when writing a cover letter is that the editor who looks at yours has likely already read half a dozen others just in that same day, and while you want your letter to stand out, it’s even more important not to waste the editor’s time. A cover letter will never make or break an acceptance for your piece, but it can show editors that you take their journal and your own work seriously, or it can bore them with needless details. The list below will help you do the former and avoid the latter.

Do address your letter to a specific person, usually the genre editor. It shows that you care enough about the journal to at least look at their web page.

Do keep things as brief and concise as possible; remember, yours isn't the only cover letter an editor likely needs to read that day. Barring unusual circumstances, your cover letter sans author bio should be one or two brief paragraphs. The bio itself should be another paragraph written in third person.

Don’t use your cover letter to summarize your work unless requested to do so. The editor will know what your piece is about once they’ve read it, and repeating that information in advance just bloats the cover letter. If there’s something you’re worried the editor(s) won’t understand without you mentioning it, then you should go back and revise your work so that it stands on its own. This also goes for what inspired or influenced your writing. While your creative process is understandably significant to you, it isn’t relevant information to the editorial staff.

Do mention what you like about the journal. It shows you care enough to read their work, and while it won’t change a rejection into an acceptance, it does encourage the editor(s) to match the attention you gave their publication. A sentence at the start of the cover letter is perfect.

Don’t include biographical information in your cover letter. That’s what the bio is for. It’s not a big deal if you include one or two details, but ask yourself if the editors really need to know about your passion for exotic fruit smoothies.

Do mention whether or not this is a simultaneous submission. Many mainstream literary journals will assume as much, but some ask that you inform them if this is the case. If you make it a habit to specify simultaneous submissions, that’s one less thing to worry about, and it does let the editor(s) know that someone else could snap up your writing if they don't. Be sure to keep an eye out for journals that don’t accept simultaneous submissions as well. They’re rare, but they exist.

Do feel free to admit if this is your first publication. It’s not required, but it will explain why you don’t have past pubs, and most editors recognize that we all have to begin somewhere. Speaking of which…

Don’t lie about your publishing history in your bio. While a string of big names in your author bio might get an editor’s hopes up briefly, it won’t change whether or not they wish to publish your work once they’ve read it. Because of the subjective nature of writing and the vast number of submissions lit journals receive, editors must routinely turn down submissions by writers with great credentials. Lying about your own won't get you ahead, but it might get you blacklisted if anyone cares to do a five second search for your work.

Don't think that you need to name every place that's ever published your work in your bio. If you only have a few past pubs, by all means, mention all of them, but as you become more established as a writer, consider limiting the list to the most recent or prestigious lit journals that have taken your work. (If the journal you're submitting to has expressed interest in or is similar to another place where you've been published, consider mentioning them as well.) A couple lines of publications is fine, but more than that just stretches your bio without adding significant information for editors and readers.

Don’t feel like you have to mention your education if you don't want to. While having an MFA or other degree at least shows that you’re willing to invest time in writing, it won’t get you more acceptances, and the absence of one won’t hurt you. Many successful authors don’t mention degrees even if they do have them, so frankly, it may not even matter.

Do understand that as deadening as writing cover letters can sometimes be, editors appreciate the time you spend creating them, and they recognize when you try to make their (typically unpaid) jobs easier. Editors are usually writers themselves, and they’re just as eager to be amazed by great writing as you are to give it to them. Recognize that the people reading your work are hoping you’ll succeed, and keep writing.

5 Steps to a Fabulous Literary Journal Cover Letter

“The Mask I Give Myself” by Luke Manning

by Nat Raum

If you’ve ever looked at a journal’s submission form and felt fear strike your heart when they’re asking for a cover letter, you’re not alone. In fact, this kind of professional writing is a somewhat elusive skill that most people learn through practice—there aren’t a lot of classes out there on how to write a cover letter, artist statement, or bio. I’ll break down some of the skills I’ve picked up not only as an editor, but as an artist and writer submitting my own work.

1. Get to the point.

This might sound harsh, but hear me out when I tell you why it’s also practical advice: the idea of the cover letter is to sell your work as succinctly as possible. Start with a salutation (“Dear [Journal] editors,” is a good catch-all) and introduce yourself right away. Who are you? What does your creative background look like? Maybe you’re a current writing student, or your paintings were exhibited at a local venue. Maybe you have a lengthy or impressive publication history you want to mention. If you don’t have as much experience, a simple statement about what you do also works.

2. Tell us what we’re reading.

Maybe you’ve submitted a short story, several poems, or a piece that hops between genres—let us know! Is it part of a larger collection? Was it submitted simultaneously? Also consider if there’s any other context the editorial team might need to consider—maybe the piece is in response to a work of art, or maybe you’ve been inspired by current events. But don’t go on forever! It’s also important that the work still speaks for itself.

3. Read the room.

Different journals have different expectations. Some journals do expect a more formal cover letter, but others want to see you pull your personality into it! If there’s no guidelines listed for what to include in your letter, it’s safe to assume you should write a more standard letter. Don’t be afraid to be yourself, though! You might be published in the New Yorker , but maybe you also host a youth art workshop in your spare time or regularly perform at open-mic nights. Maybe your day job in a medical lab isn’t necessarily related to creativity, but it informs your work.

4. Put the finishing touches on.

This includes proofreading, but it also includes making sure you’ve followed all of the guidelines. Some editors will still look at submissions that do not follow guidelines, but some will discard them unread, which puts all of your hard work to waste. Make sure you’ve included all information that the journal has requested in your cover letter and that your submitted work follows any length and other formatting guidelines.

5. Follow up—when appropriate.

Be sure to keep track of your submissions and follow up if you need to. You should always let journals know as soon as you’re able if a simultaneously submitted work is no longer available. Additionally, pay attention to a journal’s estimated response times. It’s appropriate to query after that time has passed, but try to hold off on following up on the status of your work until it’s outside of that window.

Now you’re ready to get your work out there with the confidence of a fabulous cover letter! Happy submitting, and good luck!

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Mandie Hines Author

Poetry, Horror, Psychological Thrillers

Cover Letters for Literary Magazines

by Mandie Hines · April 13, 2017

Cover letters are the first impression a writer makes on an editor at a literary magazine. I’m going to tell you how to write one, so you don’t ruin your chances of getting published before the editor has a chance to read your work.

A cover letter to a literary magazine may be the simplest thing you can write, and yet writers often overcomplicate the process and make the wrong impression. I’m going to tell you a secret that will help tremendously when writing your cover letters. The cover letter serves a function, which is to give the editors the information they need at a glance. That’s it.

Cover letters are far different than query letters you write to a literary agent or publisher. There’s no explanation of what the story is about, and there’s hardly anything, if anything, about you in the letter.

Let’s start with what information goes in a cover letter.

Genre: This lets the magazine know that you’re piece is in a genre that they publish. A horror magazine isn’t going to waste their time reading a romance, so this is a quick way for them to make sure you read their guidelines, are familiar with their publication, and are submitting a piece that they would print.
Approximate length of piece: This let’s the editor know that the length of the piece falls within their guidelines. Round to the nearest hundred words, or if it’s poetry, you’ll put the number of lines.
If the piece is being submitted simultaneously with other publications: Only put in a line for this if you plan to submit to other publications simultaneously. Again, pay attention to the magazine’s guidelines. There are several publications that do not allow simultaneous submissions. If you do not plan on submitting to other publications at the same time, omit this line.
A short list of where your work has been published: If you’ve been published in several publications, only list three (preferably within the same genre as the magazine where you’re currently submitting). If you have not been published, omit this line.
A brief thank you: Editors go through hundreds, if not thousands, of submissions every month. A thank you is always appreciated.
Contact information: This makes it easy for an editor to respond to your submission.

Before beginning your cover letter, do your research on the name of the editor(s) of the publication. It is important to address your cover letter to a person, and shows that you took the time to track down who would be reviewing the piece. Keep in mind, there are several magazines that have multiple departments, so select the correct editor.

Here’s an example of a cover letter.

Many magazines are now accepting submissions only online, so if you are sending your submission via email, start the email at “Dear” and the rest of the letter will be the same.

Now that you have the general idea of how to write a cover letter for a literary magazine, let me give you some tips about things NOT to include, along with some additional advice.

Do not put “To Whom it May Concern:” because no one will be concerned if that is the salutation of your letter.
When you put Mr., Mrs., Miss, or Ms. in your salutation, make sure that you have the correct gender. Many editors use their initials. If you absolutely cannot discover this information online, then drop the Mr. or Ms. and just put their full name.
In the event that you cannot discover the editor, put “Dear Editor:” in place of a name.
Check your letter for errors. Editors will notice them, and it will create a bad impression.
Do not list every place your work has ever been published. Select three publications that may be relevant. If you want to make a point that your work has appeared in several publications, put something like “My work has previously appeared in . . . among others.”
If you do not have any publication credits to list, don’t worry, but don’t point it out either.

A cover letter should be clean and simple. Many magazines separate the cover letter from the story, so your piece will be judged on the quality of the piece and whether it’s a good fit for the magazine. In other words, you don’t want your cover letter to leave an impression.

If you’re drafting your cover letter, you may find these posts useful:

Manuscript Formatting

The (Submission) Grinder

Best of luck with submitting your work!

Tell me your success stories with submitting to literary publications. Are there any lessons you learned about submitting, the hard way? Are there any struggles that you’ve had or are having with preparing a story for submission, or with submitting a story to a literary magazine?

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Following the instructions very carefully for Clarkesworld Magazine’s online submission process, my cover letter resulted in one substantive sentence, the salutations, and my contact info. That was all. If I’d added anything else, it would have violated their instructions. This was actually a relief. Ten or so years ago when I was submitting by paper, the process was much more painful. I LOVE ONLINE SUBMISSIONS.

Another good post.

Thank you, Kecia. The importance of following a literary magazine’s guidelines can’t be stressed enough. I love that almost all magazines have switched to online submissions. Some magazines no longer even require a cover letter, but most still allow one to be submitted whether it’s in an email or through providing a space to add it in their online submission form. I can’t believe how many literary magazines have switched over to either include an online version, or many have even switched to exclusively putting out an online version within the past five years. Thank you for reading and commenting. I enjoy our conversations. 🙂

I forgot to mention that Clarkesworld Magazine is one of the most challenging magazines to get published in. They’re currently listed as No. 6 of the Most Challenging magazines on Duotrope, and I’ve seen them in the top two before. They’re acceptance rate is 0.19 percent. You write amazing sci-fi pieces though, so I hope yours gets accepted. And if you do, after I scrape my jaw off the ground, I’ll probably be in awe of your forever. And if not, just know that you’re an incredibly talented writer. That was the first place I submitted “Alger’s Dimension,” but I should have known it wasn’t a good fit. My story is sci-fi/horror, but really soft on the sci-fi end.

I haven’t submitted yet, but researched them because of their reputation. I wanted to keep that quality of work as my goal as I write.

That’s one of the best approaches, Kecia. By reading a magazine you get a sense for more than the genre they publish, you also get the feel of the magazine and what type of stories they are most likely to accept. At some point, I would like to write a piece with a certain magazine in mind, as opposed to the way I’ve done it in the past where I write a story and then try to find a magazine that would make a good fit for the story.

This is great, thanks for writing this. I’ve been sending out mag subscriptions as a sort of mini-query (if that’s possible). Most of them end up looking something like you have prescribed, but I didn’t really have a formula for it yet. Now I do. thanks so much. Think I’m going to link this page on my “Resources” list, so don’t let your website go anywhere. 🙂

Haha Thank you so much. I’m am thrilled that you found this useful. And no worries, I plan on having this website around for a long time. 🙂

Some very good advice. I learned some of this during my Freelance Writing class with Penn Foster, so it was a nice rehash.

Thank you. It’s a great thing to have as a template, and takes the thinking out of that part of the submission process. I remember the first time I wrote a cover letter for a magazine, it was so nerve-wracking. I was afraid I would mess it up somehow. Now I have a cover letter template that I start with each time. It’s a good way to make sure you don’t inadvertently leave information in the letter that is specific to another publication or about another story.

You made some great points. Less is often more.

Thank you for stopping by and reading, Russell. And you’re right, less is often more.

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When sending out submissions, what do I write in a cover letter?

A cover letter accompanying a submission to a journal or magazine can be short and simple. Indicate that you're submitting the work for consideration, but don't say much—if anything—about the work. In these kinds of submissions, you include the story, essay or poems along with the cover letter. So, let the creative work speak for itself. You might indicate why you chose to send this particular piece to this particular publication. This demonstrates your knowledge of the publication and your mindfulness in submitting. Also, include biographical information. Select a few relevant details that highlight your accomplishments. You might mention where you studied creative writing, where your creative work has been published or any awards or accolades you've received. If you have no credits, don't worry. While accolades certainly build confidence in your abilities, the real focus is in the writing itself. In fact, many journals are hungry to introduce a great new writer by publishing a debut story.

Don't forget to read writers' guidelines closely. Some journals have a strong preference as to how you address your submissions. If the guidelines do not stipulate this, look up the appropriate editor on the journal's masthead and direct your submission to that person.

Here's an example of how a cover letter accompanying an electronic submission might read for a writer with few credits:

Dear Ms. Reynolds, Submitted for your consideration is “The Misfits of Greenwood," a short story. HaHa Magazine is a publication that values humor, an element I hope you enjoy in this story. I have studied creative writing as an undergraduate at Fancy University and at Continuing Education Workshop, where my fiction won the New Writer's Award. Thank you for your consideration. Sincerely, Holly Writer

I kept this one very short and simple. You can, of course, include more. Still, don't feel compelled to write something lengthy. The bulk of the attention will—and should—rest on the creative work that accompanies the cover letter. Some editors will use cover letters to decide what gets read faster, but there's no way to anticipate how each editor approaches this. One editor might give special attention to submissions that list previous publications in certain journals. Another editor might also take a quicker look at submissions that come from writers who went to her own beloved alma mater.

Be honest and keep the tone professional and friendly. This suggests respect—for your own writing and the work and time of the editors.

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Submission Series: How It’s Done.

So you’ve never submitted your poems to literary magazines before. Where do you start? It can definitely feel intimidating (and time-consuming) the first time you send your work out to potential publishers; but once you’ve gone through the steps a few times, it just becomes another part of your writing routine. To help you get going, here are some tips to guide you through the process and proper etiquette.

Before You Submit Your Work

This might seem obvious but it bears saying aloud: read lots of literary magazines! This is essential homework if you’re going to start submitting work to them. This helps you to know what is being published by these journals, and what they’re looking for. Two great resources for discovering literary magazines are NewPages and Chill Subs , which maintain a fairly comprehensive database of listings and publish reviews of literary magazines. And, most of all, consider subscribing to literary magazines, if you can. Regularly reading the new issues of journals in which you hope to publish can often lead to breakthroughs in your work. Remember: there are no good writers without good readers. Here are some helpful resources and links:

NewPages posts calls for submissions for magazines in their classified section.
Duotrope & Chill Subs both house databases containing information about thousands of literary magazines and journals, so you don’t have to scour the interwebs all by yourself.
We’ve even gotten into this data compilation action ourselves by running a quarterly “Where to Submit” blog series to let you know who is currently open and looking for your poems & manuscripts!

A Duotrope account also comes with the ability to log your submissions and responses on the site, which helps you track your submissions while also contributing data to the statistical information that Duotrope gathers & provides for each lit mag profile.

Start a little smaller at first: submit to literary magazines that focus on work by emerging and/or unpublished writers. You can always find this information on the publication’s website.

Most literary magazines and journals receive submissions online (some exclusively) and many of those use the submission management platform Submittable for receiving and responding to those submissions. So, you should also go ahead and set up your free Submittable account. Other literary magazines either receive submissions by email or through an alternative submission management platform.

How to Craft a Cover Letter

Most literary magazines and journals will ask you to include a brief cover letter to accompany the packet of poems you’re submitting. Although most publications will not disqualify a submission based on the cover letter, it is important to make a professional first impression. There is definitely an art to the submission cover letter, so here are some tips for how to do it right:

Use the appropriate editor’s name in your opening address (you can find this on their website, usually on the masthead page),

Briefly state your intention (“I am submitting my poems XYZ for consideration for a future issue of Lit Mag Name .”)

If this is a simultaneous submission , let them know here, but you don’t have to say where else you’re sending your work. (“These poems are simultaneous submissions but I will inform you promptly should they be accepted elsewhere and need to be withdrawn.”)

Do not describe your poems or give your life story . If you choose, you can give a very brief third-person biographical note (generally 50–100 words). But this is usually optional.

Briefly thank the editor(s) for considering and reading your work.

Close with your first and last name, and your contact information.

Cover Letter Template:

Dear [Insert Editor Name],

I would like to submit my poems [insert poem titles] for consideration for a future issue of [ Insert Magazine/Journal Title ]. I have also included a brief biographical note below, should that be needed.

[Insert brief bio here.]

This is a simultaneous submission. Thank you so much for reading my work!

[Your Name]

[Your Mailing Address]

[Your Phone Number]

[Your Email Address]

How to Track Submissions

This is so incredibly important to remember: you are responsible for keeping track of your submissions! This is the information you need to keep a detailed record of:

The titles of the poems you submitted.

The title of the publication to which you submitted them.

The date you submitted the poems.

The submission fee you paid (if any).

The type of response you receive (acceptance, personalized rejection, form rejection, or author withdrawal).

We recommend keeping a spreadsheet customized for this purpose. If you simultaneously submit poems to multiple places (which is standard practice, but check the guidelines), and one or more of those poems are accepted by a publication, you will have to know which places you need to withdraw those accepted poems from. It is your responsibility to keep track of this. It is also your responsibility to withdraw those accepted poems from the lit mags still considering them in a timely manner — which means the same day you receive the acceptance for the poem(s) in question.

What to Expect (When You’re Waiting & Waiting & Waiting)

It will take anywhere from two months to one year for literary magazines to send you a response. Check the submission guidelines for this information. Many times, they will let you know how long they tend to hold onto submissions before responding. They will also let you know when it is acceptable to query about a submission — do not do this before the prescribed response time has lapsed. You don’t want to annoy the editors who are often working on hundreds of submissions at any given time.

You will want to make sure you are checking your email account regularly, so that when you do receive a response, you are able to get to it right away. Always check your spam or junk folder because sometimes they get erroneously filtered there! It’s also a good idea to log in to your Submittable account at least once a week to check the status of your current submissions because sometimes those emails can go astray.

If you receive an acceptance, don’t leave the literary magazine waiting! Make sure you respond to their message as soon as possible — in the precise manner and with the exact information they request — so that you don’t end up missing out on this publishing opportunity. Some publishers have a shorter turnaround time for issue production, so letting them know they have permission to publish your work sooner rather than later will be most helpful for the editors. If an accepted poem is simultaneously submitted elsewhere, you need to make sure you withdraw the accepted poem (from the lit mags still considering it) as soon as possible. If another publisher sends you an acceptance letter for the same poem, you’ll find yourself in an uncomfortable situation where you have to disappoint one editor or the other. If you receive a rejection, first of all, don’t take it personally. Allow yourself to feel the disappointment briefly, then let it go. There will be more of these than you will want to count. Second, do not reply to a rejection letter, unless it is absolutely clear that the letter has been personalized.

Best Practices

The best advice we can give you is this: always read the submission guidelines! They will be slightly different for each publication. Make sure you follow them, or your submission could be disqualified without being read. Here are a few terms you will need to become familiar with:

Blind submissions: If a publication says that submissions must be blind, that means that no identifying information is allowed to appear on your submission document: no name or contact information, either within the document or even in the file name.

Simultaneous submissions: This refers to submitting the same poems to multiple publications at the same time. Most journals accept this practice, but you must inform them about it in your cover letter. And, as mentioned numerous times above, you must also be responsible about withdrawing poems promptly if they are accepted at one publication while under consideration at others.

Finally, this is a very important thing to remember for first-timers: posting your poems to Facebook, Instagram, a blog, etc. will count as “previously published” for a literary journal. Most of them (not all — check the guidelines) will only consider work that is entirely unpublished. So, if you want to publish specific poems in literary journals or magazines, do not post them online in any form before publication.

Did you know that Tell Tell Poetry also offers Submission Support services? Reach out to us here for more information. We’re wishing you the best of luck with your poetry submissions!

Pssst. We’re launching a submission course soon! Drop an email to [email protected] if you’re interested in hearing more when we launch!

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Submitting Your Work: How to Write Your Best Cover Letter

Jul 02, 2018 by Elise Holland published in Community

When you submit your essay, poetry, or short story to a magazine or journal, your cover letter is usually the first thing an editor sees. While it is important, it doesn’t need to be intimidating or take much of your time to write.

As editor at 2 Elizabeths, I see a variety of cover letters every day; some are excellent, and others could stand to be improved. There are a few key pieces of information you want to include in your own cover letters, while keeping them short and sweet. In fact, a cover letter should only be a couple of paragraphs long, and no more than roughly 100 – 150 words.

How to Write Your Best Cover Letter

A little research will go a long way. And most often, this simple research is the step I see skipped. Stand apart from the crowd or proverbial “slush pile” by doing a couple of things in advance of penning your next cover letter.

Seek out the editor’s name, and address the letter to him/her, as opposed to using a generic greeting. Typically, you can find this information either on the magazine or journal’s website or in the submission guidelines. This tiny shift in the letter feels much more personal and makes it clear from the get go that you’ve taken the time to tailor your cover letter to the publication, as opposed to blasting out the same generic letter to 20 different literary magazines.
Be sure to read the publication’s submission guidelines thoroughly. Many publications will state in their guidelines the exact details that need to be included in a cover letter.

With some variation, a general rule of thumb is to include the following:

Editor’s name (if you can locate it)
Genre/category
Brief description of your piece
If you have been published previously, state where
Whether your piece is a simultaneous submission (definition below)

Note – If you have not yet been published, simply leave that piece out! If that is the case, most publications will still welcome your submissions warmly.

Important Terms to Know

Should your work be selected for publishing by one magazine, it’s important to notify other publications where you have submitted that piece. This courtesy will prevent complications and will keep you in good grace with various editors should you wish to submit to them again in the future.

The term multiple submission means that you are submitting multiple pieces to the same literary magazine or journal.

Cover Letter Example

Dear Sandra, Please consider this 2,460-word short fiction piece, titled “John.” I discovered your publication quite some time ago and am an avid reader of the fiction and poetry that you publish. The piece I am submitting, “John,” is a fictitious tale inspired by the impact of a whirlwind, yet meaningful romance I experienced last year. In this story, I gently explore the life lessons associated with young love, with a touch of humor.

This is a simultaneous submission, and I will notify you if the piece is accepted elsewhere.

Thank you for your consideration.

Kindest Regards,

Why this Works

In this letter, Jane includes all key information, while keeping her letter clear and concise. In her second sentence, she briefly states how she is familiar with the magazine. While doing this isn’t required, if done tastefully, it can be a nice touch! Another example might be to say “I read and enjoyed your spring issue, and I feel that my work is a good fit for your magazine.”

Pro Tip: When you submit your work, keep a simple spreadsheet that tracks the following items to prevent you from submitting the same piece twice to a magazine or journal. There is no reason to duplicate your work, and avoiding doing so will keep you looking organized in the eyes of the editors you’re reaching out to.

Title of the piece you submitted
Name of the publication you submitted to
Date of submission
Status of submission (i.e. Did you hear back from that editor?)

Follow these tips to help you pin down your next cover letter with finesse. And if you’re so inclined, grab a copy of the 2 Elizabeths submission guidelines. We’d love to read your work.

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How To Write a Covering Letter

Literary agents will read the manuscript you send, and some the synopsis, but all will read the covering letter. Writing an effective one may take you a long time, but it is well worth the trouble.

The whole thing should:

Be well written – you are writing to people who care about words
Be concise (don’t waste their time; you want to direct them to the manuscript rather than tell them everything about you). One side of the page is plenty
Look attractive (it is the spaces on a page that draw the eye in, not the text, so paragraphs of different lengths and a ragged right-hand margin really help to attract the reader and keep them going)
Be knowledgeable about the agency
Begin well (according to David Ogilvy, the copywriting guru, the first 11 words are crucial)
Describe the project briefly (in no more than two or three sentences) so that the reader is clear about what kind of book is on offer, and wants to know more
Never say at the end of the letter that you’ll telephone in a few days to follow up your submission – it sounds rather menacing (but do email to check on progress if you haven’t heard anything in a month or so).

Some agents and publishers acknowledge what they receive; others do not. Do bear in mind that some small agencies or publishers only deal with the unsolicited submission pile every few weeks, and so the waiting time may be slightly longer.

An agent’s advice

Here is the advice of literary agent Simon Trewin on writing an introductory letter:

" Life is short and less is more. No letter should be more than one side of A4 and in a good-sized (12pt) clear typeface.

Sell yourself. The covering letter is one of the most important pages you will ever write. I will be honest here and say I find selling myself very difficult, so I can see how tricky this is – there is a thin line between appearing interesting/switched-on/professional and arrogant/unreasonable.

The letters that include phrases like “I am a genius and the world doesn't understand me” or “My Mum thinks this book is the best thing she has ever read” (of course she does – that is her job!) don’t exactly fill my heart with longing! In your pitch letter you are trying to achieve some simple things: you want me to feel that you take your work seriously. Wear your writing history with pride. Tell me about that short story you had published or that writing course you attended and the fact that you are writing alongside a demanding job or in the evenings and weekends when the kids are asleep. Tell me why you write – I love hearing about the different paths that have led people to the moment when they think “I want to write”.

Tell me who your influences are and tell me about the book you are sending me. A few lines will do the job here; I just want to get a sense of the territory I am going to enter. Tell me what you want to write next. Hopefully you won’t be following your commercial romantic comedy with a three-volume science fantasy epic or vice-versa!

At the end of your letter I want to feel in good company and ready to turn the page. I am not interested in seeing what you look like or how old you are – we are not running a model agency here! Publishing isn’t as obsessed with age and beauty as you might think, but it is obsessed with finding distinctive new voices. And a final point: get a friend to read the letter and give you some honest feedback. Put it to one side for a day or two and come back to it – distance is a great editor. "

Simon Trewin

Case Study. The Night Attila Died: Solving the Murder of Attila the Hun by Dr Michael Babcock

Dear [Literary Agent]:

I am seeking representation for a non-fiction book entitled The Night Attila Died: Solving an Ancient Murder Mystery. I am a college professor with a PhD in medieval languages and literature from the University of Minnesota and a MFA in Creative Writing from the University of North Carolina. [1]

Historians tell us that Attila the Hun died on his wedding night in 453 AD. Drunk and flat on his back, he died of natural causes – an internal haemorrhage. The only problem with this account (and it’s a big one) is that it’s a complete fabrication. The Night Attila Died challenges 1,500 years of history by presenting evidence that Attila was murdered and that the truth was covered up in the official imperial records. [2]

The events and characters are among the most interesting that history has ever assembled on one stage. There’s Aetius, the ruthless Roman general and boyhood friend of Attila who defeated the Hun in a decisive battle in Gaul. There’s the weak and stupid emperor, Valentinian III, who pulled a dagger from his robe and assassinated Aetius in a jealous rage. There’s the emperor’s older sister, Honoria, who secretly plotted to wrest power from her brother and managed to start a world war in the process. [3]

In the eastern Empire, the characters are just as colourful: Emperor Theodosius II, a weak ruler who bungled the first assassination plot against Attila, and Emperor Marcian, whom I accuse of masterminding the plot that finally destroyed the Empire’s greatest enemy. Throw in, for good measure, a scheming eunuch and a pathetic little dwarf named Zerko. It’s a great set of characters. [4]

But what the book is really about is philology. The textual science pioneered two centuries ago by the Brothers Grimm is the tool that lets us peel away layers of conspiracy and propaganda. Through the philological method we can reconstruct what really happened and how the conspiracy to kill Attila was covered up as official history. Chapter by chapter the reader participates in the detective work. In the end the threads of an ancient conspiracy are revealed and the verdict of history is overturned. [5]

There’s more at stake than just a good detective story. This is ultimately about what happens when two cultures with irreconcilable worldviews collide. It’s how we confront the Other with all the power of the sword and pen. What emerges from these violent confrontations is a skewed understanding of the past. We may call it history, but it’s often just propaganda. The Night Attila Died is rooted in the historical moment of the late Roman Empire, but the conclusions I draw are deeply connected to our own time. [6]

My publications to date are academic, in particular a book on the literary representations of Attila. I am uniquely qualified to write The Night Attila Died, having spent 15 years studying the historical and literary records as preserved in Latin, Greek, Old Church Slavonic, Old Icelandic, Old French, and Middle High German. (But that isn’t keeping me from writing a lively narrative!) I am recognised as an expert in this field and have consulted for a History Channel documentary on “famous deaths”. As an enthusiastic and dynamic speaker who speaks widely at conferences, I intend to promote the book aggressively. [7]

May I send you a full proposal with a sample chapter? [8]

Michael A Babcock, PhD

Commentary (keyed to the paragraph numbers)

[1] Direct introduction. No beating around the bush. No ‘clever’ attempt to hook the agent. Identify the type of book it is. Briefly identify yourself and your credentials.

[2] The hook. What’s unique about this book? Why should the agent keep reading the query letter?

[3] What you’re trying to demonstrate in the body of the letter is your style, your personality, and the ‘interest factor’ of the subject itself.

[4] With carefully selected details, you can pique the interest of the agent. Agents and editors love books – that’s why they do what they do. So show them what the pay-off will be for reading this book. You are also conveying the depth of the subject and your expert handle on the material.

[5] Establish the significance of the topic and its relevance. Establish points of contact with general knowledge (the Brothers Grimm).

[6] Again, this draws out the significance and timeliness of the subject – that is, you’re trying to answer the ‘So what?’ question.

[7] Return to your credentials and qualifications as to why you're the best person to be writing this book.

[8] End with a direct, unambiguous appeal that requests a specific follow-up action.

How it worked

‘This letter was sent out by e-mail to agents and out of the ten I submitted to, I heard back from nine and all nine wanted to see the full proposal. Of these nine I had three agents who were interested in representing the project and one, in particular, who pursued it aggressively. This agent called me up and expressed such enthusiasm for the concept and my writing style, that I felt he was the natural choice. Even though there were better known agents who were interested in the project, I opted for the lesser known agent on the theory that he was highly motivated to sell my book. The book sold in less than a month. There were three editors who were interested in making an offer on the book; in the end it came down to two and the higher bid won out. As a side note, the book sold on the strength of the formal proposal and a single sample chapter. The book was sold in December 2003 and submitted in final form to my editor in July 2004. It was published in July 2005 by Berkley Books.’

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Discussions about the writing craft.

What goes into a cover letter when submitting short stories/genre fiction?

So I've been working for months on a number of short stories to submit to a few anthology and web publications, and most of these request a 'cover letter' be sent in with the actual manuscript. This seems to be a standard field for any site using Submittable .

Here's what I've googled.

Basically, the author of this article says to just mention your title, your word count, your name. End.

Now I've done a few cover letters for job interviews before, and I can't imagine such a plain letter to ever garner any attention of the employers.

I've submitted (very few) stories already, and so far have gotten a single response (declined, if you must know). I've been entering the following:

1-2 lines of what the story is about

my previous paid writing accomplishments (it's a short list).

My audience.

Usually it comes out to about 2 paragraphs long. Here's an example of one that I sent in (It's cringeworthy, I know... be gentle.) I wrote it with the idea that I was applying for a job, not so much submitting a story...

Cover Letter:

To [MAGAZINE NAME],

I have been writing for a number of years with some notable successes. I am the recipient of a $500 scholarship from Elder & Leemaur Publishers in 2005 for an essay entitled "[STORY]". My post-secondary education included creative writing courses at [A COLLEGE] and [A UNIVERSITY], but it is not my primary profession. I am [AGE] years old with a stable career in Information Technology, a field that affords me the luxury of enough spare time to focus on my craft.

I am currently the operator of a general-interest (video-game related) youtube channel with over 200 loyal subscribers. I plan to utilize this platform to branch out into more writing-specific areas once I have found publishers to validate my ability and support my voice in a public community. In return, I would be happy to leverage my influence to increase readership to your journal.

Thank you for your consideration of my latest horror, "[SUBMISSION NAME]".

[my name here]

Any advice is appreciated. Any articles that helped you are also appreciated (when I google 'cover letter for submitting short stories' most of it comes back as general cover letter information)

Find anything you save across the site in your account

Fitzcarraldo Editions Makes Challenging Literature Chic

Bookshelf containing blue and white books a bust of Alfred Nobel an award and other blue objects

For nearly a year after Jennifer Croft, a translator, sent a submission to Jacques Testard, a publisher in London, in the summer of 2015, the manuscript languished unread. Testard had launched Fitzcarraldo Editions the previous year, with the goal of creating a distinctive list of literary fiction and essays, many in translation. He was only thirty, and fiercely ambitious, but his publishing house was barely more than a one-man operation, and he fell behind on his reading. It wasn’t until after the Brexit referendum of June, 2016, when U.K. citizens voted narrowly to leave the European Union, that Testard reviewed the text that Croft had sent him: a two-hundred-page extract from “Flights,” an expansive novel first published in Polish, in 2007, by Olga Tokarczuk.

Testard, a French citizen who had moved with his family to the U.K. in childhood, hadn’t been eligible to vote in the referendum. But, like many people in his social circle, he’d assumed that Britain would choose to remain part of Europe. Testard was shocked by the result, and horrified by its effective legitimization of hostile attitudes toward European-born residents of the U.K. Testard didn’t feel personally vulnerable: he is effortlessly bilingual, and speaks English with the accent of London’s educated, affluent, cosmopolitan class. But less privileged immigrants were made to feel insecure: “Go Home” graffiti appeared on British streets, and mothers observed speaking to their children in a foreign language were chided. Immigrants from Poland—who, after that country had joined the E.U., in 2004, had become the U.K.’s largest foreign-born cohort—were derided in the right-wing press as “Polish plumbers,” job-stealers from Warsaw or Lodz who’d thrived by maintaining the homes of hapless Londoners.

Various British novelists, including John Lanchester and Rachel Cusk, had combatted this stereotype by including sensitive portrayals of Polish builders in books about life in the U.K. Testard, for his part, decided to add to the diversity of Polish voices in Britain by making Tokarczuk’s work available in translation. Tokarczuk, who was born in 1962, and whose first novel, “The Journey of the Book-People,” was published in her native country in 1993, had become one of Poland’s most heralded intellectuals, with a catalogue of genre-defying novels that draw on history and myth. Although Tokarczuk’s work had been translated into French, German, and several other European languages, none of her novels were in print in English in the U.K.

“Flights,” the book that Croft had partially translated, was an ideal choice for introducing Tokarczuk’s wide-ranging œuvre to the English-speaking world. Composed of fragments, the book contains different strands and stories that cross time and space. A mother and son disappear while vacationing on a Croatian island; the bereaved daughter of a formerly enslaved African seeks the return of his preserved body, which the Emperor of Austria has placed in a cabinet of curiosities. These narratives are interspersed with often whimsical essayistic excursions into the experience of modern travellers, who might fly from Irkutsk to Moscow in a continuous dawn, or buckle into an airplane seat alongside depleted members of a bachelor party, the cabin pungent with their “stench of sweat mixed with the remnants of arousal.” One comic passage in “Flights” pityingly notes the helpless vulnerability of the monoglot English speaker, for whom “all instructions, all the lyrics of the stupidest possible songs, all the menus, all the excruciating pamphlets—even the buttons in the lift!—are in their private language.” Testard loved Tokarczuk’s cosmopolitan storytelling, which offered a riposte to the narrow perspective of Britons who had voted for the closing of borders.

Testard struck a deal to publish “Flights” in 2017, and also commissioned Croft to translate Tokarczuk’s most recently completed work, “The Books of Jacob,” a historical novel about Jacob Frank, a Kabbalah scholar who led a messianic sect in the borderlands between Poland and Ukraine in the eighteenth century. In 2018, “Flights” won the International Booker Prize, Britain’s most important recognition for literature in translation, with the prize’s chair, Lisa Appignanesi, heralding Tokarczuk as “a writer of wonderful wit, imagination, and literary panache.” Thanks to the Booker win, the author already had an eager readership in English when Fitzcarraldo Editions released that fall a noirish thriller by Tokarczuk, “Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead,” translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones. That book has become Fitzcarraldo’s best-selling title, with more than a hundred and fifty thousand copies purchased. In 2019, Tokarczuk won the Nobel Prize, an event that primed English-language readers for the formidable “Books of Jacob,” which extends to nearly a thousand pages and appeared in English in 2021. To date, Fitzcarraldo has sold more than three hundred thousand copies of books by Tokarczuk. Four more translations from the author are in the pipeline.

I first encountered Fitzcarraldo Editions in the summer of 2017, while browsing in the London Review Bookshop, near the British Museum. I came across a slim paperback volume with a plain cover in International Klein Blue. In white lettering was a single-word title, “Pond,” and the name of the author, Claire-Louise Bennett, along with the name of the publisher and its insignia (a bell inscribed in a circle). The aesthetic was alluringly reminiscent of the wares in a Parisian bookstore, down to the folding French flaps on the cover. I settled in a sunny spot in St. James’s Park and nearly finished the book in one sitting, feeling that I had made a discovery. Behind the reticent cover unfolded an interlocked series of funny, peculiar short stories conveying the inner life of a reclusive young woman living in the Irish countryside. The subjects the narrator dilated on ranged from literature and “the essential brutality of love” to the inadvisability of postponing breakfast so late that her porridge strikes her as “a gloomy repast from the underworld.” The book was plotless and meandering, but the over-all effect was one of delightful originality.

Having been first picked up by the Stinging Fly, a small press in Ireland, where Bennett, who comes from the southwest of England, has lived for the past two decades, “Pond” had been submitted unsuccessfully to several British publishers. “I remember getting various feedback about it, such as it needed more work—it needed a story, it needed more characters, all this kind of thing, which was not at all what it was about,” Bennett told me recently. Testard, however, refrained from suggesting that Bennett turn an odd, beguiling book into something more immediately accessible, and published it, in 2015, as it was. “Pond” was rapturously reviewed, and was short-listed for the International Dylan Thomas Prize, for young authors. The book is now in its thirteenth printing. “Jacques doesn’t just chase after stuff that might be trending, or that he thinks might really catch fire,” Bennett explained. “He’s directed by what he’s really into.”

What Testard is really into is chronicled by Fitzcarraldo’s catalogue, which, as the house prepares to celebrate its tenth anniversary, includes more than a hundred books, by seventy-eight authors. About half the titles are in translation, and Testard’s list is divided more or less evenly between works of fiction, which share the same blue cover as “Pond,” and nonfiction books, for which the color scheme is inverted: blue lettering on white covers. The striking visual presentation is the work of Ray O’Meara, an Irish graphic designer, who also designed an original serif typeface for the books and keeps a close watch over their stylistic consistency, with much thought given to how the density of the ink, contrasting with the white space of the margins, grants a bracing severity to each page. The uniformity of appearance means that a first-time fiction writer such as Bennett becomes, visually, a peer of a Nobel Prize winner.

Impressively, four of the writers who have been named Nobel laureates in the past decade are on Fitzcarraldo’s roster. In addition to Tokarczuk, the house publishes the work of Svetlana Alexievich, of Belarus (2015); Annie Ernaux, of France (2022); and Jon Fosse, of Norway (2023). The house’s range, in terms of subject matter and style, extends from “Animalia,” an unrelenting saga of rural poverty and violence by the French novelist Jean-Baptiste Del Amo, to “Suppose a Sentence,” the scholar Brian Dillon’s musings on individual sentences from works by such writers as George Eliot and Roland Barthes.

Although Fitzcarraldo now turns a profit, Testard cannot match mainstream commercial publishers financially, and for the most part he can afford to pay advances only in the low four digits. For some writers, being offered a bigger advance elsewhere after a Fitzcarraldo-instigated success is an opportunity that would be reckless to turn down. Bennett was wooed by the publisher Cape for her follow-up, the 2021 novel “Checkout 19.” Bennett said, “It wasn’t a decision I made lightly at all. There were a few tears involved.” Testard told me, “We couldn’t compete on the money, and she needed money, and that’s fine.” To writers who stick with Fitzcarraldo, Testard offers the opportunity of being impeccably published, and being seen in esteemed editorial company. Tynan Kogane, a senior editor at New Directions, in New York, said of Testard, “He’s gotten this very strange reputation as a Nobel whisperer.” Testard is also known for being committed to nurturing a writer through an entire career. He told me, “If you come to me with your first book, and I believe in you as an author, and I believe in the writing, and it doesn’t work and it sells five hundred copies, we will still do the next one, and the next one, because it takes time.”

In fact, only one of Fitzcarraldo’s titles has sold fewer than a thousand copies, and many have sold far more. For literary writers, the prospect of such old-school loyalty from a publisher allows for a freedom of imagination that might be impossible elsewhere. Dan Fox, an art critic whose second book with Fitzcarraldo, “Limbo,” is about experiencing a creative block, told me, “It’s a bit of a mess of a book—I don’t think it really works. I have often thought that I’d quite like to do a ‘Limbo 2,’ and ‘Limbo 3,’ that’s the same book, gradually reworked or retooled, so that it would never be a resolved book. I mentioned that to Jacques at one point, and to his credit he seemed to think, Oh, yeah, that would be quite a nice idea.” (“I would gladly publish a ‘Limbo 2’ or ‘Limbo 3,’ if that’s what Dan wanted to do,” Testard told me.)

Person paints canvas with “Do The Dishes For Once”.

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Testard’s bilingualism gives him an advantage in a publishing industry in which the ability to read languages other than English is surprisingly uncommon. Not only does he read many French authors before they are translated into English; as a French reader, he is also introduced early to authors in various other languages, because French publishers tend to be far quicker than British or American ones to issue translations. Testard read Svetlana Alexievich in French before seeking to acquire “Second-hand Time,” an oral history of post-Soviet Russia, in 2014, during his first visit to the Frankfurt Book Fair, an annual gathering where international rights are sold.

“I was walking around with one blue book and one white book,” he recalled of the fair. That year, the Frankfurt conference coincided with the announcement of the winner of the Nobel Prize, and Alexievich was considered one of the front-runners to win. He recalled, “I was basically told, ‘You’ve got no chance.’ ” When Patrick Modiano was named the winner, the heat went out of the competition for “Second-hand Time”; within a week, Testard had acquired the rights to Alexievich’s book, for what was for him the huge sum of thirty-five hundred pounds. The next year, she won the Nobel, and the English-language translation that Testard had commissioned, from Bela Shayevich, was sold to a U.S. publisher for a quarter of a million dollars.

When introducing an established author in translation to an Anglophone reading public, Testard has savvy instincts about how to position his product. After he bought the rights to publish the works of Annie Ernaux—the French writer whose œuvre, in one slim volume after another, has consisted of a ceaseless reworking of the experiences of her own life—he began not with her most recent book at the time, “A Girl’s Story,” which appeared in France in 2016; instead, he chose “The Years,” from 2008, in which Ernaux took the framework of her life to tell an impersonal autobiography of French womanhood from 1941 to the present. Edmund White wrote a galvanizing review of “The Years” in the New York Times , calling it “a ‘Remembrance of Things Past’ for our age of media domination and consumerism.”

When Testard promotes his books, he is as aggressive as a soft-spoken, cerebral man can be. Several times he has submitted books from his Essays series for the International Booker, a prize intended for works of fiction, under the rationale that—despite Fitzcarraldo’s own binary division between white and blue—only a small-minded judge would fail to understand how, say, the nonfiction works of Ernaux should be in the running alongside self-declared works of fiction. (Sometimes he succeeds: “The Years,” translated by Alison L. Strayer, was short-listed for the International Booker in 2019.) In another Booker bid, Testard sought to submit Jon Fosse’s complete “Septology” in a single edition, in 2022, despite its having been submitted in installments in previous years, with “Septology VI-VII” short-listed. “They said no, which is fine —I guess,” Testard said. “I know I’m not the only person who checks in about the rules.”

Peter Straus, a prominent literary agent in London, said of Testard, “He never stops thinking about how he can sell books,” adding, “You need that strength of belief, but also that stubbornness. And the other thing you need, which he’s got, is an unquenchable belief that he is an excellent publisher.” Barbara Epler, the publisher and editorial director of New Directions, the storied American house, founded in 1936, that has issued seminal translations of Jorge Luis Borges, Roberto Bolaño, and others, told me, “Jacques reminds me of James Laughlin, the founder of New Directions—they want to make publishing houses homes for writers to a degree that I don’t think is typical.”

Fitzcarraldo’s services extend beyond the editorial. In May, Sheila Heti, the Canadian author, travelled to London to promote “Alphabetical Diaries,” her poignant compilation of sentences drawn from her journals and arranged from A to Z—a project that Testard had been discussing with her for a decade. She asked him to accompany her to a clothing store, where she sought his tasteful counsel about which of three tweed jackets she should buy. He gave a lilac one the nod. “I sensed that it was the answer she wanted,” he told me, mildly. “It also looked the best.”

Testard and his editorial staff—he now has seven colleagues—like to talk about Fitzcarraldo authors and books as forming constellations, with one title leading a curious reader to another, with which it shares a kinship, and then to yet another. Someone who, like me, starts with “Pond” might be attracted next to the work of the German writer Esther Kinsky, whose richly observational novel “River” features an unnamed narrator who lives alongside the River Lea, in London’s outlying wetlands. Reading Kinsky might, in turn, lead to the Russian poet Maria Stepanova, whose essay “In Memory of Memory” concerns the survival of several generations of her family in the twentieth-century Soviet Union. Enjoyment of Stepanova’s work might encourage a reader to try another modern text about the Soviet experiment, such as Alexievich’s “Second-hand Time.” The constellation concept helps to guide Fitzcarraldo’s staff when they consider which authors might fit next in their roster. But they do nothing as crude as clutter the books’ back covers with “if you loved this, try this” urgings. The refined, distinctive covers are recommendation enough.

It’s no coincidence that many Fitzcarraldo books share a preoccupation with history and memory: Testard was considering undertaking a Ph.D. in history at Oxford University before he went into publishing. Many titles are also distinguished by a degree of self-conscious literary difficulty. The first fiction title that Testard published, in 2014, was “Zone,” by Mathias Énard, a five-hundred-and-twenty-one-page novel written in a single swoon of a sentence. The narrator, who is making a five-hundred-and-twenty-one-kilometre train journey from Milan to Rome, reflects on his own history and that of modern Europe. The book was hailed as a propulsive, profound masterpiece in some quarters, including the book pages of the New York Times, and as quite possibly intellectually fraudulent in others. (“Stuffing a book with deep, dark things and invocations of Homer does not necessarily make it deep and dark and Homeric,” a skeptical Nicholas Lezard wrote in the Guardian .) Publishing “Zone” as his first outing, Testard told me, was “a mission statement of sorts—here was a small press that was going to be publishing ambitious writing that was perceived to be too difficult for the mainstream.”

Fitzcarraldo’s first nonfiction offering, also in 2014, was the British philosopher Simon Critchley’s “Memory Theatre,” an unreliable narration in which the author, while sorting through a box of papers that had belonged to a late colleague, reflects on his own journey to an elevated life of the mind, and on the baser indignities of the life of the body. (“Sleep would softly descend . . . only to be interrupted by that vague alien-like pressure in the lower abdomen. Do I need to piss or don’t I?”) The manuscript, Critchley told me, “was this weird little book which I wasn’t at all confident about, to say the least.” He agreed to publish it with Testard, with the expectation that the result would resemble “a small fanzine or something.” Being linked with Fitzcarraldo’s origin story, he told me, now looks like a far cleverer decision than he can properly lay claim to. When I asked Critchley how he’d characterize a Fitzcarraldo title, he offered, “They are books of high literary and intellectual worth that no one else is going to publish. Cool and weird, and probably quite good.”

Testard chose the name for his company while browsing his own bookshelf. His eye fell on a book, by the French writer Emmanuel Carrère, in which Carrère discusses an interview that he conducted in the early eighties with Werner Herzog, the filmmaker. Herzog’s 1982 epic, “Fitzcarraldo,” about an opera aficionado and would-be rubber baron who attempts to transport a steamship from one tributary of the Amazon to another by lugging it over a steep pinnacle in the Peruvian jungle, has become a byword for an exorbitant, doomed adventure. Testard told me that his choice was “a not very subtle metaphor about the stupidity of setting up a publishing house.” When Herzog’s recent memoir, “Every Man for Himself and God Against All,” was being offered to publishers, Testard wrote to Herzog’s German publisher with, he told me, “a publishing maneuver which I may have invented because it’s so stupid—a lowball preëmpt.” He went on, “I put in this impassioned pitch, with the biggest sum I could offer at that point, and ended the letter saying, ‘If Werner Herzog has a sense of humor, he will say yes to this.’ And then, obviously, he went somewhere else, for quite a lot of money.” Testard quickly added, “I don’t think Werner Herzog does not have a sense of humor. I think he definitely does.” (Herzog told me, in an e-mail, “I do not mind at all there was never any contact between me and Jacques Testard about him taking the name ‘Fitzcarraldo’ for his publishing house. He is welcome, since he seems to publish very fine books.”)

An alternative possible name had been Pale Fire Editions. But Nabokov’s title ended up being adopted by Testard’s wife, Rowena Morgan-Cox, for her own company, which designs stylish lamps made from recycled paper. The couple’s handsome apartment, in South East London, has a number of the lamps, and two more decorate Fitzcarraldo’s light-filled, open-plan office, in a renovated carburetor factory on the same side of the Thames. Crittall steel-framed windows maintain an industrial atmosphere, and there’s a craft-coffee shop on the ground floor.

Every week at Fitzcarraldo starts with a staff meeting, and one morning in May I joined the team at a round conference table on which were scattered a handful of blue and white books, with more titles arranged on shelves and bookcases. The Fitzcarraldo color combination is such a powerful trademark that, after I had been exposed to it for a while, even ordinary objects in the same hues—a blue bowl for washing dishes; a denim-dress-and-white-T-shirt outfit worn by one of the editors—started to seem like deliberate acts of branding.

First on the agenda were books that were currently in the works. These included “Dysphoria Mundi,” by Paul B. Preciado, a Spanish philosopher and curator whose earlier books include “Can the Monster Speak?,” an essay about the pathologization of transgender people by the psychoanalytic profession. Testard, who brushes his brown hair forward over his temples, like a Romantic poet, reads Spanish in addition to French and English. “I’m slowly working my way through our version, and Paul has accepted most of the edits, which I wasn’t expecting,” he remarked.

The group then discussed Lucy Mercer, a poet, who would soon be publicly named the winner of this year’s Fitzcarraldo Essay Prize, an award, bestowed annually since 2016, for a proposal for a nonfiction work in progress by an unpublished writer. The recipient receives three thousand pounds; a residency of up to three months at the Mahler and LeWitt Studios, in Spoleto, Italy; and a contract to be published by Fitzcarraldo. Mercer won the award for an essay, tentatively titled “Afterlife,” about mortality and wax. (In the loose Fitzcarraldo mode, the essay touches on everything from candlelight vigils to Madame Tussauds.)

The talk around the table then turned to Clemens Meyer, the German novelist, whose début novel, “While We Were Dreaming,” about a group of youths going off the rails in the former East Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall, was first published in 2007 in his native country. A Fitzcarraldo translation of “Dreaming,” by Katy Derbyshire, was long-listed for the International Booker, as was “Bricks and Mortar,” a novel about the rise of a soccer hooligan turned pimp. “I’ve got Clemens’s new novel—it’s longer than ‘The Books of Jacob,’ ” Testard announced, matter-of-factly. “I need to put together an offer and work out how we are going to fund the translation. It’s going to be a ’26 or ’27 book—it’s going to take a year to translate.” The cost of translating a Fitzcarraldo book can be considerably higher than the advance given to an author. Meyer, Testard later told me, would be receiving an advance in the low four figures for the new book, a nonlinear historical novel about film, war, and masculinity called “The Projectionist”; Derbyshire would be paid about thirty-seven thousand dollars to render it in English. Fitzcarraldo often applies for funding from cultural institutions within the writers’ native countries to help defray the translation costs. Rachael Allen, a poetry editor whom Fitzcarraldo hired last year, spoke of attending an event this spring, in Manchester, about poetry in translation, where she’d discussed potential acquisitions for a new poetry series, which is scheduled to launch next year. (Ray O’Meara has been working on a closely guarded design scheme.)

Tokarczuk’s next book, I learned, will be a reworking of Thomas Mann’s “The Magic Mountain,” titled “The Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Story.” Because Tokarczuk has become so eminent, a translation was commissioned immediately after the manuscript’s completion, in Polish. Testard told me, with pride, “Every book is different and can be read on multiple levels—she always messes with the form or complicates it. She is never not surprising.” The Fitzcarraldo team is excited about the commercial potential of “Empusium”—twenty-five thousand copies are being printed—and the sales team at Faber & Faber, with which Fitzcarraldo works on distribution, was determined to attract readers beyond the hard-core Fitzcarraldo customer. Testard turned to O’Meara and said, “I can’t remember if we told you this, but we are going to need to print the subtitle on the cover.” O’Meara let out a low groan.

A doorbell rang. “That will be Jon Fosse’s bookplates!” Testard said. To mark the company’s tenth anniversary, this September, O’Meara has designed the Fitzcarraldo First Decade Collection, a limited-edition series of ten of the house’s most significant titles—including “Pond,” “Flights,” “The Years,” and “Septology”—which will be case-bound in linen cloth, with marbled endpapers and signed, numbered bookplates. Testard had sent each author a box of bookplates along with a black pen; Fosse, who lives in Oslo and has a collection of more than two hundred fountain pens, let it be known that he would be using his own writing implement for the task. After the delivery person dropped off the package, Joely Day, an editor, opened it up to reveal stacks of rectangular bookplates signed by Fosse in a spidery hand, in varying densities of ink. Fosse is not the only author who has deviated from the house aesthetic: “When Annie did ‘Getting Lost,’ they started out black, and then blue, and then pink,” Clare Bogen, Fitzcarraldo’s publicity director, told her colleagues. Each of the books selected to mark the anniversary would be printed in a limited edition of a thousand; owning all ten will set a collector back more than six hundred dollars. For Fitzcarraldo aficionados of lesser means, the online store offers a tote bag, in blue canvas, bearing the company’s name, and, in white, a tote bearing the title of a volume by Dan Fox: “Pretentiousness: Why It Matters.”

Testard moved to the U.K. when he was five, after his father, a management consultant, was transferred from Paris to London. In contrast with many other expat families, his parents sent him to British schools rather than to French-language ones, and he soon became fluent in both the language and the social codes of his English peers. After Brexit, Testard finally applied for British citizenship, for which he was recently approved, having passed the Life in the U.K. test, a series of questions about British customs, institutions, and values. “I didn’t study, out of cockiness, and then actually it was more difficult than I thought,” he admitted. “You get asked questions about the different layers of courts in Scotland, for example.” Not having a full command of the different layers of courts in Scotland could probably be considered a defining characteristic of English citizens of the U.K., but Testard’s confidence lay elsewhere. “I have that first-generation thing of being more British than the British,” he told me.

When he was thirteen, his family returned to Paris; he was enrolled in a local school, where he floundered academically. “We spoke French at home, but I’d never studied in French—I’d never learned French grammar, or done math in French,” he explained. His younger brother, Pierre, was in a better position to adapt; he stayed in Paris and is now a published novelist in French. (Pierre has since moved to Berlin.) After a year in Paris, Testard became a boarder at London’s Westminster School, one of the best private schools in the U.K. Weekends were spent with family friends or the families of friends; by the end of high school, Testard was a familiar, charismatic figure among a roving group of lightly parented teen-agers in London. He went to Trinity College Dublin as an undergraduate, where he found a group of friends among whom there was a social cachet to being a serious reader. “In that kind of naïve, slightly pretentious, studenty way, we would all push ourselves to be into books together,” he said. “Nabokov, Joyce, Dostoyevsky.”

After graduating, Testard began his graduate studies in history, at Oxford, but his ambitions for an academic life soon waned. “There was one specific seminar that I was made to attend as part of the course requirements where someone presented their research on the memorial bells and fountains of Oxfordshire, 1847 to 1852,” he said. “I was specifically interested in collective memory, and seeing this guy present his research I realized it was going to be very, very, very narrow for a really long time.” Testard found an internship at Autrement, an independent publisher in Paris, where he typed up e-mails dictated by the company’s founder, who declined to use computers, and did some editing of translations from English to French. “I got this firsthand view of what a publisher does,” he said. After four months, he moved to New York for a further stint of interning, first at Farrar, Straus & Giroux, and then at The Paris Review , while living in a shared apartment in Williamsburg. “I learned about the slush pile”—where manuscripts that are submitted without agents end up before being read—“and I learned how to say no to things. I also learned about what it takes to bring something to press—the different passes, checking, proofreading,” he said. “I was really into it, and I wanted to work in this world.”

Upon returning to London, and inspired by the example of The Paris Review , and other small literary magazines in New York, including n+1 and Bomb , Testard and a friend from Trinity, Ben Eastham, launched, in 2011, their own literary periodical, called The White Review . “Jacques idolized publishers, reading their biographies, which is quite a niche thing for a twentysomething to do,” Eastham told me. They enlisted O’Meara as the journal’s designer, and crowdfunded the magazine’s starting budget of about fourteen thousand dollars. The White Review was handsomely produced, with a cover that could be detached, unfolded, and mounted as an art work. The name was a tribute to La Revue Blanche , a nineteenth-century publication edited by the art critic and anarchist Félix Fénéon. “There was a political dimension,” Testard explained. “The coalition government had just come in”—an alliance of Conservative and Liberal Democrat Members of Parliament had instigated broad cuts to social services—and “student fees had tripled.” In the world of publishing, e-books and online shopping seemed to be threatening the existence of print. “We wanted to create something that was a book-as-object, and in our small and modest way might say, ‘Books can be really nice, and reading this can be a nice experience.’ ”

If Testard and Eastham didn’t follow Fénéon’s revolutionary example all the way—in 1894, he was charged with conspiracy—they did adopt his name, with its outlaw glamour, for an annual award bestowed by the magazine, which became well known not just for its content but for its parties. “Free drinks go a long way to getting crowds out, whether in a greenhouse in Wapping, a car park in Peckham, a bookshop in Berlin, a gallery in Bristol, or an artist’s studio in Hackney Wick,” Testard and Eastham wrote in an introduction to a 2017 anthology of White Review pieces. (In a blithe aside that might not have survived the scrutiny of a post-#MeToo edit, they added, “In all of these instances, only once has a member of the audience purposefully set his girlfriend’s hair on fire. No lasting damage was done.”)

While working at The White Review , Testard had a day job as an editor at Notting Hill Editions, an independent publishing company, where he brought out the first volume of the British novelist Deborah Levy’s so-called living autobiography, “Things I Don’t Want to Know.” He also commissioned the American novelist Joshua Cohen to write an essay called “Attention!: A (Short) History.” Testard was laid off, amid downsizing, at the end of 2013. He made a list of publishers with whom he felt his taste would mesh: it was vanishingly short, and none were hiring anyway. The offer of a loan from a family member enabled him to set out on his own. “I knew I wanted to edit books,” he said.

Cohen recalled to me, “Jacques had talked to me about his plans to found a publishing house. It’s sort of like men who talk to you about buying bars—you sort of listen to them and say, ‘Sure, sounds like a great idea.’ But he’s the one person of our generation I can think of who truly managed to build something that will last.” The manuscript of Cohen’s most recent novel was rejected by his previous U.S. publisher, Random House, and by two dozen others. The book eventually found a home at Fitzcarraldo (and, in the U.S., at New York Review Books). Cohen’s novel, “The Netanyahus,” won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

Fitzcarraldo’s annual summer party was held on the solstice, at Bold Tendencies, an arts organization in South London with a pop-up bar atop a converted parking garage. Testard introduced a series of readings to a capacity crowd of three hundred mostly young, and mostly attentive, guests, who sat on folding chairs arranged around a makeshift stage. Marianne Brooker, the winner of the 2022 Essay Prize, read from “Intervals,” a wrenching memoir about her mother’s death from multiple sclerosis, pausing occasionally when a train rattled by on the nearby Overground line. Zarina Muhammad, an art critic, read a lively essay about taking men on dates to Gujarati sports bars, extracted from “London Feeds Itself,” a volume co-published by Fitzcarraldo and Open City.

Antonia Lloyd-Jones, the translator, asked the crowd, “Who here likes Polish cuisine? At the end, I am going to ask if you still like Polish cuisine.” She then launched into a lurid passage from Tokarczuk’s “Empusium” about the preparation of czernina , a traditional soup made with duck blood. (The description was also part of an excerpt of the novel which was published in this magazine.) Toby Jones, the character actor, read a section from Jon Fosse’s latest book, “A Shining,” about a man stuck on a dead-end trail in a snowy forest; Jones turned Fosse’s bleak narrative into uproarious comedy. Between readings, Testard, who was dressed in a yellow-and-orange three-quarter-length coat by the designer Alex Mullins—a garment Testard wears only once a year, at the summer party—hopped up to the microphone to remind guests that signed books and tote bags could be purchased after the readings, and that, if anyone hadn’t yet read Tokarczuk’s “Drive Your Plow,” an audiobook, read by Lloyd-Jones, was available. Afterward, the audience rushed the cash bar and watched the sun set over the skyline while Testard stood for a moment with his brother and his father, who were visiting.

“He’s a cultural hybrid,” Testard’s father said proudly, before remarking on the ungenerous serving size of the evening’s refreshments: “ Un petit verre pour cinq pounds! ”

“Welcome to London,” Testard said.

The youthful crowd reminded me of a striking study, released by the Booker Prize Foundation, about who reads literature in translation. Although most fiction in the U.K. is bought by readers older than sixty, works in translation skew much younger: almost half of fiction in translation is bought by readers under thirty-five, with only eight per cent being bought by those of retirement age. Readers of translated fiction are more educated, and far likelier than most other consumers of books to say that they prefer “a challenging read.” Not coincidentally, in the 2016 Brexit referendum, voters younger than thirty-four were overwhelmingly in favor of remaining within the E.U. It’s not fanciful to suggest that, for young, educated, and relatively affluent readers, the blue and white covers of Fitzcarraldo Editions have become a kind of flag of international allegiance, no less than the blue-and-yellow banners of the E.U. were during the referendum period.

Fitzcarraldo is determined to extend its purview beyond the mainly European literature that characterized its earliest offerings. It has published the Palestinian writer Adania Shibli’s novel “Minor Detail,” about the effects of the Nakba, in a translation from the Arabic by Elisabeth Jaquette. In 2023, Testard published “Owlish,” a novel by the Hong Kong author Dorothy Tse, translated from the Chinese, which was acquired by Tamara Sampey-Jawad, Fitzcarraldo’s associate publisher, who has worked at the house since 2016. Testard said of Tse’s book, “It’s a very dark fairy tale—surreal, uncanny, but also funny and moving at times—as if Angela Carter were doing postcolonial political allegory.”

Last year, he and his colleagues set off in another new direction: the launch of Fitzcarraldo Classics, a series of formerly out-of-print books that mirror and illuminate the Fitzcarraldo list. “We can’t just publish more and more contemporary books, because a point will come where maybe they’d start to compete against each other, which is not desirable,” Testard told me. “And a Classics series seemed interesting from an intellectual point of view.” He went on, “To me, Fitzcarraldo is publishing as an intellectual project.” So far, the Classics series includes the essay “A Very Easy Death,” by Simone de Beauvoir—an influence on Annie Ernaux—and “The Possessed,” a pastiche of the gothic horror genre by the Polish modernist Witold Gombrowicz, made newly relevant by the success of Tokarczuk.

The Classics list, Testard explained, would “go back in time through the affinities and influences of authors we already publish, and trace literary heritages in some way, or imagine an alternative history of twentieth-century literature.” It’s a big ambition, and also a way to stay small. “I feel very strongly about independent publishing, and Fitzcarraldo remaining an independent publisher,” Testard said. “I’m not interested in growth for the sake of growth, and I don’t ever want to have to publish a book for commercial reasons.” Testard allowed that he may not have another Nobel Prize winner in the immediate offing: “We don’t have anyone else who’s quite old enough, to put it bluntly.” He can wait, though. He told me, “I want to do this forever.” ♦

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Cover Letters for Literary Magazines • Mandie Hines Author
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Cover Letters: Advice from a Literary Magazine Editor
Cover Letter for Literary Magazine
Good Cover Letter

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COMMENTS

The Perfect Cover Letter: Advice From a Lit Mag Editor
When submitting your short-form literature to a magazine or journal, your cover letter is often the first piece of writing an editor sees. It serves as an introduction to your thoughtfully crafted art. As such, it is significant, but it shouldn't be intimidating or even take much time to write. As editor at 2 Elizabeths, I see a variety of ...
How to Write a Cover Letter for a Literary Journal Submission
That's because a cover letter for a literary magazine submission should be a bridge to get the reader as quickly as possible to the story. Unlike a query letter, which should drum up excitement ...
How to Write a Cover Letter for a Literary Journal, Magazine, or
If you truly can't find information about the editor, consider using "Dear Editors," "Dear Readers," "To whom it may concern:" or "Dear [Journal].". 2 Short and simple. Your first sentence should convey why you are writing this cover letter. If you're submitting a short story, editors will often want to know the word count.
6 Tips for Perfect (Professional) Cover Letters for Literary Magazines
That's what they are looking for. 5. Add a short bio (Optional). Some magazines ask for a short bio or you may feel that it's in your best interest to include one. This should only be a line or two of relevant information. Don't tell your life story, just one or two tidbits that are interesting or pertinent.
How to Craft the Perfect Literary Cover Letter
Sign your name on a white piece of paper. Take a picture of it. Send the picture to yourself. Save it on your computer as a JPEG. Position your mouse at the spot where you would like the signature to go in your cover letter Word doc., and click. Go to the toolbar -> Insert-> Picture-> Picture from file.
How to Write a Literary Magazine Cover Letter
If the letter is unprofessional, on the other hand, editors will approach the story warily, expecting it to be as poorly executed as the letter. I wanted to share with you a cover letter in which ...
How to Write a Submission Cover Letter That Will Wow Literary Agents
Use a standard business letter format with your contact information at the top, followed by the agent's details and the date. Address the agent by name if possible, as it shows you've done your research and personalized the letter. Next, introduce yourself and mention the title of your manuscript.
Cover Letters: Advice from a Literary Magazine Editor
This advice is unique to this editor and to prose, but I'll wager it covers a lot of things folks like to see in cover letters in general. The no nos are easy: Don't "Dear editor" me. Don't say something like "most people think I'm drunk or on cocaine when they read my work.". And for God's sake, do not say your writing is ...
How to Write a Cover Letter That Won't Kill You
The rule of thumb is to not explain your work in the cover letter. But if you have a really good hook, you can certainly include that. To [insert actual editor's name], Please find attached my story, 'Formation.'. The length is about 7,500 words. This is a simultaneous submission; I will notify you immediately if this piece is accepted elsewhere.
An Editor's Guide to the Do's and Don'ts of Literary Journal Cover Letters
Do mention what you like about the journal. It shows you care enough to read their work, and while it won't change a rejection into an acceptance, it does encourage the editor (s) to match the attention you gave their publication. A sentence at the start of the cover letter is perfect. Don't include biographical information in your cover ...
5 Steps to a Fabulous Literary Journal Cover Letter
information that the journal has requested in your cover letter and that your submitted work follows any length and other formatting guidelines. 5. Follow up—when appropriate. Be sure to keep track of your submissions and follow up if you need to.
Cover Letters for Literary Magazines • Mandie Hines Author
Cover letters are far different than query letters you write to a literary agent or publisher. There's no explanation of what the story is about, and there's hardly anything, if anything, about you in the letter. Let's start with what information goes in a cover letter. Genre: This lets the magazine know that you're piece is in a genre ...
How to Write a Cover Letter for a Poetry Submission
3 Elements of a Good Cover Letter. As a general rule, the perfect cover letter will accomplish three things: 1. An introduction: Introduce yourself and the work you are presenting. 2. A respectful tone: Show proper respect for the literary journals, magazines, or publishing houses to which you are submitting. 3.
Answers to Writing Questions
A cover letter accompanying a submission to a journal or magazine can be short and simple. Indicate that you're submitting the work for consideration, but don't say much—if anything—about the work. In these kinds of submissions, you include the story, essay or poems along with the cover letter. So, let the creative work speak for itself.
Preparing a Submission for a Literary Journal
The Cover Letter. Purpose: To introduce yourself and your submission. Prefaces a complete manuscript. Used when submitting to "literary and little" independent presses / publications. Also used to preface any work that is solicited by an editor/agent (when they're asking to see a full-length work)
Submission Series
How to Craft a Cover Letter. Most literary magazines and journals will ask you to include a brief cover letter to accompany the packet of poems you're submitting. Although most publications will not disqualify a submission based on the cover letter, it is important to make a professional first impression. There is definitely an art to the ...
Cover Letters
Cover Letter Template: Writing. Dear Sascha, Rida, Mikul, Kamaria, and Mollusk Lit readers, I am sending for your consideration my [poetry/fiction/etc] submission, "[Title].". This submission may include some sensitive subjects, such as [trigger warnings]. This piece has themes of [themes]. This piece is/isn't a simultaneous submission ...
Submitting Your Work: How to Write Your Best Cover Letter
The term multiple submission means that you are submitting multiple pieces to the same literary magazine or journal. Cover Letter Example. Dear Sandra, Please consider this 2,460-word short fiction piece, titled "John." I discovered your publication quite some time ago and am an avid reader of the fiction and poetry that you publish.
How to Get Published in Literary Journals Part 1: How to Write a Cover
Writing a cover letter is an important part of how to get published in literary magazines, yet for new writers, knowing what to put in that box on Submittabl...
How To Write a Covering Letter
An agent's advice. Here is the advice of literary agent Simon Trewin on writing an introductory letter: " Life is short and less is more. No letter should be more than one side of A4 and in a good-sized (12pt) clear typeface. Sell yourself. The covering letter is one of the most important pages you will ever write.
Writers who have experience submitting to literary magazines, what's
From an editorial perspective, we can tell (sometimes) when you have just sent your work to us and have no clue what our publication is about. I have received cover letters that mention the wrong mag by name, or are addressed to people who are not part of the editorial team I was on. It's not a good look.
What goes into a cover letter when submitting short stories ...
Cover Letter: To [MAGAZINE NAME], I have been writing for a number of years with some notable successes. I am the recipient of a $500 scholarship from Elder & Leemaur Publishers in 2005 for an essay entitled "[STORY]". My post-secondary education included creative writing courses at [A COLLEGE] and [A UNIVERSITY], but it is not my primary ...
Fitzcarraldo Editions Makes Challenging Literature Chic
Upon returning to London, and inspired by the example of The Paris Review, and other small literary magazines in New York, including n+1 and Bomb, Testard and a friend from Trinity, Ben Eastham ...

The Perfect Cover Letter: Advice From a Lit Mag Editor

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How to Write a Cover Letter for a Literary Journal, Magazine, or Publication

Darren Chang

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6 Tips for Perfect (Professional) Cover Letters for Literary Magazines

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How to Craft the Perfect Literary Cover Letter

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How to Craft the Perfect Literary Cover Letter: The Dos and Don’ts

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An Editor's Guide to the Do's and Don'ts of Literary Journal Cover Letters

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1. Get to the point.

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Cover Letters for Literary Magazines

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Submitting Your Work: How to Write Your Best Cover Letter

How to Write Your Best Cover Letter

With some variation, a general rule of thumb is to include the following:

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