“It sounds like you might be the kind of writer who needs to write her way into something instead of trying to plan it up front.” I just said this to someone who’s working on an article idea.
And I understand this dynamic, intimately.
If, before I’d actually written the pieces, I’d had to query The Curator for all the weave-it-this-way-and-that musings I crafted for them over the years, I’d have been sunk. How do you say, in a way that enamors an editor (plus, makes sense), “I will write about feeling the pressure of cabbage, as a way to discuss writer’s block. It will be poetic and meandering. I’m thinking you’ll like it.”
Or, how do you encapsulate yet another vegetable angle, that, in the middle of things claims, “It could have been ten lima beans or it could have been twenty-seven or maybe a hundred and four. I never counted. That is the measure of comfortable love—those numbers we cannot remember…”
You might be hard pressed to find a way to cut to the chase, especially before the piece even exists. I feel your query letter pain.
Solution?
You may want to write the piece first. Then craft your query letter. This will take longer. You will have written a piece, which might feel “wasted” if the editor doesn’t accept it or if they want you to change it more than you’d be happy with. But at least your words won’t be crushed before they even have a chance to poke their way out the earth. And, if you have a blog, you can always publish the piece there if it’s not a fit for the venue for which you crafted the piece.
Depending on the type of writing I’m attempting, I sometimes use this approach—write first, craft the query later.
Crafting a query honors an editor’s time, so even if they don’t require it from me, I try to provide one instead of sending along a finished piece for them to consider. (Exception: Once you become a Contributing Writer somewhere, you might get to act almost like your own editor, deciding if a piece will be a good fit for a venue—topic-wise, style-wise, and timing-wise. This is marvelous, though it’s still a good idea to query your editor if you think a piece might be controversial or represent a risky departure from the venue’s usual fare.)
If I’m going to write a more journalistic piece, I rarely write the whole thing before crafting a query. Instead, I play with ideas until they feel like they’re bursting with energy and possibility. Then I craft a query and send it off first. This is good discipline. It compels me to think things through and encapsulate them. It can also save my time and mental bandwidth, since, if a query isn’t accepted, I often choose not to write the piece and instead move on to other things.
But you want to see what worked, yes?
Here’s an example of a query I sent, that resulted in this published article:
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[Editor’s Name], hi there.
Here’s an idea that I thought might work for Edutopia for the upcoming end of the school year. It’s especially applicable at the K-3 level.
“5 Great Reasons to Make It a Fairy Tale Summer”
The phenomenon of summer slide is well established. At its core, it relates to a number of factors that are not always simple to reverse or handle. Making it a “fairy tale summer” is a great way to deal with the issue—whether you’re a classroom teacher, a librarian, or a parent.
For this article, I’d like to explore 5 ways choosing a fairy tale focus for summer reading helps handle summer slide, including:
-a strong and simple way to help students continue to develop their sense of narrative structure (this sense is so vital for story-reading in general, but also for contributing to the ability to persist when facing longer texts during independent reading)
-a way to connect the generations, through texts that are familiar in structure and partial content, which creates and easy “in” for parents and grandparents to read and discuss and extend the stories; the easier the “in,” the more likely it is that shared reading will happen
-a way to preserve reader confidence (so important for developing independent reading), as familiar themes and language conventions create a dependable scaffold
-with the dependable scaffold in place, the fairy tale also presents a great opportunity for new learning to occur, by using fairy tales that add a slight narrative twist or use new and interesting vocabulary
-a way to keep students engaged (many, many students enjoy a sense of magic or enchantment), which helps ensure that more shared and independent reading will occur
Thanks, [Editor’s Name]. I look forward to hearing if this is something that would work for your team. 🙂
***
As you can see, Edutopia likes to have a fairly specific query. They evaluate queries on a weekly basis and they’re an extremely busy team, so they want to know exactly what’s coming before they agree to let you write a piece. It’s got to be a fit. And it’s got to be something they really, really need.
Compare this to a query I sent to Jane Friedman, who I have a long and trusting relationship with and who has always been happy to share my work with the world via her venue. The query, which is less extensive and specific, still makes a promise, which I (mostly) kept and she published the result, here.
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Happy Friday, Jane. I hope you are well this lovely spring day. 🙂
I was thinking it might be a nice followup to the introversion focus of my last piece at your place, to maybe do an article something like “The Introvert’s Guide to Launching a Book.”
As an example, I’d use The Golden Dress, which is publishing next week.
I’m thinking of maybe a “What I’m Doing/ What I’m Not Doing” format, the way I’ve seen some of the articles at your place do. As always, I’d include the useful and a little of the unexpected.
The timing would be basically open, though I think it would be good if a Shelf Awareness piece I’d like to link to is published first, which I’m guessing will be sometime not too long after May 15.
Let me know if this fits your needs (and, if not, of course I understand). 🙂
***
The Query Bottom Line
Do you have to write a query?
Many editors prefer it. Some require it. I recommend it—even if you’re the kind of writer who has to write his or her way into a piece, instead of planning it up front; you can always craft the query after-the-fact. Either way, the editor will be none the wiser.
When you write a query, even for an editor who doesn’t strictly require it, they’ll most likely thank you for it. And? You might thank yourself. Besides strengthening your thinking process, it’s a practice that can pave the way to a richer working relationship, notwithstanding an editor’s taste for cabbage, lima beans, or golden dresses.
Photo by Shawn Campbell, Creative Commons, via Flickr. Post by L.L. Barkat, author of Rumors of Water: Thoughts on Creativity & Writing.
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Donna Falcone says
Thanks. This is helpful, and I’m glad you shared some examples.
L.L. Barkat says
You’re very welcome. 🙂 Query letters used to feel, to me, like something of a barricade. Now I view them as twofold: first, a sandbox; later, a gentle gate.
Donna says
It really makes them feel less threatening to think of the varying needs of the actual human being reading them.
L.L. Barkat says
I love that. 🙂
For the human being reading them, a few things are generally at play…
• editors *want* to publish you; a strong query in the direction of the publication’s needs and style is a joy to receive
• editors tend to have a heavy work load; reading a query instead of a full piece lightens that load—both up front and often once the editing stage is reached
• editors need to work within the parameters, for the most part, of the publication they represent—its style, its editorial needs, its seasons—so when they need to let an idea pass by, it’s not personal. It’s for the sake of both the publication and the writer (that latter thought took me a while to understand, but once I did, it felt like a relief instead of a disappointment)
Were there other things you were thinking of in addition to these kinds of realities? 🙂 (I always love to hear your thoughts.)
Donna Falcone says
No, not really anything beyond that. I don’t have enough experience to offer any more.
Megan Willome says
Those two images–of a sandbox and a gentle gate–are so much more inviting.
I think something that gets overlooked by unpublished writers is how collaborative writing for publication really is. When a good relationship is established between editor and writer, it makes for better work in which both publisher and author can take pride.
L.L. Barkat says
Sometimes the publishing effort can become so fraught that we forget why we started this effort in the first place. For me, anyway, it really is about play—even when the topic is a hard one. So, yes, sandbox. 🙂
The gate—it feels so much more gentle to have a query process versus having a writer put his everything into something only to find that it isn’t going to work for the publication (which can still happen if the piece departs too much from the promise in the query). It’s also gentler on the editor’s time and eye. 🙂
It makes me so happy to hear you say that about collaborative writing. Yes! Tweetspeak and T.S. Poetry Press take particular joy in this—again, even though it’s not always a simple process. (You have such a great story about this with The Joy of Poetry. I never tire of hearing it. 🙂 And, sometimes, oddly, collaboration becomes a mutual process of saying, “This particular piece would be better served—and serve the world better—by being offered at a different venue.”)
Kimberly Knowle-Zeller says
Thank you! This is hopeful and inspiring – and full of practical nuggets of wisdom. Now I’ll get back to writing!
L.L. Barkat says
Kimberly, I’d love to know what makes it hopeful and inspiring (so we can provide more of that kind of hope and inspiration in the future 🙂 )
Wishing you the best as you write.
Kimberly Knowle-Zeller says
I love that you’re so welcoming in the whole process of writing – sharing your wisdom and reminding the writer that this whole venture is about sharing words and we’re all in it together. I started writing queries with no idea what I was doing and have been so grateful for the editors who have encouraged me along the way and taught me. This post is inspiring in its reminder to do the work. Showing up to the page day after day. Thanks for your words and this space!
Sandra Heska King says
“But at least your words won’t be crushed before they even have a chance to poke their way out the earth.”
I like the idea of writing one’s way into a piece before writing the query–says the one who likes to follow rabbit trails.
I also like the reminder that the editor is not the writer’s enemy–something you alluded to in your comments to Donna and Megan. That the writer and editor are both really on the same team caring for each other while they both care for words in order serve them to those who need them most.
L.L. Barkat says
I think, at times, the writer & editor relationship is less than satisfying, and that’s maybe where we get that sense in the first place that it’s adversarial. I know I’ve been edited graciously and not-so-graciously. Both experiences exist.
But? The way you describe it… that’s what we believe and try to practice at Tweetspeak. It’s a team effort, an editorial conversation between writer and editor, ultimately part of the community experience that infuses all we do here. 🙂
lynn says
I find this and especially your linked “pressure of cabbage” article interesting and encouraging, L.L. Thanks for sharing your experience and expertise. I’m thinking for poetry a query “note” may be adequate as most (of my) poems would be shorter than the letter explaining them! Is it okay to post on one’s blog and later choose to also submit elsewhere? Or best to send “fresh” material?
L.L. Barkat says
Poetry queries are, yes, a little different. It’s good to…
• show familiarity with the publication
• make a brief statement about why the attached poems seem to therefore fit with the publication
• make note of any other places your poems have been published (if they have)
Regarding reprints, this is publication specific. Some take only never-published-before. Some accept reprints. Some will consider blog posts to constitute “already published,” so, in those cases, you’d want to hold back material you’d want to get published in those journals or magazines.
lynn says
Thank you for responding to my questions, L.L. Your answers are helpful!
Callie Feyen says
Thank you for giving me a chance (for opening the gate to the sandbox) to write my way into things. I am having so much fun in this sandbox.
L.L. Barkat says
You’re very welcome. We love having you here! 🙂
And, actually, I’m glad you bring this up. Sometimes a writer will end up writing for a place not because they query but because they spend time getting to know the editors and participating in the community. Your first piece here was that reprint (from your blog) we requested, about the treasure hunt you did with your girls in the library for Take Your Poet to Work Day.
Which is to say, sometimes a gate swings fairly naturally. I do recommend that to writers, too: find a few publications you love and spend time with them (and their editors and community, if that’s possible). That’s how I ended up becoming a Managing Editor at another large publication before Tweetspeak and it’s how I ended up writing for The Curator. 🙂 (Of course, then there are the really strange paths, like when I spoke on a panel with someone at a small conference and they invited me to a networking group and someone in the group asked for queries on LifeStyle pieces for Huffington Post, and I queried and instead of accepting the query they offered me a Contributing Writer position on the HuffPo blog. Okay, but that has similarities to the other stories: meet people, network, share your ideas via queries or otherwise.)
Tangent officially over. 😉 Again, Callie, we’re so glad you write your way into things here.