![]() ![]() This story is about a pair of scientists who invented a time machine and decided to to travel back to 1905 and kill young Hitler while he’s trying to make it as an artist in Vienna. It is an original story not previously published anywhere and it is not on submission elsewhere. It is formatted in Standard Manuscript Format and saved as an RTF file as per your guidelines. I’m submitting my short story “Traveling Back in Time to Kill Hitler” to be considered for publication in your magazine, Time Travel Tales. Without further ado, here’s a terrible cover letter: Although the letter below is 100% fake, virtually every mistake and problem it features showed up in one or more of the cover letters I saw this month alone. I write this at the tail end of a month-long submission window where my associate editors and I received nearly 640 submissions. Let’s begin by talking about some of the most common mistakes one finds in cover letters. And since a good cover letter is really easy to write, why not give yourself that tiniest extra edge? Some of the industry’s top editors wisely ignore cover letters altogether they read the story first so whatever you put in the cover letter doesn’t pre-bias them either way. The cases where the cover letter will sway things either way are rare. (More on that below.) And if you manage to really put a foot in your mouth, you may end up with whoever is reading the story actively rooting against you. It can clue in the editor that you’re new and inexperienced or, worse yet, that you’ve settled for being published in mediocre markets. However, a bad cover letter is at least as likely–perhaps more likely–to undermine your chances. But, beyond that, the story is going to sink or swim on its own. An editor or first reader might delve a little deeper into the story before they give up because your previously listed sales have demonstrated a certain level of competency. The most important fact to remember about cover letters is this: the best cover letter in the world is not really going to help you sell your story.Īn impressive list of awards and pro credits might–on a rare occasion–entice a slush reader who’s already on the fence about a submission to bump it up to the editor. How to Write a Proper Short Story Cover Letter But, if you write and submit science fiction, fantasy, and horror short stories, the following essay is for you. Novel submissions play by a different set of rules, and there may be a slightly different etiquette in literary submissions and other genres. ![]() Note that this advice is specific to genre magazines and anthologies and short fiction. It’s long and it’s a little ranty and cranky (because I’ve seen a lot of bad cover letters in the last month), but I hope it will also be helpful. I can’t help but think folks are following some bad advice out there, so I wrote a thing that might help. As an editor I see a lot of bad cover letters. ![]()
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