Cover Letter Tips and Tricks!

Look. I’m gonna make this short and sweet. I’m currently on each side of the submission game: writer and editor, so I get that every time you send something out there’s this ITCH to tell the faceless noodnik on the other side of the screen that yes, this is the piece you’ve been waiting for, and no, you’ve never seen fiction/poetry/nonfiction like THIS before. Like, I get it. But submitting is like dating. Don’t put your heart in the game and fuck everyone you can, raw.

Here’s some rules of thumb from your friendly neighborhood pervert:

Don’ts:

• Don’t tell me your life story. Cute facts in your bio is one thing but I don’t need to know your 3rd grade teacher thought you were a Stephen King in the making.

• Unless the mag specifies to give a summary of the story, don’t give one. You’re gonna make the story sound boring.

• DON’T TELL ME YOUR AGE. Seriously, this will never go well for you! If you’re 15, I’m gonna be like, “Welp, this is gonna go great.” And if you say you’re 95, I’ll probably be looking out for slurs.

• Don’t brag about how you’ve edited your piece to perfection because WHEN I find a typo, hoo boy.

• Don’t say anything controversial in your cover letter. Come on, man, you have no idea who’s reading this, and if you paid money to submit, you’re wasting it by pissing people off. If you didn’t pay, I guess, then whatever.

• Don’t try and shame editors into publishing you because you’ve had a rough life. Seriously, what the fuck.

Dos:

• Open your cover letter with the editor’s name! It makes us pay attention at least a little more!

• Tell us your story’s word count, name, and if it’s out on submission with other places. This is standard but sometimes people just leave that out in lieu of telling us their cat’s name.

• KEEP IT BRIEF. I’m not gonna read a two page cover letter anyway so you’re wasting your air.

• ACTUALLY WRITE A COVER LETTER. Don’t just send shit with no preface, that’s rude!

• Include your website, previous publications, etc. Hell, couldn’t hurt, right? Unless you’ve linked to questionable porn. Plus, if you don’t plug yourself, no one else will.

• Include contact info!

For your pleasure, I’ve included a template that I’ve made and always use! I get rejections just like everyone else, but I also get acceptances, so it can’t be too awful, right?

Dear [editor],

My short story, [TITLE], is complete at [X] words for your consideration. I have most recently appeared in [PUBLICATIONS]. This is a simultaneous submission.

Thank you for your consideration.

Robyn Ritchie

robynritchie.com

[CONTACT INFO]

Nice and painless. Try out these tips!

Also, a short story of mine is forthcoming in Crack the Spine so be on the look out!

Editing Out Loud

So I just joined Sundog Lit as an Assistant Fiction Editor and boy are my arms tired.

I’m kidding, but it’s been really fun so far! And I don’t even like work. I’ve been part of a magazine before, but a smaller one, when I was in my early twenties, as a reader. Back then Submittable was still Submishmash (a way better name, by the way) and things looked a lot different.

Readjusting to an editor mindset takes me right back to Emerson and grad school because I haven’t really looked at anyone else’s fiction with an eye towards YES or NO since then. And of course, I wasn’t rejecting my fellow students’ work for anything, I was just in my head reading and like, “That’s a choice.”

I’m actually living right now, getting to be immersed in writerly things because I had divorced myself from them for a good half a year this year due to depression, anxiety, hiding in other activities like drawing and binge-watching and generally being very potatolike. But if I keep this energy up, working like I’m in the cotton fields over my own novel, editing for the magazine, continuing to interact with the few writer friends I have AND also continuing my yoga teacher training, I feel like I can rock climb my way out of impending mental doom. And there is ALWAYS impending mental doom.

So if you’re a writer and you dabble in fiction, come submit! Even if your thing isn’t fiction, we also accept poetry and nonfiction as well, so try your luck before Dec. 31st, babe.