Comments on: 5 Things to Do Before You Query

By: Article Quickie: Freelance Writing Jargon — Freelance Writing Jobs | A Freelance Writing Community and Freelance Writing Jobs Resource

Fri, 28 Jan 2011 06:40:54 +0000

[...] are designed to give writers helpful tips and information about submission guidelines and what the publication accepts. While full of great advice and information, they aren’t [...]

By: Queries - Resource Roundup Tuesday

Queries - Resource Roundup Tuesday — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 16:00:19 +0000

[...] Writing Gigs, Deb Ng has a ton of stuff on query (search on the word). I particularly like 5 Things to Do Before You Query and Query Letter Writing: Querying Out of the [...]

By: Query Letter Writing: Dissecting a Successful Query Letter : Freelance Writing Jobs | A Freelance Writing Community and Freelance Writing Jobs Resource

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:18:32 +0000

[...] walk us through one that worked really well for Writer’s Magazine. Make sure you know these 5 things to before sending a query letter [...]

By: Chris Faulkner

Chris Faulkner — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 22:00:12 +0000

Where can a novice find a vet to critique a Pitch?

By: Anne Wayman

Anne Wayman — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 15:24:59 +0000

Joynicole is exactly right! How do I know? In my career I’ve edited three magazines and believe me, it usually took no more than a couple of lines of either a query or a manuscript to determine if I wanted to go further.

Sounds rude, doesn’t it. Maybe, but unless you’ve received the amount of dreck an editor receives, you have no idea – and my experience in editing was before the ‘net. Must be way worse now with email.

Deb the only thing I’d add to your list is to also pay attention to the ads. Advertising companies pay a lot of attention to who the readers are and target their ads in that direction. Lots of insight from ads for writers.

Good post.

By: Joanne Spangle

Joanne Spangle — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 09:41:49 +0000

The library in my town has a community magazine exchange. If your library offered something like that then you would have access to any magazines anyone in your community didn’t need anymore. Would that help?

By: Stephanie Smith

Stephanie Smith — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 22:01:01 +0000

You mention going to the library and reviewing back issues of magazines, looking up the current editor, etc. I live in rural East Texas. The ONE library in the county stopped periodical subscriptions about five year ago because of funding cuts. The next library is at least an hour away and no better off. While what you suggest may be possible in large cities, it just doesn’t work other places. Short of forking over close to $10 for one sample issue (there is only one bookstore within an hour, too), the website is it for a huge part of the writing community.

By: Joynicole

Joynicole — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 18:44:37 +0000

Someone once shared with me the great wisdom that you don’t actually have the entire page to catch the editor’s attention; assume you have 5 lines.

When I’m reviewing and editing my query before I have several others look it over, I play the editor and read the first 5 lines throughout the day. Oddly, those 5 lines read differently depending on my mood, how busy I am, or how quiet the environment is. Something I may have thought was attention-grabbing when I wrote it may not provoke any movement in me at all when read before my first cup or morning coffee.