I'm afraid you're going to have to address it to a dummy editor. There's no other way to go about it. If you do get ahold of a real editor's name somewhere, your submission will still get relegated to slush once anyone opens it. Seriously, I do it every day.
Introduce your manuscript, making the title salient. Briefly describe the key plot points and the hook, the selling point, what makes it special. If you don't know what your hook is, find one in your MS or rewrite it.
Include relevant information about yourself. Have you written anything that's been reproduced for profit? That would be great. Do you have specialized knowledge about the topic of your novel? Excellent. Some degree of recognition in a related field? Fabulous.
Don't be crazy. Don't. Be. Crazy. If I love your MS, but you rambled about unrelated issues and formative influences on your work, it'll make me nervous. There will be plenty of time to play Eccentric Artist when you're a bestselling millionaire. If you put the Crazy in your cover letter, it will not charm us. It'll make us not want to have to interact with you long enough and intensely enough to publish your book. I ask the interns to watch for the Crazy and not to let it near me.
Things Which Lack Relevance
Your 10-page academic Cv.
Pictures of the dog/granchildren who inspired the story.
How long it took you to write it.
Details about your family.
Personal details that don't speak to your ability to write your book.
Begging. Seriously. It does not give us that publishy feeling.
Your independent "market research" (more on this later.) No one cares that your friends and children loved it. We barely care if our friends and children love it.
No comments:
Post a Comment