How to Write Cover Letters for Lit Mags

Founder of Submitit offers cover letter advice

Welcome to our weekly column offering perspectives on lit mag publishing, with contributions from readers, writers and editors around the world.

---

As many of you probably know (from my recent interview with Becky), I run a small company that submits stories and essays to lit mags. And when I submit said stories and essays, I include cover letters. So I write a lot of cover letters. I mean really: a lot of them. I’m talking a whole shit-ton of cover letters. I’m pretty sure I write more cover letters than anyone else on earth.

This does not a priori or ipso facto make me an expert in writing cover letters (nor does the use of somewhat pretentious Latin), but it does make me, well, prolific. The method below is certainly not the only approach to these things—and I look forward to reading the comments to see how other writers handle them—but my approach has worked pretty well for me and my clients over the years. So get ready: as with any discussion of cover letters, it’s going to be absolutely riveting!

Make your cover letter similar to a book’s back cover.

I like to organize my cover letters in a way similar to the text on the back of a paperback book (called, I’ve learned, “back cover copy”)—that is, with a short “blurb” inviting the reader to read the book (or, in our case, the story or essay), and a short bio of the author. So we have two sections for our cover letters (not including the salutation, which I’ll mention later):

·         the blurb paragraph

·         the bio

Note that the blurb is entirely optional—I’ll get into this later. For now, I’ll talk about the bio, which is generally required by a journal and demands, I believe, more attention.

Bios should be short and in third person.

If nothing else, your bio should be two things: (1) short and (2) in third person (he/she/they). Many journals have word limits—some as few as twenty-five—but most I think are fine with up to fifty. So let’s make that official: the length of your bio should be fewer than fifty words.

I suppose a third thing bios should be is relevant. You have several options for what you might include. I’ll put these roughly in order of importance:

·         publishing history

·         writing awards (or nominations?)

·         anything interesting having to do with you + writing

·         a quirk or two

·         place of residence

·         education

·         birth place (especially if off the beaten path)

·         past or current occupation

Importantly, no bio should include all of these things. You’ll never get it under fifty words. Instead, shoot for using two or three of them.

No Publishing History? No problem.

Let’s say you have no publishing history, which is fine (we writers must start somewhere). Here are a few sample bios, grabbing from the list above:

Bob Presley was a botanist for most of his life. Now he writes. He lives in Bakersfield, CA, with his wife, two dogs, five cats, and eleven fish. This would be his first published short story. (36 words)

In this one, Bob (who is not real, by the way) covers a past occupation, a place of residence, and a little quirk (mentioning all the animals). Also note the very important last sentence:

This would be his first published short story.

If you’ve never been published in a literary journal, consider including this last sentence. Enjoy it while you can, because hopefully someday soon (perhaps thanks in part to this ((riveting!)) discussion of cover letters) you’ll get that first acceptance.

Here’s another example of a bio (again, with no publishing history):

Bob Presley received his MFA from Fresno State. He designs websites by day and writes by night. He currently runs the Flash Fiction Jam at Pedro’s Tacos in downtown Bakersfield on Tuesday nights (and he hopes to see you there). (40 words)

Mentioning your education is fine (although I suspect it’s not worth a ton). Bob also includes his current occupation and an interesting literary-related activity (with a bit of levity/humor). (Are there such things as Flash Fiction Jams? If so, count me in.)

Finally, feel free to get quirky with it:

When Bob Presley was in junior high school, he built a life-size whale out of chicken wire and papier-mâché. It was amazing! Now he writes. He lives in Bakersfield, California, with one human and several cats (but no whales). (39 words)

This kind of bio works well if you don’t really have much to say about writing. (Note: the author of this post really did build a life-size whale out of chicken wire and papier-mâché in junior high school. And it was pretty amazing, if a bit floppy.)

If you have a publishing history, be selective about what you share.

If you’re lucky enough to have a publishing history, include at least the best parts in your bio. Much depends on the quantity and quality of your publishings.

For most writers, if you’ve been published in many journals, then pick your best three or four:

Bob Presley has been published in a variety of journals, including Harper’s Magazine, the New Yorker, and the Paris Review. He lives in Bakersfield, CA, with his wife, two dogs, and five cats. (33 words)

First of all, good going, Bob! For the second part of the bio, I chose two items from the list above (place of residence and a little quirkiness with the animals, sans fish). Another option is to write “and elsewhere” after the list of journals. Both of these options—“a variety of journals, including [list of journals]” and “[list of journals], and elsewhere”—show up often.

If you’ve only been published in a few journals (three or fewer), then you can mention all of them. Or, if one or two of these journals happen to be spectacular (compared to the other(s)), you could always write something like this:

Bob Presley is a guitarist turned accountant turned lawyer turned writer. He was born in a little house in the Mojave Desert and now lives over the Sierras in Bakersfield. His work has appeared in Harper’s Magazine and elsewhere. (39 words)

No reason to sully the strong journal with two tiny journals no one’s heard of.

Behold some examples of real bios (from anthologies):

The examples below are from a few recent anthologies that happen to be sitting on my desk. These writers, not surprisingly, usually have very strong bios—better than average, it’s safe to say—but I still think they provide some good ideas.

Polly Duff Kertis co-founded the Moby Dick Marathon in New York City. Her writing has appeared in Tin House, No Tokens, Brooklyn Rail, Literary Mama and elsewhere. (27 words)

This is from the Pushcart Prize (2021). Skimming this anthology, I noticed that the bios tend to be very short; it’s clear Pushcart encourages brevity from its winners, which makes this anthology, in a sense, a good source of examples (since most writers, it must be said, seem to overwrite their bios). For the bio above, by the way, I would have said “Tin House and elsewhere.”

Here’s one more from the Pushcart anthology:

Aamina Ahmad’s first novel is out soon form Riverhead Books. She holds an MFA from Iowa Writer’s Workshop. (18 words)

If you went to an especially prestigious writing program like Iowa, I guess it can’t hurt to mention it. Note that Ahmad names the publisher of her novel. I think this is a good idea because it clarifies that she’s not self-publishing. For the record, I think Ahmad’s bio could have used one more sentence; I sort of yawned when I read it (so yes, I admit that not everything in this riveting discussion of the riveting topic of cover letters is riveting (proh dolor)).

Here’s one from the O. Henry Prize Stories (2021):

Ben Hinshaw is a British-American writer, born on the island of Guernsey in 1981. His first book, Exactly What You Mean, will be published in the United Kingdom by Viking in 2022. (32 words)

I included this one because it mentions an interesting place of birth. Born on an island somewhere? Why not—go ahead and mention it. (Although I don’t know why Hinshaw—wee pup, he—mentioned his birth year. Perhaps to make me feel old.)

Here’s another O. Henry Prize winner:

Adachioma Ezeano’s work was recently included in The Best Small Fictions 2020. She is an MFA student at the University of Kentucky. In 2018, she made Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “Yes folder” for Purple Hibiscus Writing Workshop. (36 words)

If you’ve won a literary award, definitely mention it. I also think it’s fine to mention nominations (you’ll see I do this with my own bio, below), although nominations certainly mean a lot less than wins, so consider it optional.

Here’s one more, this one from the Best American Short Stories (2021):

Vanessa Cuti’s fiction has appeared in The Kenyon Review, AGNI, West Branch, Indiana Review, Cimarron Review, The Cincinnati Review, Shenandoah, The Rumpus and others. She received her MFA from Stony Brook University and lives in the suburbs of New York. (40 words)

If you’ve been published in many top-notch journals, what the hell—go ahead and brag a little. But my advice: make sure they’re really good (that is, familiar to most connoisseurs of lit mags).

Write a compelling and (more importantly) short blurb paragraph.

Now let’s go back to the beginning of our cover letter, what I called the “blurb paragraph.” The blurb (the main part of the blurb paragraph) should be a one- or two-sentence hook about your story or essay. It hopefully will get the reader’s attention, and it may act as a setup for the larger work.

As I mentioned above, the blurb should be considered completely optional. Not all journals expect a blurb (for example, if, when submitting, you only see a text field for your “bio,” skip the blurb paragraph), and at least one journal expressly requests no descriptions of your story or essay (Cimarron Review). I know many writers who choose to skip this part of the cover letter. But I guess, to my ear, the blurb paragraph sounds a little naked without a blurb, like a green olive without the pimento (and for that matter, it wouldn’t even be called a “blurb paragraph” anymore, which is kind of sad). I don’t think a short, well-constructed blurb is a bad thing. So let’s get into it.

The key word here, once again, is short. Blurbs are not summaries or synopses of your work. They are just little hooks that will grab your reader and invite them to read. Below, I’ll present a couple of examples of blurbs I’ve used for my own stories.

I used the blurb below for my short story “The New City” (published in Slippery Elm in 2021):

The new city exists in a liminal place, beyond space and time, until history intervenes. (15 words)

As you can see: short and sweet. Just a sentence that hopefully enticed someone to read about this new city. (Note: there’s more to the blurb paragraph than just the blurb itself. I’ll get into that in a second.)

Here’s one more, this one for “The Pilgrim of Łódź” (published in New England Review in 2019):

A solitary man walks the streets of Łódź, Poland, contemplating Polish orthography, among other things. (15 words)

There’s not much to this blurb, but it’s enough. There’s something romantic, I think, about anyone walking alone in a foreign city.

Add a couple of sentences to the blurb to finish the blub paragraph.

I typically add the same basic sentences before and after the blurb. You should cover two things: (1) the story’s or essay’s length and (2) the genre. I also usually wrap up the paragraph with a “Thank you for reading” or “Thank you for your consideration” sentence. So we have something like the following (the original blurb is in bold):

The New City” (approx. 7,400 words) is a work of fiction. The new city exists in a liminal place, beyond space and time, until history intervenes. Thank you for reading. [Or: Thank you for your consideration.]

If you happen to be submitting to a journal that has asked to see more of your work, then I recommend adding the following sentence to the beginning of the blurb paragraph: In the past, you have kindly asked to see more of my work.

Wanna skip the blurb?

As mentioned, this is fine. Simply write a blurbless blurb paragraph:

“The New City” (approx. 7,400 words) is a work of fiction. Thank you for reading. [Or: Thank you for your consideration.]

Put it all together with a sensible salutation.

Because I send out such a ridiculous number of cover letters, I don’t worry too much about salutations. Usually, I just write something like: Dear Slippery Elm, or Dear Slippery Elm Editors.

If I’m filling in fields in Submittable, I skip the salutation altogether (although there’s nothing wrong with including it). I suppose if you have the time, and if a journal is small enough that you can be pretty sure that the fiction editor (for example) is the actual reader of submissions, then by all means, add their name (some journals even request this). But I’d like to believe naming the editor doesn’t make much of a difference.

So here’s the final cover letter (I’ll use my own current bio):

Dear Slippery Elm,

“The New City” (approx. 7,400 words) is a work of fiction. The new city exists in a liminal place, beyond space and time, until history intervenes. Thank you for your consideration.

Erik Harper Klass has published stories and essays in a variety of journals, including New England Review, Slippery Elm, Yemassee, and Summerset Review, and he has been nominated for multiple Pushcart Prizes. He writes in Los Angeles, CA.

Final thoughts:

How important are cover letters? The rivetingness of the above discussion notwithstanding, I suspect a great cover letter will not get a bad story published, and a bad cover letter will not get a great story rejected. But you may as well get your cover letters as strong as you can. They don’t hurt, and for some journals, they just might help you get an acceptance.

Good luck!

---