How to Write Attention-grabbing Query and Cover Letters - Hardcover

Wood, John C.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0898797047 ISBN 13: 9780898797046

Publisher: Writer's Digest Books, 1996

Synopsis

John Wood sees it with numbing regularity: the query letter that comes close to making a sale - until the writer makes some avoidable mistake and dooms the pitch to rejection. So the Modern Maturity senior editor wrote this letter-writer's guidebook. Read it, learn from it, use the secrets it reveals to write queries too customized, too exciting, too good to turn down. As you publish more, your professional correspondence will increase. With the help of this book, so will your letter-writing skill. Whether the missive is a complaint to your editor, a celebrity interview request or anything else connected with your career, you'll make it ring with style and professionalism. Wood includes chapter-ending Question & Answer sections that clarify issues concerning the type of letter at hand. He's also packed the book with illustrative samples. You'll see many that are pure dynamite - and one real bomb. Read this book and write energetic, masterly, persuasive letters. Keep editors hanging on your words. Make them eager to buy more.

About this title

From the Author

Why I wrote this book, and why it will help you
How many times have you gotten a reject letter from an editor, an agent, or a publisher--explaining why your query letter was rejected? I'll tell you how many times: zero. That's why I wrote this book--to finally reveal what makes a query letter work and not work. I've been a magazine editor for nearly 15 years and have read more than 25,000 query letters. In this book I reveal the for first time the secrets of why most query letters fail. I outline in detail the 20 reasons why 99.9% of all queries are rejected. They include the 10 Query Commandments that every letter must follow, and the 10 Query Sins that no letter must ever commit. Included are more than 50 actual query letters that generated an assignment (with my comments on why they worked), including one stunning missive that resulted in a book contract and a $250,000 advance! It's the book I wished I had when I was freelancing.

Edition details

• Publisher: Writer's Digest Books
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0898797047
• ISBN 13: 9780898797046
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 208