How to Write Quality Query Letters: Offer them what they don’t have

The best way to convince a publication to purchase an article from you is to offer them something new and interesting. If you pitch them an article that sounds similar to a previous article in their publication, or something similar that ran in a rival publication, you probably aren’t going to make the sale. Most publications aren’t in the business of repeating the same material over and over again.

It can be difficult to come up with truly original ideas, especially when you are dealing with a publication that caters to a narrow topic. A magazine about model trains or a web site about search engine optimization doesn’t have much new ground to cover after a while. Still, if you consider yourself a knowledgeable writer about one of those subjects, you should be able to find a fresh approach to the material. You may not come up with an idea that has never been used before, but at least try to find a new way to present the material. Often, it is a good idea to get more specific. There may be many search engine optimization articles about using keywords, but if you take the time to discuss a small part of a specific technique, you might find some ground that has not been covered.

When you do have a new idea, or a new take on the subject, make sure that you emphasize that early in your query letter. The fact that you aren’t offering the same old story should be one of your key selling points in your query letter. Your goal is to stand apart from everyone else. It is worth spending a little extra time thinking about how to make your idea original. Another good way to do this is to add a little personal experience to your pitch or to pick an overriding metaphor that hasn’t been used before, such as comparing model train enthusiasts to politicians. No matter how you go about it, find something new to say if you want to make a sale.

I See Dead Projects

One of the great things about blogging is that, for the most part, there is little lead time. You write something and then you publish it. If you’re lucky, you get feedback and if it is particularly good you get repeat visitors. You might write ahead, gathering several days or even weeks worth of posts in advance, but for the most part you are writing as you go.

In the world of technical writing, you are often assigned to projects that last for months or even years, and in many cases the material you write today may not be read for a long time. Occasionally, it won’t get read at all, at least not by the people you intended it for. This has been a fairly regular occurrence in my career. My first major project lasted a year. At the end of that year, the company was part of a merger and moved to the other company’s software platform, negating all of my work.

Later on in my career, I documented what was expected to be a major product for a very large hardware/software company.  Because of the lead time for localization, I had to complete the documentation two months before the product was to be released. I had just finished up and sent off my work to the translators when word came down that the project was being scrapped due to a poor business case. Poor business case was code for, “our competitors decided to include this tool for free in their new operating system”.

My most recent bout of deadprojectitis hasn’t been quite as severe. The product I have been working on for the past two years was released and most of my documentation is at least available to customers. Nonetheless, the product is on its way out. It won’t be gone today or tomorrow, but it is being replaced by something newer and shinier and almost certainly better. The change came suddenly. Just a month ago, it looked like the product would be getting a major overhaul that would have me up to my armpits in documentation for the next six months, but things change.

In all of these cases, far more than my own efforts were negated. There were programmers, engineers, project managers, product managers, business analysts and a host of other people who had their efforts negated. These things happen. Companies change direction, market forces change people’s needs, competitors beat you. This is the world of business and it is frustrating. In some cases people don’t just see their hard work pushed aside, they actually lose their jobs. There isn’t always another project waiting around the corner. These are the realities of the business world. In the current economy, it is something you’ll see more and more of. Companies will be cutting expenses, and often that comes in the area of new development, or the elimination of existing products.

There is no magic solution to this problem. It helps if you can be assigned to more than one project, so that you aren’t defined by a single product, but those choices aren’t always your to make. This is the business world. When things do wrong you pick yourself back up, dust yourself off and get back in the game.

The Relaxation Integration Project

On November 11^th, my mind and body relaxed for the first time in a long, long time. I had forgotten what it felt like to be relaxed. I had forgotten what it was like to have the tension leave my body, not just for a moment, but for long stretches, so that tension was the exception rather than the rule. It was almost like being a different person.

It is easy to mistake feeling relaxed for feeling sleepy. When the body is near the point of exhaustion, it must relax, so I associate that loose-limbed feeling with exhaustion rather than relaxation. I have been so used to feeling tense that feeling relaxed was unnatural. I yawned a lot. I slept and slept, thinking I needed more rest, but the feeling didn’t go away. I was relaxed, but I didn’t know how to be relaxed.

I’m happy to have left the tension behind me, and I want it to stay there. Relaxation is not without its own problems though. For one thing, my productivity has dropped. It turns out that stress is a motivator. It is not a healthy motivator, but it is a motivator. When you are relaxed, you let things go. I used to think fondly about the idea of relaxation, but I had too many things I wanted to accomplish. Now I am relaxed. The drive to accomplish is still there, but it has gone from a drum beat thundering in my ears to a piano melody playing softly in the background. It is more easily ignored, especially when the task is unpleasant or doesn’t have a clear benefit.

The problem is that there is a limit to the number of things you can let slide without there being some consequences. My boss, for example, still seems to think that I should show up every day and do my job. He’s funny that way, but he’s a nice guy so I don’t want to disappoint him. My wife has a few things she likes me to get done as well. She’s also nice, so I don’t want to disappoint her.

My wife and my boss are both adjusting to the new, relaxed me, but I also wanted to let you folks who read my blog know that things are a little different now. I like writing the blog, but there are parts of it I don’t enjoy as much anymore. I’m going to work on increasing the number of things I enjoy doing and decreasing the number of things I don’t enjoy doing. Thank you for bearing with me as I figure out what those things are.

Oh, and if you get the chance, relax.