To be a successful freelance writer, you need to look like a professional. You may write in ripped jeans or pajamas, but your work should be immaculate. Your queries should be well-written, clean and perfectly formatted. Your finished products (and anything else the client sees) should be of equally high-quality. Every time the client deals with you, the client should feel as if that they are dealing with a professional who will deliver a professional product. Nothing you ever show the client should look rushed or casual.

Be a Reliable Freelance Writer

Nothing is harder on the freelancer / customer relationship than missed deadlines. Do not commit to a deadline unless you are sure you can handle it. Once you do commit to a deadline, never let it slip. For the most part, this means working toward finishing all of your projects well ahead of schedule. If you agree to produce an article in three weeks, your goal should be to finish it in two. Do not leave tasks until the last minute. If your work requires input from an editor, an expert or a client, get that input as soon as you can. Don’t wait until the day before a deadline to ask your questions. By then you are already running the risk of failure.

Be a Desirable Freelance Writer

While it is true that you can give a customer exactly what they asked for and still not give them what they want, your best chance at success is to follow their instructions. When a publication publishes submissions guidelines, read them and follow them. When an editor tells you how long they want your article to be, make it that long. When a customer gives you unclear instructions, ask for clarification. Make sure you know what is expected of you and do everything you can to meet those expectations.

Be a Marketing Freelance Writer

At some point in your freelancing career, you may have assignments stacked up for months and so much work that you can’t possibly imagine looking for more customers. Even then, take at least some time out of your week to promote your services. You never know when the magazine that ordered five articles from you over the next five months might go out of business. You never know when a customer who promised you “a ton more work” as soon as you finish the current project might suddenly lose a contract or decide to hire a permanent employee to do the job. The best way to prevent lulls in work is to always have more assignments coming. If you get so busy you can’t seem to handle all the assignments coming at you, there are always solutions. You can farm out some work to fellow freelancers or hire yourself an assistant to research articles, handle your accounting or even do your laundry. The solutions to not having enough work are always harder to find than the solutions to having too much work.

Be a Happy Freelance Writer

Don’t be afraid to put an end to a situation that no longer works for you. You may have started off with a real passion for writing about travel. After a few years though, you might begin to think that your own bed is the only bed you want to sleep in. You may have a client that never seems to pay their bills on time. You may have a client that pays well, but is simply too hard to please. These are the sort of stressors that can make freelancing seem less and less attractive. Before you give up on the whole concept of freelancing, ask yourself what you can change to make the situation better. Sometimes you have to let clients go, or change your focus or just take a vacation. If money becomes an issue, you might consider a part-time job while you review your options. Whatever the case, don’t let bad situations linger. Control your freelancing career. Don’t let it control you.

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Don’t get to the point. Editors are very busy. When they read a query letter or a submission cover, what they really want to know is what you are proposing and how it fits their needs. The longer you can keep yourself from telling them that, the better your chances of getting an editor to hate you.

Don’t use enough postage. Guess what? No one is going to pay the mailman just to see your submission. If you really want to aggravate an editor, send your submissions via certified mail and make them sign for it.

Get the editor’s name wrong. There’s no quicker way to get on an editor’s bad side than to misspell their name. This is a great way to get your query letter thrown away before it even gets opened. While you’re at it, get their title wrong too. That should ensure a quick trip to the garbage can.

Ignore the editor’s needs. Send the editor of an arts journal an article about ways to avoid a hangover. Send your proposal for a microwave recipe book to a publisher specializing in historical fiction. It may not quite make the editor hate you, but it will certainly be good for a laugh.

Insult other people’s work. The book you’re proposing? It’s way better than any other book in the genre and the editor should know that. Take the time to insult the competition. If you get lucky, you may just insult something the editor has worked on in the past. That should really tick them off.

Send the editor a letter that stinks. Chances are, your proposal will stink anyway. What I mean is send them one that smells bad. Smoke while you write it, or scent it with perfume. While you’re at it, use an obnoxious paper color like pink or orange. Make your query as unpleasant to smell as it is to read.

Talk money. Make it clear in the first few sentences that you expect a certain amount of money for your efforts and you will accept nothing less. Whether your demands are in the editor’s range or not doesn’t matter. Your demands will make them hate you either way.

Tell the editor how much your friends and family love your work. If you’re really out to convince the editor that you know next to nothing about the publishing industry, including the opinions of people the editor doesn’t know and has no reason to respect ought to do it.

Try to sound cocky and sarcastic. You know you’ve got the goods, why should you try to be polite and businesslike? This should make it clear to the editor just how big of a hassle it will be to work with you. Note: Feel free to use this article as a guide.

Use a cheap printer, or better yet, a typewriter. Nothing screams “not worth the effort to read” more than poorly printed, smudged text.

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The best way to start off a query letter is to treat the first line like it was the headline for your article. Center it above the rest of the text and make it as provocative as possible. Try to match the style of your target publication when you write the headline. Cosmopolitan and Woman’s Day are both publications aimed at women, but their style and content are different. In most cases, you would want to write a different headline for your query letter if you were pitching it to one magazine rather than the other.

Beyond being provocative, the headline should give the editor some idea of the format and style of your article. For example, “Ten Ways to Smash Christmas Debt” would clearly be a list article while, “Do You Blow Your Christmas Budget?” could be a list but sounds more like a quiz or a series of questions and answers. Here are some provocative headlines from recent articles on the web. Note that the style of headline matches the style of the publication. Also remember that I am discussing the headlines, not the content of the articles.

• Beat the Holiday or Financial Blues: 9 Tips for Making Yourself Happier in the Next 30 Minutes — Zen Habits
• How to Deal with Cranks, Flamers and Trolls — Men with Pens
• I Got Off My Ass and Did It –  Someday Syndrome
• What Freelancers Can Learn From The Dog Whisperer — Beyond the Rhetoric
• The 10 Free Resources Every Writer Needs — Write to Done
• When witnesses take over the news — BuzzMachine
• Doctors Observe First Known Case of Sleep E-Mailing — Techcult
• What Do Prostitutes and Rice Have in Common? — Freakonomics
• Social Media Bought My Car — Remarkablogger

After your headline, consider writing a subhead that provides additional information and clarity. A headline that is meant to attract attention is not always as informative as it is provocative. The subhead gives you a chance to explain the content of your proposed article. You want to capture the editor’s attention, and then you want to give them the essential flavor of your article before you move on to the meat of your query.

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Before I discuss what you should tell a potential publisher, I should make sure you know what you should NEVER tell them.

• Never tell them that you are a first time writer who is looking for a break
• Never tell them about your personal or money problems
• Never tell them you don’t know the subject well but are looking to learn more

Publications don’t care about your problems. They are looking for good writers. The last thing a publisher wants is to take a chance on someone who may not be able to deliver what they promise. Your goal should be to fill the publisher with confidence, not pity.

The best spot to discuss your qualifications is just before the concluding paragraph of your query letter. You don’t want to waste time or space, so limit the discussion of your qualifications to those that are most relevant to the article you are proposing. For example, if you are proposing an article about the financial impact of divorce, it is relevant to mention that you are a financial advisor and a divorcee, but those same facts would be irrelevant in a query for an article about living with chronic back pain.

You will want to mention a few of your past article credits. Again, they should be the most relevant credits you have. If you have nothing relevant, go with the most prestigious credits that you have, but relevancy trumps prestige. If you are employed as a writer for a particular publication, be sure to include that. If you have very few credits, just include the best that you have and don’t apologize for them. Just put them in and move on. Everyone has to start somewhere.

Here is a sample paragraph from a query letter:

I have been a professional investment counselor for the past fifteen years and was one of the earliest adopters of Internet trading. As a former state representative, I authored several investment fraud bills that are still on the Arizona law books. For the past two years I have written a weekly investment article for Phoenix Business Insider. I have also published investment-related articles in Worthwhile Investor, Smart Stock Analyst and Fund Advocate.

Finally, you should include, along with your query letter, from one to three writing samples. If you are emailing your query, it is acceptable to include links to articles, but if you are sending a query by regular mail, you need to include the actual articles. Remember that you want to include whatever samples are most relevant to your query.

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There are two advantages to pitching very specific subjects. The first is that it makes you look more knowledgeable. Specificity and knowledge go hand in hand. Anyone can pitch an idea about picking up women. Even “six pickup lines” is general. If you dig deeper, you might find a more unique perspective. For example, if you have studied linguistics, you might pitch, Why Your Pickup Lines Don’t Work, Six Tips from a Cunning Linguist. If you used to be a bartender you might pitch, The Bartender’s Guide to Picking up Women: Six lines that never work (and three that do).

The second advantage of specificity is that it reduces the risk of you pitching the same idea as someone else. The last thing you want is to pitch a topic your potential publisher has seen (or even published) before. There are limits to how much research a writer can do into the past topics at a magazine, especially if you want to spend more time writing articles than pitching them. Specificity gives you the best chance at originality.

Realistic ideas are the other side of that coin. If you don’t know anything about pickup lines, don’t pitch an article about them. Your query letter should start with some flash, but the body of your letter is going to have to back up that flash. You will need to give examples of what you intend to write about. You not only have to convince your potential publisher that your idea is perfect for them; you have to convince them that you can turn that idea into a great article. If you can’t convince them you are the right person to write the article, your great idea won’t help you.

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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.

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I don’t have to send out query letters

I would rather be writing articles than query letters. It is just that simple. The process of querying publishers or potential clients can take months and there is no guarantee it will lead to a sale. With blogging, I spend my time writing actual articles (and occasionally poems). I don’t spend my time trying to convince other people to publish me.

I can write about whatever I want

The beauty of blogging is that I am my own publisher. I determine what I write about and then I go out and write it. I don’t have to tailor my writing to a certain magazine’s style, space or content rules. I can write in my own voice and develop my own style. I get to be me.

I don’t have to answer to an editor

I have no doubt a good editor could make my articles better. My site could certainly benefit from one of those pricey word polishers. Unfortunately, I have often found myself the victim of arbitrary cuts determined by either an incompetent editor’s ideas or a publication’s space limitations. These are not problems I have to deal with as a blogger. Bloggers have the freedom to determine the length and style of their work. I love that freedom and I hate it when I have to give it up.

I get published when I want to be

The beauty of blogging is that I determine my own publishing schedule. I can publish an article as soon as I finish it or schedule it for whenever I want it to appear. The decision is mine. I’ll never get that kind of freedom as a freelancer. As a freelancer, I have waited as long as a year for an article to appear (and to get paid). Also, in the rare cases when I am having trouble with an article and it is taking me longer than I expected, I don’t have to worry about explaining myself to an editor or a client. I simply keep working on it until I get it right. I can even quit and move on to something else without any repercussions.

I get to connect with my readers

When I write for traditional print publications or for business clients, the best I can hope for is one or two sets of comments. In many cases, I receive absolutely no feedback from the audience. If I do, it’s a one-time event. Readers don’t follow my work. With my blog, I can develop long-term relationships with my readers. Not only will they comment on one article, in many cases they will come back again and again with their own ideas and opinions. They catch things I miss. They let me know when they like what I wrote. They let me know when they don’t. Knowing they are out there keeps me writing.

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The easiest way to find out what a magazine wants is to let them tell you. Many magazines post their writer’s guidelines on their web site. If you can’t find them online, contact one of the editors and ask for them to email or snail mail you the guidelines. A directory such as Writer’s Market can be helpful for your initial search, but don’t rely on them for all of your information. Any number of things can change between the publication of those listings and the day you decide to send your query. Not only do writer’ guidelines tend to address content issues, but they can also tell you what format the publication prefers their submissions in. One magazine may want you to email them a text file, another might want you to send a paper copy and a third may want you to upload a Microsoft Word file. You won’t know if you don’t do the research.

Sample Guidelines:
The Atlantic Monthly
Antioch Review
Birder’s World

Know who the magazine’s editors are

Knowing the right person to send your query to is one of the little details that can make a big difference when you are trying to make a sale. If you query the wrong person, any of a number of bad things can happen. The person who receives it might dismiss your query and throw it away because it isn’t what they are looking for. The person who receives it may know who should get it and plan to give it to them, but never get around to doing so. If your query does finally get to the right person, they may hold the fact that it was addressed to the wrong person against you. Always take the time to find out who the right recipient for your query is. Check the magazine’s masthead for the latest information and don’t be afraid to call or email to confirm your choice.

Sample mastheads:

New York Magazine
Backpacker Magazine
Time

Know the magazine’s editorial calendar

In addition to guidelines, many magazines have an editorial calendar that covers such things as publication lead times, deadlines for holiday or seasonal items and upcoming special editions or subject focuses. Some magazines dedicate issues to a single topic. Knowing what a magazine is looking for and when they are looking for it can give you a serious advantage over the competition. When you request submission guidelines, be sure to request the calendar as well.

Sample Editorial Calendars
Variety
Information Week
Expansion Management

Know the magazine, front to back

Don’t assume you know what a magazine wants just because you have read their writer’s guidelines. The proper way to research a magazine is to read it. Get your hands on a copy of the magazine (the more copies the better). Check the magazine’s website if they have one. You don’t have to read every word of every article, but take the time to get familiar with the different sections and the general writing style. Be sure that what you are proposing fits in well with the publication’s approach to content and style.

Know how to write a query letter

Your query letter needs to demonstrate both the quality of your idea and the quality of your writing. Additionally, it should demonstrate that you know how to follow the magazine’s submission guidelines. Many editors receive dozens of queries each month. For major publishers, the number of queries can climb into the hundreds. This may seem intimidating, but the number of queries that are actually well-written and well thought out is quite small. Most queries are terrible. They are badly written, inappropriate or fail to follow the magazine’s guidelines. It is easy to rise above the crowd if you know what you are doing and you are willing to make a genuine effort to create quality query.

How to write a query letter

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Query letters are a much-debated practice in the writing community. The majority of writers swear by them, but others feel they are a waste of time. There are many successful writers who stick to sending completed manuscripts or informal, ultra-brief queries. This practice has especially grown in the age of email, where a less formal writing style has taken root. See Bob Sassone’s article The Query Trap if you want to look further into that strategy.

Here are some advantages to writing a formal query letter:

• A well-written query letter helps prove to an editor that you are qualified to write the piece.
• Sending completed articles blindly can indicate to an editor that you either failed to sell the article before, are submitting an article that was not written specifically for their publication or are attempting to resell a previously published article.
• Short, informal queries will often go unread or will be given less weight by an editor if they are a stickler for the formal process.
• A formal, detailed query gives you the opportunity to do preliminary research for a piece that can then be quickly converted into an article.
• When submitting a query to an online publication, your query will look better than 90% of the other queries being submitted to that publication.

In the age of email, much can be said for the ability to quickly send off a brief query. This is very possible these days, and may result in more sales than writing a formal query for each publication you wish to write an article for. Still, if you want to impress an editor, online or otherwise, a formal, well-written query letter is a way to do it. Below is a point-by-point description of how to write a query letter.

Know your target

• Study any publication before you submit a query letter.
• Get writer’s guidelines for the publication if they are available.
• Study the publication’s masthead to identify the appropriate editor for your query. Do not rely on Writer’s Market. Editors change jobs frequently.
• You may send the same subject query to more than one publication, as long as they do not compete and you have taken the time to make sure the subject is appropriate for both publications.

Your query letter should have a professional look.

• There should be no spelling or grammar errors.
• Be sure to include the date on your letter. This can be important if you feel later on that your idea has been stolen.
• It should be addressed to the appropriate editor. Use their full name and do not use Mr. Mrs. or otherwise. The exception to this rule is Dr. or other professional title.
• The publication name and address should be correct.
• The salutation should be formal.
• If mailed, the paper and the letterhead should be clean and professional. Standard 8 1/2 x 11 inch paper should be used.
• Single-space your paragraphs and double-space between paragraphs.
• If mailed, the Query should include Self Addressed Stamped Envelope (SASE)so that the editor can return your article or reply to you conveniently.
• Include your name, postal address, email address and phone number in the letterhead or at the bottom of the letter.

Your query letter should be interesting

• Your query should introduce a fresh idea/topic/angle.
• The idea should be set off in the type so it is easily viewed.
• Your idea should be presented at the very beginning of your letter.
• Your lead-in should excite the editor.

Your query letter should be specific

• Keep your query letter to a single page in length.
• Lay out exactly what you intend to include and exclude from your article.
• Give a proposed article length. Round to the nearest 100 for under 2000 words and to nearest 500 for articles over that length. The length should be appropriate for that publication.
• Identify which section of the publication you believe your article fits within.

Your query letter should be persuasive

• Include writing samples that are appropriate to the publication, article topic, and writing style you believe the publication is looking for.
• Present any credentials or awards you have that show you are qualified to write, especially about this subject.
• Identify other similar publications that have published your work.
• Identify any sources you have that you feel would help persuade the editor.
• Your article should show why you are the best and only person to write this article for them.
• Close your letter with a phrase such as: “I look forward to hearing from you. Please write or call if you have any questions.”

Respond promptly when a query is accepted

• When an editor expresses interest in (solicits) your article, send it to them promptly. In your cover letter, remind them of their request.
• You do not need to enclose an SASE when sending your article.

What you should not do in your query letter

• Do not mention who has rejected the piece before.
• Do not include other people’s statements about your article.
• Do not tell the editor how long and hard you have been working on this article.
• Do not mention the assistance of others.
• Do not tell them that the piece still needs work.
• Do not request advice, comments, criticism or analysis.
• Do not talk about how thrilling it would be to be published.
• Do not include inappropriate or off-subject information about yourself.
• Do not discuss the rights you wish to sell.
• Do not discuss price or payment.
• Do not give your social security number.
• Do not give or discuss copyright information.
• Do not wear out your welcome by writing too much or failing to get to the point.
• Do not query without studying the publication enough to know whether your idea is appropriate.
• Do not waste your time querying an unreceptive editor over and over again.
• Do not present ideas for several different articles in the same letter. This can be done once you have established a rapport with an editor, but should not be done in a blind query.
• Do not use obscenities or inappropriate content.
• Do not send inappropriate, off-subject samples.

Sample Query Letter:

Max Swift

Securities Editor

Money Bucks Magazine

1010 E. 10200^th Street

New York, NY

August 22, 2000

Dear Max Swift,

Proposed Article:

You’ve Got Fraud! How Internet con artists can crush your portfolio

Last Monday, the Enforcement Section of the Massachusetts Securities Division ordered a temporary cease and desist order against three men it accuses of manipulating the stock market by flooding Yahoo.com with tens of thousands of false and misleading statements about Biomatrix Inc (BXM.N) and Genzyme Corp (GENZ.O). This is the latest in a growing series of civil and criminal lawsuits against people who manipulate stocks through mass emails or in this case, by posting misleading statements on financial discussion boards. My article will detail the trend from the perspective of three people.

• A securities trader whose legitimate stock analysis email newsletter has contended with fake announcements by people who acquired his mailing list.
• A lawyer who represented a client in a case similar to the Massachusetts case.
• An investor who blames her loss of $70,000 in the stock market on fraudulent discussion-board posting.

In my article I will discuss the negative effects of fraud on investors and companies. I will also discuss how you can protect yourself from fraud. More importantly, I will show how you can be victimized by the trend even when you don’t receive a fraudulent email or read a misleading post. Because such fraud can cause an individual stock to both rise and fall dramatically, investors who never see the misleading information can still end up investing in a bad stock or dumping a good one.

My article would be an excellent fit in your Caveat Emptor section’s ongoing coverage of investment potholes. As is customary for that section, I will include a sidebar of ways you can protect yourself from Internet investment fraud. My advice will include: verifying any news through conventional sources, keeping an eye out for any unusual email from online newsletters, never trusting blind e-mails, and carefully watching or avoiding discussion boards altogether. The last point, that discussion boards rarely result in good investments, will also be a focus of the article. If you would like, this can also be turned into a sidebar.

In addition to the three sources above, I have access to dozens of other securities professionals, legal authorities and investors. I have been a professional investment counselor for the past fifteen years and was one of the earliest adopters of Internet trading. As a former state representative, I authored several investment fraud bills that are still on the Arizona law books. For the past two years I have written a weekly investment article for Phoenix Business Insider. I have also published investment-related articles in Worthwhile Investor, Smart Stock Analyst and Fund Advocate.

Enclosed are reprints of three of my recent articles covering investment and the Internet. These articles will demonstrate both my knowledge of the subject and my ability to convey that knowledge to the reader. Your readers need to know about this looming crisis and how it can affect their investment strategies. Please call my office to discuss any further details or resolve any questions. Thank you for your consideration.

Regards,

John Doe

Box 901010

Scottsdale, AZ

85528

408-101-0011

Enclosures:

Clips

SASE

About the letter

This author of this query letter may or may not have some advantages over you. The author is someone who has all of the experience and credentials necessary to write the article, and has already secured sources. You may not have everything he has, but you need to know how it sounds when you do.

Note that the query is timely. The author may have been researching Internet fraud for months, but he went out and found an article that ties his research to that week’s news. Also note that none of his sources are from the particular case he mentions. Instead, he uses that case as a selling point for his research. Quite possibly he has already written a related article for his column, and he now wants to reuse part of it to make a national sale. There is nothing wrong with this practice. Selling similar articles (not just reprints) to different markets is perfectly acceptable.

For more information:

• 10 Ways to Make Editors Hate You Before They Even Know You
• 5 Ways to Start Making Freelance Money TODAY!
• Super Simple Submissions Tracker
• 40 Fabulous Faults of Freelance Failures

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