Anyone paying attention to this blog in the past year will be well aware of my Year of Short Stories experiment. If you write short stories and submit them for publication, you’ll quickly learn a few things about formatting.
Firstly, there is a specific format—Standard Manuscript Format—that everyone uses, and the canonical explanation of that format can be found on William Shunn’s website. For many years, this was something that you just had to piece together from reading lots of submission requirements, but Shunn made a fantastic and thorough explanation, so now, many publications just link directly to it on their submission pages.
All your stories should be formatted this way by default. Of course, some publications have their own little foibles, and these are typically called out in their submission requirements. You should make sure you pay attention to these notes and adjust your story’s formatting accordingly. Usually it’s something simple, like Standard Format with a courier-family font, or Standard Formatting with no personally identifiable information (to ensure unbiased readers). Standard Manuscript Format is still the best starting point for your story if you want to quickly and easily make those small changes.
Secondly, many publications want a cover letter along with your manuscript. Sometimes this is a separate field in an online form, sometimes it is the body of the email you send with your story attached. Rarely, it’s a separate document. Some don’t want one at all.
Unfortunately, there’s no Shunn-style standard for cover letters. Many publications are much less specific about what they’re looking for in a cover letter for short fiction. For a new writer, “cover letter” sounds awfully formal, and the lack of specifications make it seem worryingly mysterious.
So, what goes into a cover letter? Does anyone actually read it? And can it really help or hinder your chances of having your story selected for publication?
Why Should I Care?
The strange truth of submitting short stories (and submitting to “traditional” publishers in general) is that most of the formalities really do nothing to increase your chances of being published. The quality of the story and the taste of the people in charge is really what matters. However, being clearly unprofessional or very bad at following instructions might hurt your chances of successfully selling an otherwise pretty good story.
The story is the most important thing, but the people who work in publishing are human, and at least some of them will take note of signs that you might be a pain to work with. That probably won’t make them reject a story they absolutely love, but it might lend a slight negative weight to something they were on the edge about.
A cover letter should be short, polite, and business-formal. Doing something unusual will make you stand out, but probably not in a good way.
Addressing, Thanking, Signing
First, address the editors. This can be as simple as “Dear Editors.” If you want to, you can try to figure out who is actually going to read your manuscript and address them personally. That might be the head editor, other editors, or a mysterious cadre of readers.
In my experience, many publications do not make it clear who will read the story, and there are often several layers of readers, culminating in editors and editors in chief. Some editors explicitly suggest that you not try to address your cover letter to anyone in particular.
The biggest faux pas is to address your cover letter to a particular editor, and then reuse that cover letter for a subsequent submission without remembering to update the greeting. That might cause someone some mild irritation, and is a good reason to stick to the generic “Editor.”
Part of being polite is thanking your reader. They are likely reading a huge number of often mediocre story submissions for little to no money, and they honestly deserve a little thanks. This is unlikely to sway anyone’s opinion. It’s just nice to do.
Finally, put your name on the thing. For clarity, this should generally be your real name, not your pen name.
So, the bookends of the cover letter ought to look something like this:
Dear Editors,
…
Thank you for your consideration.
John Doe
Story Info
Cover letters commonly include some basic info about the story. This helps associate the cover letter to the story, which might occasionally matter in disorganized editing environments (and doubly if the submission requirements tell you to remove personally identifiable info from your manuscript itself).
This info is very simple: story title, genre, and length.
You might think your story is “genreless” and you might be bending genres, but chances are that you decided to send this story to this publisher because they tend to publish things like your story. And most publications advertise themselves as a particular genre or set of genres. Try to fit your story in that neat little labeled box, even if you know in your heart that it’s not so easily categorized. Stick to the “big” genres. Think science fiction, not solarpunk; fantasy, not grimdark. If the publication lists subgenres they like, you might decide to use one of those labels. Generally, it’s best to just use a label you’d see on a shelf at the big box bookstore, or in the Amazon books menu.
Word count doesn’t have to be exact. Round to the nearest hundred words unless the publication says otherwise.
All of this can easily fit in a single sentence:
Dear Editors,
Attached is "The Really Cool Sword" (fantasy, 1200 words).
…
Thank you for your consideration.
John Doe
Credits
It is common for cover letters to include some previous publishing credits: a.k.a. other stories you’ve had published. These should generally not be self-published or “indie” credits like a personal blog, print-on-demand services, or Amazon e-pub. It’s only relevant if another person chose your story from a selection of submissions to publish. Winning or placing in a contest is also fair game.
You might think that publishing credits could go some ways toward making you stand out, but that generally isn’t the case. There may be some cachet in listing high-profile professional magazines, but again, this isn’t going to make an editor suddenly love a piece they previously hated. It might get you a second read if they’re on the edge about your work.
This section should be brief, listing no more than two or three credits. If you have a long list to choose from, it’s better that they be relevant. A credit in Analog looks good to the editor of a science fiction magazine, but might not mean much if you’re submitting to Atlantic or Esquire. More recent publications are also generally better than older ones.
It’s perfectly acceptable to state that you don’t have any credits and are unpublished. This might feel like admitting to being an amateur, but it’s really not a big concern. Most editors want a great story more than a high-profile name. Many editors love to publish first stories from unpublished authors. It’s a nice credit for them to have “discovered” you when you go on to become a beloved and famous author.
If a publisher doesn’t explicitly say that they want credits in the cover letter, you can choose to leave them out.
Finally, if you have some life experience or professional “day job” experience that directly relates to your story, you might choose to mention that in this section as well. For example, if you are writing about growing up Native American on a reservation, or if you’re a retired CIA agent writing a spy story, that may be pertinent.
Dear Editors,
Attached is "The Hacker" (fantasy, 1200 words).
I have worked in network security for fifteen years, and that perspective really informed this story.
My work was recently published in Clarkesworld and is forthcoming in Analog's October issue.
Thank you for your consideration.
John Doe
…or alternately, if you have less to say…
Dear Editors,
Attached is "The Really Cool Sword" (fantasy, 1200 words).
I am relatively new to submissions and I have not yet been professionally published.
Thank you for your consideration.
John Doe
Variations
That’s really all there is to a basic cover letter, but there are a few variations. These are bits that you should leave out unless you’re in a particular situation and are explicitly asked for them.
First: the submission type. Some publications accept reprints, which are typically defined as any story that has been published in print, or online somewhere public (not password protected). They might offer different payment for those stories, or limit the number of reprints they accept in an issue. They may also want credit the original publisher.
…
Attached is "The Really Cool Sword" (fantasy, 1200 words). This is a reprint submission, originally published in The Best Flash Fiction Anthology, 2021.
…
Some publications also allow simultaneous submissions, which simply means sending the same story to more than one place for consideration at the same time. Whenever a story is under simultaneous submission, it’s good form to let all those publishers know immediately if the story is accepted somewhere, so they’re not wasting their time. But some publishers want to know up-front, in the cover letter.
…
Attached is "The Really Cool Sword" (fantasy, 1200 words). I will be submitting simultaneously to other publications.
…
Finally, some publishers may request a brief biography to include at the end of the piece. This saves them the effort of asking for it after they accept your story. These usually have a pretty strict word limit. Don’t go over it. They may suggest a format, too.
There is a whole art to little biography blurbs, but the basics are all you really need: your name, location, and maybe something interesting about you, your job, or your family. This is the place in the cover letter where it’s perfectly fine to show a little bit of your personality. If it’s permitted, you might also advertise a personal website or social media handle.
This is what I’ve used in my own submissions:
Sam Johnston is a software developer by day and a writer of fiction by night. He lives in Minnesota with his wife, three children, and a small grumpy dog. More of his work can be found on his website at wordsdeferred.com.
Cover Letters…Covered
While cover letters may sound intimidating, they really aren’t that bad. As these examples show, there are really only a couple things that go into a cover letter, and your main concern should be following the submission directions for each publication.
The contents of your cover letter aren’t critical. It’s the quality of the story that matters at the end of the day. The paperwork around submissions is really just an opportunity to show that you are a pleasant, professional writer who is able to follow simple directions.
Here are some additional resources if you want to read more about cover letters.
Words Deferred 