Hi All,

I am going to take the plunge and submit my first short story to a magazine.

I am/was going to use the letter below.

is this the kind of thing that I should be writing? Is it an acceptable letter and how could I improve it?

###

Dear (name),

Please find enclosed a short story which I hope you will consider for inclusion in (insert name here); the story is just over **** words.

There is also an SAE for return of the work if you feel this is not suitable.

I hope you enjoy the read.

Yours sincerely,

Mark Thomas

##


Cheers

MarkT

Seems fine to me. I know that agents get irritated when people put word-counts in query letters for novels, as apparently it screams 'amateur' but I suppose it would be important for a magazine submission, where space is so closely monitored. Good luck with it!

I’ve not heard of agents getting irritated by wordcounts in letters… I think what does look amateurish is being too specific – my novel is 98,653 words sort of thing. Just round it up or down. In a short story, I’d say round it to the nearest 100 words.

Mark, I'm no expert on submitting short stories, but the letter looks fine to me.

Dee

I know that agents get irritated when people put word-counts in query letters for novels, as apparently it screams 'amateur'

What???? You're kidding, right? What if you have a great pitch for a novel but forget to mention it's only 30,000 words, or you pitch a YA novel and don't tell them the script is pushing 200,000 words.

Even at the query stage I'd say it was important to give an indication of the length of your work, whether a novel, short story or radio play.

(unless you're talking accurate word counts, ie 120,345 words. Looks amateurish in novels, but not in radio scripts)

Colin M

It was my experience that you don't need to include novel length in the initial query. Both Miss Snark and my own agent said similar things; I think if you get a request for a partial or a full then the question would arise. I didn't put a word count in any of my queries, and still had lots of interest. I think there is an article in the Miss Snark archives on this very question. I think she says that you could be shooting yourself in the foot if you do it because she won't represent anything less than 70,000 words or more than 100,000 words, so if you say it's 115,000 or whatever you'll get an automatic rejection, whereas if she read it and fell it love with it, that might be more negotiable, possibly even guiding the author through editing or whatever. Who knows though, is this industry? I think the main thing is that the quality of your writing shines through.

A very good point. Never thought of it like that.

Just wanted to make a point about submitting radio scripts.

You definitely DON'T need to put in a word count. Instead, producers want to know the approximate minutage. For example, if you're sumbitting it as a potential play for Radio 4, say if it's for the 45 minute weekday play or 60 minute Saturday afternoon play, 30 minute sitcom etc.

Kia

I always thought it was odd that the WAYB gave guidelines like that when you could have several seconds pause between speech, not to mention sound effects and music.

I think we should start putting time guides in novels: Contemporary thriller aimed at the mass market, approximately 13hrs and 15 minutes long.

To keep you updated.

I submitted a pitch to the editor and got a reject.

There was no problem with the pitch/synopsis but rather the short story was a bit predictable given the nature of their mag.

(The story I pitched, Mast Mayhem, is the one in my uploaded work, tweaked slightly)

So not a total wash out and given the fact this was my first pitch I am still happy.

The editor was really nice, polite and above all helpful - he explained everything to me.)

He gave me a few sugestions of how to re-write but I am not sure if this was just a thanks, but no thanks.

Cheers

Mark

Dear Mark, you don't need to put how many words it is. This should be on the front cover. I put it bottom left, my address top right and the story title dead centre with by and then my name underneath. I wouldn't write, Cheers either, unless I already was matey with them. Kind regards or yours sincerely might be better. Otherwise, fine. You don't need to write anything else. Which mag is it for, or don't you want to say?

Hiya,

I did write Yours Sincerely, they also specifically (on this occasion) asked for the word count.

Cheers was what I sent you you guys!

Cheers!

Mark

Sorry! Then in that case - es perfecto!