Cover Letters

A cover letter is the one-page letter you send along with your poetry submission that includes a bit of relevant information about yourself. Since it's the first thing an editor sees from you (it's usually paperclipped atop your poems), it should be professional, clean, and well-written. Many writers spend all of their energy creating their poems but spend only a few moments "knocking off" a cover letter.

Enclosed please find five poems I'd like you to consider for a future issue of 5 AM.

My most recent books include a poetry collection, Say Hello (Pecan Grove Press, 2001), an anthology, Like Thunder: Poets Respond to Violence in America (University of Iowa Press, 2002), and a creative writing textbook, Contemporary American Poetry: Behind the Scenes (Allyn & Bacon/Longman, 2003).

What are the strengths of Cover Letter Version One? It's short. Most editors at reputable literary journals receive 30-300 submissions PER WEEK. That's right, per week. After reading a few dozen cover letters, an editor pretty much knows what these letters are about and since I want an editor's focus on the poems themselves and not on me, I usually use some variation of this minimalist letter which has just a sentence at most about my credentials (i.e. enough to suggest I'm a serious writer without bragging or trying to bowl them over with a huge list of credits).

Note that I have the journal's correct address, the correct spelling of a current editor's name, and that I use the editor's full name in the salutation. Even with editors that I know socially, I err on the side of formality to keep the process as honest and genuine as possible. I want my poems to be published on their own merit, not on the merits of my friendship with other editors.

Despite not mentioning anything in Cover Letter Version One about an SASE (self-addressed stamped envelope), I of course include one with the submission. Editors rarely respond if you don't provide them with the postage. Some editors don't mind responding via email, but check their editorial policy carefully before asking them in your letter to send you an email response.

Note, too, that I offer my email and website information along with my mailing address and phone number. Despite including an SASE, some editors like to communicate with writers in other formats, so it's to the writers benefit to offer as many ways as possible for them to do so. FYI--they rarely bother to call you up to deliver bad news, so at the very least, include your phone number.

I recently picked up issue #54 of 5 AM and I particularly enjoyed Xexe Mingus's poems "Caliban Ponders Chaos" and "I Ate Detroit in Three Bites." I've been a longtime reader of 5 AM and I think that the enclosed five poems of mine ("Goat Poem #1," "Goat Poem #2," "Goat Poem Redux," "Goat Poem: The Revenge," and "Goat, Goat, Goat") are very much in the spirit of 5 AM's literary philosophy.

I recently received my Ph.D. from Pumpkinhead University and my poems are forthcoming in Nitpick, Coca-Cola Digest, The Blue Lagoon, and Beavis and Butthead Review. The enclosed five poems are from my manuscript-in-progress Goats Just Wanna Have Fun that is currently entered in a number of first book contests.

An SASE is included for your convenience. Thank you for your time and attention. I hope to hear from you soon.

What are the strengths of Cover Letter Two? It's formal and provides not only the names of every poem in the submission, but it has more personal information about the writer as well as demonstrates that the writer has read at least one issue of the literary journal to which they're submitting. That can't hurt your chances when far too many other cover letters are addressed to editors who left years before, or include poems that are entirely inappropriate for the journal's philosophical/literary aims (example: sending poems about your date with Satan to Christian Science Monitor or your Bukowski drug-influenced poems to Poetry).

A few people have written to me to ask: What do I write if I don't have any fancy degrees or published work or a manuscript-in-progres? Try this as the body of your paragraph.

Thank you for your time and consideration. I enclosed an SASE for your response.

Here are four poems for your consideration for The Blue Lagoon Newsletter: "My Stinky Feet," "Boogie Britches," and "Fire in My Ears."

I'm a long-time reader of The Blue Lagoon Newsletter but this is my first submission to you. I particularly liked "Joe DiMaggio Eats an Elephant" in issue #12--great piece!

Thank you for the opportunity to submit my work. I look forward to hearing from you.

In the case of the Cover Letter Three, you're giving an editor nothing to stall them from going right to the poems. Cover Letter Four assures the editor that you're familiar with their publication and have likely sent appropriate work. Either way, you can't go wrong.

Most cover letters blend elements from the four examples above, but all share a number of things. (1) they use the correct address and current editor's name (2) they include a few words about the writer's credentials (3) the cover letter is no longer than one page (4) the cover letter itself as well as the poems are printed in dark, legible typeface on clean #20 bond white paper (no onion skin or fancy parchment-style paper) (5) an SASE (or as appropriate, email address) is included.

Most editors only glance at cover letters, which is fine--you'd much rather have them put their time and energy into the poems themselves. Remember that you're asking them to publish the poems, not your cover letter. But spelling mistakes and typos in the cover letter are a good way to get editors to distrust a writer's ability right off. Fancy fonts, "fun" stickers, and homemade letterhead usually aren't the way to put your best foot forward either.

A cover letter that's well-written, short, and to-the-point--that's usually a writer's best bet. Find the style that works for you and be willing to adapt as your poems, credentials, and interests change.