From the Acquisitions Manager: On Cover Letters

It’s Hannah here, your friendly Acquisitions Manager, social media person, general contact girl, newsletter writer, and generally just here to help as needed. Today, I’m here to talk about work stuff. Which is either fun or not fun, according to your tastes, but it’s something I feel the need to address. What’s the subject? Cover letters and biographies.

I know, I know. Cover letters, biographies, and blurbs are the bane of everyone’s existence. But they’re also incredibly important! You see, a good cover letter/biography can make or break your story with us before we’ve ever opened your document.

How, you ask? By not giving me the information I’m asking for. A cover letter is your first big shot at drawing me in. Don’t just write, “This story is about how Timmy went to the beach and a giant sea monster shows up.” Engage me with your synopsis. Bring enough detail and unsolved questions to leave me feeling that I’d really like to read your story and know more about it. Tell me what is unique about your story that sets it apart from all the others like it. If you can do that in a 20-word hook, great! If you can do it in a 200-word blurb, fantastic!

DOs:

• Include your title
• Include your word count
• Your sub-genre*
• Tell us something interesting about yourself!

DON’Ts:

• Ignore the submission guidelines because you think you’re special
• Ignore the word count requirements
• Address the acquisitions team in a demeaning way (yes, this has happened)
• Be so vague in your book description your story doesn’t stick in my mind
• Brag or be condescending—there are humans sifting through these subs!

* Not required, but for general submissions, it’s wildly helpful for us! If I see “creature feature” as a sub-genre, I may not be interested, but I know our managing editor would be and I can set it aside for her. Likewise, I can see at a glance if a story is a subject in specific I’m on the lookout for.

You might be surprised at the number of submissions where the biography is nothing but someone’s accolades or previous publications. Including your accolades there—or in the cover letter—is fine, but people often miss the whole biography part. I wind up knowing absolutely nothing about you and therefore you’re just another submission to me.

What I need, you guys, is for you to humanify yourselves. You don’t have to tell me your life story, but please tell me a little bit about who you are. Tell me about your interests, your hobbies or a weird fact about yourself. Tell me about your pets or your family or the plants you keep. Give me something that shows you not only put effort into this, but that you read the instructions clearly.

Look, I know submissions get tiring to fill out. I know each place has its own standards for what it wants. But I cannot stress how important it is to us here at Graveside Press that you engage us in this manner. I cannot stress the impression that your cover letter and biography give to me and how it places your story in my mind.

(And, please, for the love of all things good, don’t brag. Don’t be pretentious or talk down to us. If you’re demeaning and rude right out the gate, I’m going to reject your story on principle alone. Confidence is one thing; being stuck-up and condescending is another.)

Thank you for your time today. I hope this information was helpful to you for future submissions to Graveside Press. Keep them coming, for I love reading them and we all are so happy to have you with us.