Like most things in the world, the publishing landscape has changed dramatically since the dawn of the internet. That change has happened at an inconsistent pace, though. Some established publishers stuck by their old school print-subs-or-bust guns until the 2010s (and print subs are clinging on by their fingernails even today), while other journals have been online only since the early aughts.

This inconsistency has led to some conflicting advice for writers submitting their work. Some things that used to be must-include formatting or info is now seen as antiquated, and including it makes you come across as out of touch or ill-informed.

I know this because I happen to be the editor of a mostly-online journal, and have also read for a few other markets in both print and online formats. With that perspective in mind, here is some advice on what you should and shouldn’t include in cover letters in 2023—and, as is often the case in the literary world, the answer isn’t as simple or straightforward as you might think.

Cover letters vs. query letters: What’s the difference?

You may see these terms used interchangeably by some people but the truth is these are two different types of document. Both are letters of introduction but their purpose beyond this is slightly different.

A cover letter is basically just an administrative document. It tells the publisher what you’re submitting, who you are, and how they can contact you if they want to publish your piece. Its key pieces are:

• A salutation/greeting
• A pargraph stating the title, length, and genre of the work
• A short bio (typically 3rd person) of the author
• The author’s name (both pen and legal, if applicable) and contact information

That’s it. Cover letters range in length from a single paragraph to half a page, but shouldn’t really be longer than that. You’ll normally submit a cover letter when you’re sending the publisher the entire work to consider in its totality.

A query letter is slightly more involved. Its purpose is to sell your project to an agent or publisher and convince them why they should read more of your work. Because of this, it includes a few extra things you wouldn’t find in a cover letter, like:

• A description or synopsis of the work submitted
• A list of comparative titles (comp titles) that would appeal to a similar readership as the work you’re submitting
• A lengthier bio (often 1st person) explaining the author’s background, audience, literary community involvement, past publication credits or accomplishments, and connection to the topic, publisher, or agent

Query letters are typically submitted with stand-alone, book-length fiction projects. The query letter needs to do so much heavy lifting because you’re usually not sending a whole manuscript with it—in fact, you may be asked not to send any of the book at all, or just a 5-10 page sample accompanied by a synopsis. If the agent or publisher wants to read more based on the query letter, that’s the point they might ask for the full manuscript.

Cover letters for short fiction submissions (up to 10,000ish words)

Since you’re typically sending an entire short story, you only need a brief cover letter—and sometimes you don’t need a cover letter at all.

The need for a cover letter is one of those lingering details from the era of print submissions. Back in the day, the cover letter helped editors keep submissions organized and make sure they were matching the right authors with the right pieces.

Now, many journals use submission managers that do this organization for them. Others use email submissions, which require a bit more manual involvement but still keep author and story info together nicely.

Some journals still like seeing a longer cover letter that tells them about who you are, the work you’re submitting, and how you found their journal. If this is the case, they’ll say so in their guidelines. Other journal editors don’t even want to get a cover letter, and if you send one they don’t read it until after they’ve read the story, if at all.

How the journal accepts submissions will be the biggest factor in what kind of cover letter you need. Here are some tips and templates for each of the currently-used submission methods.

Submission managers

Submission managers have become the most common way to send fiction to publishers. These systems use an online form that the author fills out when they send their story.

Normally, that form will include information like their email and physical address, phone number, legal name and pen name, the work’s title, and similar details. This can potentially eliminate the need for a cover letter.

If there is a space marked “Cover letter” on the submission form, then you should still include one there. In some cases, this will just say “Bio”, in which case you can leave out the trimmings and just put a 3rd-person bio of roughly 40-75 words in this box.

Whether or not there’s a box for it on the form, you don’t need to include a cover letter page in the document itself unless the publisher explicitly asks you to. And if the journal reads blind or anonymously, absolutely don’t include this. Journals usually implement these policies to prevent potential bias based on the author’s identity, location, past publication credits, etc., so they expressly do not want to know things like your name, address, or bio before they read your story. They set up the submission manager to collect this info instead then conceal it while the submission is still in progress.

Here are two basic templates you can use as a foundation for these kinds of cover letters. You can mix and match parts of them as desired. If you want to mention a personal connection to the journal, or explain how your piece fits a theme they’re running or why your work is a good fit for them, you can add a sentence or two to that effect in the first paragraph (I show an example of this in the second template).

Submission manager cover letter template: Single story

Dear [Editor Name],

Please consider the attached #-word story, “[Story title]”, for publication in [journal name]. It’s a simultaneous submission, and I’ll withdraw it immediately if it’s accepted elsewhere.

My bio:

[your bio]

Thank you for considering my work.

Sincerely,

[Your name]

Submission manager cover letter template: Packet of flash fiction

Hello [Journal Name] editors and readers,

I am submitting 3 flash fiction pieces for your consideration: “[Title 1]” (# words), “[Title 2]” (# words), and “[Title 3]” (# words). I am a long-time reader of your publication and especially enjoyed [story title/author name] in issue #. [optional sentence mentioning any personal connection to the journal and/or why you feel your story is a good fit for them].

These stories are simultaneous submissions. If any are accepted elsewhere, I’ll message you to withdraw them. 

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Best regards,

[Your name]

Bio:

[your bio]

Email submissions

Unless the publisher’s guidelines specifically state otherwise, the cover letter for an email submission goes in the body of the email you attach your story to. You don’t also need to put the cover letter in the document itself.

Aside from where you paste it, the cover letter will be mostly the same for email submissions as for submission managers. The main difference will be that you want to include your contact information with your signature since that information isn’t being collected by a submission manager.

Here’s a template of how that will look (which you’ll note looks basically the same as the templates above):

Hello [Editor Name] and [Journal name] readers,

Please consider the attached #-word story, “[Story title]”, for publication in [journal name]. [optional sentence explaining why this journal and/or how your story fits their theme/mission/past work they’ve published]. It’s a simultaneous submission, and I’ll withdraw it immediately if it’s accepted elsewhere. 

My bio:

[your bio]

Thank you for considering my work. 

Sincerely,

[Your name]

[your phone number]

[your email address]

Postal/print submissions

These are increasingly rare but do still exist. If you come across a journal that only accepts print submissions, the odds are they’re a bit old-school. This means they’re more likely to look for a more traditional cover letter format.

Now, you still don’t need to include a full story synopsis—they’re still getting the whole work and can figure out what it’s about from reading it. But that extra sentence about why you’re submitting to this journal and how your story fits their vibe is non-optional for these letters. You’ll also want to include a few other peripheral details that will help them keep track of your submission.

With print submissions, the cover letter should be the first page of your submission packet. Here’s a template you can use to write them:

[date you’re sending the submission in top right corner]

Dear [Editor Name],

Please consider the attached #-word story, “[Story title]”, for publication in [journal name]. I am a long-time reader of your publication and especially enjoyed [story title/author name] in issue #. [sentence mentioning any personal connection to the journal and/or why you feel your story is a good fit for them].

“[Story title]” is a simultaneous submission, and I’ll follow the instructions on your website to withdraw it if it’s accepted elsewhere. 

My bio:

[your bio]

I have included an SASE for your reply and do not need my full submission returned to me.

Thank you for considering my work. 

Sincerely,

[Your name]

[your street address]

[your phone number]

[your email address]

Cover letters for novelettes and novellas

This is when things start to get more tricky. How the work is going to be published will determine the length and style of letter you need to send with it.

You can use the concise, short story cover letter style if:

• You’re submitting the story to a literary magazine, anthology, or other publication where it will be alongside works from other authors
• You’re sending the publisher the entire manuscript

If both of those things are true, you can use the same template and format as for a short story cover letter. The only other extra info you may need to add is if the publisher does both stand-alone novellas and includes them in anthologies, serializes them in journals, etc. In that case, you’ll want to specify your intent for the story. Something like:

Dear [Editor Name],

I would like to submit the attached #-word novella, “[Story title]”, for seralization in [journal name].

Or

Greetings [Editor Name],

Please consider the attached #-word novella, “[Story title]”, for publication in [anthology title].

…then on with the rest of the template for a short story cover letter.

If you’re submitting a novella to be a stand-alone publication, then you’re probably instead going to want to write a full query letter. Which is a handy segue into…

Query letters for book-length manuscripts

Cover letters are easy, semi-throw-away little blips that you can mostly copy-paste and half the editors you send to probably won’t do more than glance at, anyway (or won’t even see, if they read anonymously).

Query letters give authors gray hairs and keep them up at night, and I swear feel harder to write than the manuscript they’re attached to.

The template for a query letter is deceptively simple. It’s an expanded version of the cover letter and ideally should have a length of 1 page (though you get a smidge of wiggle room, say up to 1.5 pages max, for electronic submissions).

Here is the basic skeleton of a query letter:

Dear [editor/agent name],

[introductory sentence including the wordcount, genre, book title, and why you’re writing]. [1-2 sentence(s) that describes your project and why the press/agent is a good fit to publish/represent it]

[1-2 paragraph synopsis of the book, including its resolution and emotional arc/payoff; if a short story collection, an overview of all the stories and description of any shared themes, voice, settings, etc. that explains why they belong together]

[paragraph describing the book’s anticipated audience, including 3-5 comparative titles]

[paragraph bio of you, including why you wrote the book, your past publications and literary accomplishments, and other literary connections that demonstrate the potential audience you bring to the table]

As requested in your guidelines, the first # pages/chapters/stories are enclosed here, along with a full #-page synopsis. If you would like to read more, the full manuscript is complete and I would be thrilled to send it along to you.

Thank you for considering my work.

Sincerely,

[your name]

[your phone number]

[your email address]

…you’ll notice I barely wrote out any of that template. There’s a reason for that. Query letters need to be much more personalized to each project. Once you’ve written the core components, you’ll still want to personalize it even further to each press or agent you send to, highlighting the aspects of the work that will most appeal to them. A query letter for a book-length work is much more similar to the cover letter for a job application than it is the cover letter for a short story.

As far as how to write an effective query letter—that’s a topic bigger than a blog post. But there are tons of resources online that can help, like:

• Query Shark – A website where real-world fiction query letters are critiqued and posted with comments and corrections. Super helpful in fine-tuning your approach to writing queries, or seeing how other people have written them (and the mistakes they’ve made along the way).
• QueryConnection – A forum where writers can get peer critiques on submission materials like query letters.
• Reedsy – An overall resource hub for writers. There’s bunches of advice on the Reedsy blog about writing query letters. They also have a free course on writing query letters, and have live webinars with agents and editors about the publication process.

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