Wednesday's Writing on Writing

As a working writer, you should be always sending out proposals – or coming up with new proposals to pitch. Never write to Dear Sir or To Whom It May Concern. Find and write directly to the appropriate person by name. Then, here are my top tips for query letters and proposals.    

1. Do not use colored paper as stationery. Editors seem to universally see this as a sign of an amateur.

2. Do not use bold or LARGER-THAN-NORMAL type anywhere in a letter or manuscript, and never use more than one font.

3. Your title must be positive. Not "Don't Let Depression Defeat You," but rather: "Winning Over Depression."

4. A manuscript, even transmitted electronically, must should be double-spaced (not single- or triple-spaced, or spaced at the 1.5 setting).

5. If the publisher asks for hard copy (rare these days), your manuscript should never be bound, stapled, clipped, or in a notebook. Editors want the pages in a stack, loose, with each page numbered and carrying the author's name.

6. The word by rarely appears on the cover of a book unless it is self-published, and even then it is the sign of an amateur.

7. The misspelling of the word acknowledgments (as acknowledgements, a British variation) or foreword (as forward) is another clue that you're an amateur. Foreword means "before the text"; it consists of fore and word, and has nothing to do with direction.

8. Your manuscript should not have justified right margins. Use ragged right margins, the kind that makes your manuscript appear to have been typed rather than computer generated. Justified margins cause inconsistent spacing between words, which make for difficult reading for overworked editors.

9. A common cliché in inspirational books is to include prayers in prefatory material. Even paraphrasing those to say, "My prayer is that God would…" is better than, "Lord, I pray…", but avoid either in the dedication or acknowledgments ("Lord, thank you for my wonderful editor…" Blech!).

10. You've heard the slogan Just do it. Now learn to Just say it. Imagine yourself telling your story to a friend or writing a letter. Good writing is not about loads of adjectives and adverbs. It consists of powerful nouns and verbs. So many beginners fall into an overwrought style I call "writtenese." Your relatives may love your flowery language, and perhaps your unpublished creative writing teacher does too, but read what sells. Usually you'll find it simple and straightforward.