When you start submitting your short fiction to editors for consideration, the cover letter portion can seem incredibly daunting. What goes into a short story cover letter? And how do you learn to write a short story cover letter that impresses first readers and editors? Let this quick-and-dirty how-to guide be your guide.
What Is a Short Story Cover Letter?
A short story cover letter is exactly that: a brief note to accompany your story on submission. It tells the first readers and editors who encounter your submission who you are and what you’re sending them.
But it shouldn’t do much more than that. Even the title of this post is misleading, because you shouldn’t use the cover letter to impress the editor. That’s not its purpose. Save the impressive work for your short story and keep the cover letter sweet and simple.
What Goes Into a Short Story Cover Letter?
When it comes to short story cover letters, shorter is always better. You should follow the guidelines laid out on your market’s submissions page—some publications want to see an author bio right away, for example, even though that’s not one of the common components of a short story cover letter—but for the most part, you can use a template to make your submissions quick and easy.
Your short story cover letter should begin with a salutation before immediately introducing your story. Don’t summarize your story unless the market specifically asks you to do so. Instead, you’ll tell the editor the title of the story you’re submitting, along with its word count and genre or subgenre. Next, you’ll have the option to list your publication history, trigger warnings, and any personal connections you have to the story before signing off politely.
Here’s what that looks like in practice.
Short Story Cover Letter Template
Dear Editor’s Full Name,
Please consider the attached story, “Title of My Story” (word count, genre), for inclusion in Market Name.
This story draws on my experiences in ABC and XYZ. It comes with trigger warnings for 123 and 789.
I am the author of “Title of My Other Story,” which first appeared in Other Market Name. My work has also been featured in Market Number 3 and Market Number 4.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Your Name (your/pronouns)
FAQs
What do you do if you can’t find the editor’s name?
If you’ve searched high and low for a market’s editorial staff and cannot find them, feel free to use “Dear Editors” as your salutation. Note that, unless specifically asked to do so, you should never address an editor using Mr./Mrs./Ms./Mx./Miss. Just use their full name if you have it, and keep it simple if you don’t.
How do you tell an editor that you have a simultaneous submission?
Include a brief line in the first body paragraph of the cover letter. Something like:
Please consider the attached story, “Title of My Story” (word count, genre), for inclusion in Market Name. This is a simultaneous submission.
Note: make sure the market you’re submitting to accepts simultaneous submissions before you do this.
What exactly is a personal connection to a story?
I know what you’re thinking: I wrote the story! Doesn’t that mean I have a personal connection to it?
Yes and no. Yes, your story will always be your personal creation. No, that doesn’t count as a “personal connection” for our purposes here.
What do count are things like the following:
- The story is about an autistic teenager, and you are an autistic writer.
- The story is about a school shooting, and you are a survivor of such a tragedy.
- The story is about space exploration, and you are an astronaut.
What if you haven’t been published yet?
That’s OK! No editor worth their salt would hold that against you. If you haven’t been published yet, just leave out the paragraph about your publication history. Easy peasy.
Want more helpful tips for fiction writers? Check out this guide to writing fiction critiques and this guide to self-editing your fiction.