The TNQ Insider’s Guide

While I can’t tell you what our editors are looking for in a poem or story, I can tell you what they are looking for in a cover letter.

First things first: it seems that many writers are under the impression that the cover letter should inspire the editor to read the work, and thus they carefully craft an intriguing plot summary or detailed explanation of what the work is ‘about.’  I’m guessing that this strategy is suggested in various “How To Get Published” books and sites, and maybe it works for other magazines, but at TNQ, our editors read everything. We have to, no matter what you put in the cover letter. Most of us read the work first, then the cover letter, and only then if we are publishing the work or sending the writer some feedback.

On a related note, please refrain from including lengthy appendices such as publication credits and endorsements.  We are as interested in publishing new, previously unpublished writers as we are in publishing well-established authors. It is unnecessary to impress us with an extensive publishing history, and indeed, some of us find this strategy a bit offensive (i.e., we will publish it if we like it, not because Margaret Atwood likes the last thing you wrote!). Even the least-easily offended among us doesn’t tend to read these endorsements closely, even if we want to publish your work. This is because we have a helluva lot to read. Seriously. The hundreds of submissions we review each year are the tip of the iceberg.

It’s also important to know that the editors are just one group of people who are handling your manuscript. Before your stories or poems make it to us, they are processed by our crackerjack team of interns and student volunteers. They do read your cover letters, and very carefully, I might add, for the purpose of recording your contact information, the details of your submission, and your preferred method of correspondence (note on this last: if you specify email, there’s no need to also enclose a SASE).  Over the years, I’ve developed a comprehensive list of surefire ways to tick these generally sweet-natured folks off and see that your manuscript gets returned.

One: not reading the submission guidelines. Our guidelines change every so often, so it is a good idea to peruse this page before you head for the mailbox, especially if you do not send work out very often.

That’s it. Read (and follow) the guidelines and you’ll have cleared the first hurdle to publication in TNQ!

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