E-Mail Query Tips

Don't begin your e-mail query by apologizing for intruding into the editor's e-mailbox. If you have confidence in your idea and if you're positive your proposed article will be of value to the editor's readers, demonstrate your confidence by being positive about your message and your idea, beginning with word one.

Submit Tuesday through Thursday — Mondays are typically hectic for editors, plus e-mail boxes are usually fuller. Fridays are too late in the week and too close to the weekend for e-mail to be handled promptly, so it's either deleted or put in a bottomless hold file.

Make your lead paragraph less than 40 words in length.

Make your entire query less than 200 words, or 5 short paragraphs maximum. Editors don't have time to scroll — especially when it's a query trying to sell them something they didn't ask for.