I survived my first full day back playing cricket. Turned out to be a fairly boring day for as I stood at first slip and didn't do a lot. Took one catch, and little else. Next week it's our turn to bat and we'll be attempting to chase down 264 for the win.
In my last post, I'd ear-marked today for three things to happen:
- Update the assignments page
- Send query letters off to submission markets
- Story board Newland
I've updated the assignments page - check the links on my sidebar.
I've also sent off three query letters. It's another fortnight before anymore query letters are due, but I wasn't sure exactly what to write. The basic premise is obvious - "Hey, it's been over the time frame suggested in your guidelines and I haven't had a response so can you let me know where you're at with my submission", but how to phrase that in a professional manner?
Interestingly, if you search for help on the Net, you'll gain 624,000 links on writing the perfect query letter, but that's not the type of query I'm talking about. I haven't refined my search yet (I do intend to) on how to query on the progress of your submission so I thought I'd post the question here.
We all write, or intend to write, short stories for publication in varied magazines around the world. When you've submitted something you slaved over for many weeks, months, or even years, struggled to find the right words, the right sentence structure, and then submit it to just the right market, how do you ask for an update when the response time deadline slides past?
I decided to go the short and succinct way:
Dear [editors name]
I am writing to query the progress of my flash fiction piece titled [your next big thing] which I sent to your publication for consideration on the [whenever].
Kindest regards
Brenton Tomlinson
What do you think? How do you do it?
Time to go story board Newland. I look forward to your answers.
BT
If I haven't had any response at all (ie not even an email saying we got you piece and it is in the slush) then I often try the old:
ReplyDelete"I've been having problems with my email did you get the story?"
I think what you have proposed is fine. As long as you are polite and it is past the reply dates published in the guidelines then I don't see how anyone could get upset with that.