Covering Letters for Magazine Submissions

[Mr Orange]

How detailed should covering letters for submissions to magazines be? What kind of information should be included? Presumably they can be a lot simpler than novel submissions to publishers/agents.

 

[Foxbat]

I usually mention any recent publications elsewhere and something about the story if it has anything unusual going for it (hopefully, it should have something to make it stand out from the crowd).

I don't mention anything specific about myself apart from my name. If they want any more info, they usually ask for a small bio if the story is accepted for publication.

Of course, you always need to read the submission guidelines. One set I read recently threatened to leave any submissions not of the correct format in a slush pile. I checked and double checked before nervously submitting and imagine my surprise and delight when they wrote back a week later accepting my story

All in, I'm only talking two or three lines of information.

 

[ratsy]

I agree with Foxbat. Short and sweet. They aren't looking for a lot of info at that point typically. I usually send some credits. Maybe a one line blurb on the submission. This goes for anthology submissions as well.

 

[Mr Orange]

Cheers guys.