Referral for short fiction subs

[Sage]

This feels like a stupid question, but I've never subbed a short story to anything but AW, so I haven't had to write a cover letter for it.

I was at a convention last year and read a story I had entered in an AW contest years ago. An award-winning author was at the reading and told me to submit it, and he gave me two magazines he thought it'd be perfect for. He's been published in one of them.

When I write the cover letter, should I mention the referral? I know in a query letter for a novel I would, but I've never done a cover letter.

[alleycat]

I don't think I would for a short story submission to a magazine.

[Haggis]

Originally Posted by alleycat

I don't think I would for a short story submission to a magazine.

Agree with the pussycat.

For the most part, your story will sell itself or not.

[alleycat]

You might sneak in a casual reference if the other writer has written for those magazines (without mentioning that you talked to the other writer at a convention).

I met Michael Connelly at a convention. He told me "Good luck". I don't think I'll be using that for anything. Robert Crais used to be a friend on Facebook (before he got too many friends); he Liked one of my posts. As did Neil Gaiman. I'm using those two as references! :-) Just kidding.

[Polenth]

That sounds more like a "here's some places to try" and less like an actual referral, so I wouldn't mention it. Short cover letters are very bare bones. They don't need to know why you sent it to them or what the story is about.

The exception would be if they don't take unsolicited submissions. Then you mention it in your "would you like to see my story?" letter.

[Ken]

... nope. B/c besides what's been mentioned, you'd also be putting that author on the spot with the editor. You'd really sorta have to check in with them first to find out if it'd be okay to mention them. Editors are also some of the most ethical people on the planet. All they are concerned about are the stories by and large. And that's a good thing, overall, giving everybody a fair chance. G'luck.

[MJNL]

The only time you should mention a "referral" for short fiction is if an editor at the venue asked you to send work/that specific piece.

[Sage]

I guess it wasn't such a stupid question I would have expected everyone to say "of course you mention him! It gets you past the interns!" The shortness of the cover letter was the only reason I was hesitating, and I see that I had good reason to feel that way.

I suppose it felt different from the average "Try these magazines" because he sought me out in the halls later to ask if the story had been published and to make the suggestions. If it had come directly after the reading, I wouldn't have felt as much like it was a referral. He did write for one of them, but not the other.

Thanks, guys!

[Buffysquirrel]

Unless the magazines specify a cover letter, I wouldn't use one at all.

[Lady MacBeth]

Good luck with your story.

[princessmiwi]

For the magazines I am looking forward to publish in, they usually mention they don't care about cover letter. A paragraph, at most, if you want to mention previous published stories of your own, but I guess they don't care much about big introductions.

They will just go straight to the story, I guess

[MumblingSage]

Originally Posted by Buffysquirrel

Unless the magazines specify a cover letter, I wouldn't use one at all.

I would like to respectfully take this advice and flip it 180 degrees.

Alway, always have a brief, polite, and topical cover letter to every submission until or unless you are explicitly told otherwise in the submission guidelines (which, I should note, I have never seen happen in 5 years of submitting short fiction to all levels of spec fic publication). Provided it is in fact brief, polite, and topical--part of the reason you should do cover letters often is so you'll be able to perfect yours through practice--there is no way it can hurt you. And from what I've heard, editors enjoy being acknowledged as human beings and can find the complete lack of even a "hello, here's my story, thank you" quite off-putting.

You'll want to state the title of your story so it can be found easily if the attachment is misplaced, the length and genre of the story to show it fits the editor's needs, and its previous publication history if it has one. Not to mention, if you have a previous publication history, you'll want to brag that up!

Cover letters are awesome and quite painless after the 30th or 40th go around! Write yours today!

[This message has been brought to you by the Cover Letter Council.]

As for OP's specific encounter, unless the author said "Mention me in your cover letter," I wouldn't take it as an invitation to do so. However, it does sound very encouraging that you were tracked down after the reading was over! Keep it in your memory to boost your esteem when you feel down! And submit to those markets!

[LillyPu]

Originally Posted by Sage

An award-winning author was at the reading and told me to submit it, and he gave me two magazines he thought it'd be perfect for. He's been published in one of them.

See, now I'm the type who would mention it -- especially since the 'award-winning' author published a story with the magazine. Mention it as briefly as you mentioned it above. And I always include a cover letter, not explaining my story, just giving the title and wordcount, and brief bio of previous print publications only.

Good luck.

[Mutive]

Originally Posted by MumblingSage

And from what I've heard, editors enjoy being acknowledged as human beings and can find the complete lack of even a "hello, here's my story, thank you" quite off-putting.

You'll want to state the title of your story so it can be found easily if the attachment is misplaced, the length and genre of the story to show it fits the editor's needs, and its previous publication history if it has one. Not to mention, if you have a previous publication history, you'll want to brag that up!

This is rather my feeling. It's nice being addressed, and not having a cover letter at all feels lazy. (Like, was it really that hard to type the three sentences needed to create one?) It's not instant reject bad, but I do like getting one.

Plus, I get 12 submissions at a time. It's nice having the name (and pen name if it differs!) and story title in one place, since they do sometimes get separated. (Which can be rather frustrating if there's no cover letter, the email header has the real name but no story title, and the story only has the pen name on it.)

I'm torn on the previous publication history. Listing a few places you've been published is great. None doesn't really hurt that much, though, as stories *do* tend to sell themselves, or fail on their own merits. But listing 200 publications + dates + titles + payments (oh, yes, about 10% do this) drives me batty. It may be a weird personal thing, but I seriously look for reasons to reject these people.

(It doesn't help that these 200 are rarely places I recognize. Why writing, "I've published over 200 short stories to various markets including <<list top three>>" is that hard, I'll never know.)

[Unimportant]

Mine generally go:

Dear Editor,
I would like to submit my X,000-word genre short story, "Title," for consideration in Blah Magazine. The story is attached/included/appended below.

My recent publications include Blah, Blah, and Blah.

regards,
Moi

[MumblingSage]

Originally Posted by Mutive

This is rather my feeling. It's nice being addressed, and not having a cover letter at all feels lazy. (Like, was it really that hard to type the three sentences needed to create one?) It's not instant reject bad, but I do like getting one.

Plus, I get 12 submissions at a time. It's nice having the name (and pen name if it differs!) and story title in one place, since they do sometimes get separated. (Which can be rather frustrating if there's no cover letter, the email header has the real name but no story title, and the story only has the pen name on it.)

I'm torn on the previous publication history. Listing a few places you've been published is great. None doesn't really hurt that much, though, as stories *do* tend to sell themselves, or fail on their own merits. But listing 200 publications + dates + titles + payments (oh, yes, about 10% do this) drives me batty. It may be a weird personal thing, but I seriously look for reasons to reject these people.

(It doesn't help that these 200 are rarely places I recognize. Why writing, "I've published over 200 short stories to various markets including <<list top three>>" is that hard, I'll never know.)

I did not know that 10% statistic. Wow! (Suddenly I feel much better about my own cover letter...) But, yeah, generally I just list either my 3 most recent pro sales, or the 3 pro & semipro that are most similar in genre and style to the market I'm submitting to, or the 3-4 sales I'm proudest of at the moment. No need for a complete accounting...after all, you never know when an editor has contacts in the IRS who might be wondering if you've paid self-employment tax on all those sales. *cough*

[Mutive]

I have no idea whether it's universally 10%. But out of the ones I get, it's hovering around that mark. (The best one was someone who sent me maybe 200 names of stories + the markets + the dates...but all the markets and dates were the same. It was like, "Dude, I get it. You self-published your short stories.")

The other great sin seems to be "let me write a summary of my short story in the cover letter". (Which is also around 10%, although for whatever reason, my last batch of submissions is at 90%.) I feel like typing back, "This is not a query for a novel..." to each one of them. (And, TBH, that's more likely to bias a slush reader, anyway, and it's pretty easy to go, "Well, that idea sucks. Why even bother reading the story?")

There's some other weird stuff too, like the people who send long pleas to buy their story. (Either a sick relative or that they're about to give up all hope and stop writing, usually.)

Cover letters are fascinating things. Most do it right, but sometimes...just...sometimes...