What's the best time to send your email query?

RAstarlight · Mar 1, 2015

Hello everyone!

I have an e-mail query polished up and ready to go, and I'm eager to send it off. However, I wonder if anyone has found that there is an ideal time to send it.

Since today is Sunday, I was thinking I might want to wait until Tuesday - on the hunch that on Monday my e-mail might not get the ideal reception (editors getting back to the office after a weekend, that kind of thing).

Any thoughts, advice? Thanks in advance!

Angie · Mar 1, 2015

The best time to send your email...is whenever you're ready to send it. I've heard of editors replying on weekends, holidays, etc. - there's really not any "perfect" time to send a query.

RAstarlight · Mar 1, 2015

Angie said:
The best time to send your email...is whenever you're ready to send it. I've heard of editors replying on weekends, holidays, etc. - there's really not any "perfect" time to send a query.

Thanks Angie! I've got some sweaty palms here, this will be my second "big magazine" pitch - so it makes me nervous. Silly, I know that editors are human, I used to be one, lol. :tongue

WeaselFire · Mar 25, 2015

RAstarlight said:
Thanks Angie! I've got some sweaty palms here, this will be my second "big magazine" pitch - so it makes me nervous.

Don't let it. You should be sending a query as soon as it's ready then working on the next one to send. You'll need several (many) in the pipeline if you're looking for a career doing this writing thing.

When I wrote freelance full time I used to come up with an article idea, do some minimal research to formulate the query and send it off, then rework the same material for a different market and send it off. I might come up with an idea for researching pet food manufacturing techniques in China for example, then pitch an article to a consumer magazine, say Amazing Aquatics, a trade journal, maybe American Pet Shop Journal, then another trade magazine, maybe Manufacturing Techniques Quarterly and maybe an in-flight magazine like Air America Sky Journal. Same research, different approaches to presenting the information

Do it enough and you become a master of squeezing every penny out of your work. Or you get smart and get a high paying job with benefits at your local fast food chain.

Jeff

RAstarlight · Mar 26, 2015

WeaselFire said:
Don't let it. You should be sending a query as soon as it's ready then working on the next one to send. You'll need several (many) in the pipeline if you're looking for a career doing this writing thing.

When I wrote freelance full time I used to come up with an article idea, do some minimal research to formulate the query and send it off, then rework the same material for a different market and send it off. I might come up with an idea for researching pet food manufacturing techniques in China for example, then pitch an article to a consumer magazine, say Amazing Aquatics, a trade journal, maybe American Pet Shop Journal, then another trade magazine, maybe Manufacturing Techniques Quarterly and maybe an in-flight magazine like Air America Sky Journal. Same research, different approaches to presenting the information

Do it enough and you become a master of squeezing every penny out of your work. Or you get smart and get a high paying job with benefits at your local fast food chain.

Jeff

Thank you Jeff - this is really helpful! And no, I'll stick to writing - working in a fast food chain would just put me in a bad mood, lol

What's the best time to send your email query?

RAstarlight

Angie

Shaddup and lemme think.

RAstarlight

WeaselFire

Benefactor Member

RAstarlight