photo by Pieter Musterd
The wheels started turning a year ago. My dream of being a freelance writer was beginning to come into fruition. But there was something amiss. My career never really took off until a few months ago after I left a cubicle job for freelance freedom. Part of it was a disbelief that I could really do it and the other part was my attitude with the query letter. I just didn’t like doing it. Scratch that. I despised it.
Worse than a cover letter, it made me feel like I was on trial. With cover letters, I also felt a bit detached from the process. Introduce myself here. Boast a bit there. Sign and we’re done.
But with queries, I felt cornered. Forced to somehow prove that I could be a writer when I didn’t even feel like I was one. So I faked it. And I didn’t do it well either.
I did this for awhile. Write crappy letters all with a hidden agenda: just to do it so I felt like I was doing something. All the awhile I felt insignificant and a failure. I never thought that a publisher would ever accept my idea and you know what? I was right!
What’s different between then and now? I actually fell in love with query writing because of the following:
- I suddenly let the possibility that somewhere someone someday soon would like my writing and accept it in their publication.
- I worked hard at my craft. Taking classes, writing daily, and collecting more clips.
- I developed confidence. Everyone had to start out somewhere and if them, why not me?
- I went from boring cover letter to article quality queries. I treated every query as a real article and that made the process challenging, fun and engaging.
- I didn’t take it personally. Every rejection letter I’ve received has been just another publication to cross off my list. It’s a numbers game and the more I get out there, the greater my chance of getting published.
Are there any things that helped you get over the query hurdle into becoming a query writing expert?
