Fiction: Diagram #4

Fiction: Diagram #4

This short Diagram shortens and completes my short course on publishing short fiction. Diagram #1 was posted here on 3/11/22.

There remain four propitious pointers worth pointing-out plainly: Editors, the Cover Letter, and the “Bio”, for both of which you will often be asked. Lastly, there is “Mechanics”.  

1.     Everything you put under the evaluative lense of an Editor should be written as if the bases are loaded, you are pitching to a feared hitter and he is crowding the plate. Your Cover Letter/Bio are only about 50 words each, but think about them; they are additional places where Editors will hope to hear your personal “voice”.

2.     Editors are people; they respond to people. They are very, very pressed for time, but they respond to people. You are trying to stand out somehow. For sure, your story will stand out, but stand yourself out also. In your Cover Letter and Bio, give them the essentials, but add a tiny tongue-in-cheek/whimsy.

3.     Mechanics: Format your story. This eliminates any re-typing/formatting by the Magazine that accepts your story. Use only 12-point font, ideally the same font found on this site. Double-space your copy.

4.     Cover Letter Example:

“Dear Editors,

Dirty-Rotten(390 words) attached, is a sublime bit of graphic grotesquerie. In the remote event…I would hugely appreciate the by-line ‘L.W. Smolen.’

Thank you for your time, consideration and this opportunity.

Joe C. Smolen”

Bio Example:

Mr. Smolen’s B.A. English is of the University of Washington. A dab of his post-grad work is available at joecsmolen.com. With his wife Sherrie and the ghost of their black, standard poodle Rico Suave, he lives on the Oregon Coast in a really pretty good house they built themselves.