#Cover sheet for a manuscript professional
#Cover sheet for a manuscript free

In addition to the information above, these cover letters would add a brief aesthetics statement of who’s influenced your art and what you seek to accomplish within your poems (to contextualize the poems in your submission) what you do where you work and any work you do in the arts community. This is helps determine who makes the short-shortlist.

Journals jump at the chance to “discover” a hot new poet.ĭefinites for Other Programs: On the other hand, for retreats, fellowships, and residencies the cover letter is very important.

#Cover sheet for a manuscript free

No flex zone.) If you haven’t been published yet, feel free to say that.

#Cover sheet for a manuscript professional

Optional for Publication: Optional elements to include for a publication cover letter would be a 30-75 word professional bio, and 3-5 places where you’ve been published. The editorial assistants separate these parts during reading and judging and need to be able to put them back together easily. The cover letter’s primary function is to match the blind poems (which don’t name the author) with the author’s cover letter (which does name the author and all contact info). Note the “business letter” format, which we’ll discuss further at the end.Ĭover letters can be anywhere from 30 words to 2.5 pages, depending on whether you are applying for publication (30 words to 1 page), retreat (up to 1 page), fellowship and residency (up to 2 pages), job (up to 2.5 pages), and so on.ĭefinites for Publication: You definitely need to end the cover letter with a list your submission poems’ titles. Clearly, these need not be comprehensive. However, for publication, the cover letters are only read a month after all acceptances have been made, when editorial assistants copy and paste bio information for the publication. In general for poetry retreats, residencies, and fellowships, the poetry is read first, then the editors make a shortlist of acceptances, after which the cover letters are read, and more cuts are made. Always, check that organization’s guidelines.

Sometimes poetry submissions lay out exactly what they are looking for in a cover letter. Hopefully, this will demystify them for you.Ĭover letters change shape based on what you are applying for. We’ve been through hundreds of cover letters. Yes, we work for The Watering Hole, but we have also worked for The South Carolina Review, Yemassee, among others.

We always get questions about cover letters and it’s only because of our work on both sides of the desk (poet and organizer) that we’ve began to understand this a little better.