Many of the more prestigious children’s magazines (and most of the YA magazines) prefer writers query for nonfiction instead of sending finished manuscripts. This aids in keeping slush piles thin, and makes the editor’s job easier. Queries mean editors are responding to your idea, your professionalism, your qualifications, and your scholarship instead of your finished product. In a query, you are asking an editor to bet on your ability to deliver what you promise.

For many writers, queries are terrifying. We know we can write – but can we pitch? And a query is a kind of pitch. You are persuading an editor that your product will be superior, but you must do so with something other than your product. Most of us would rather just show the editor our article and let it represent itself. Still, sometimes you simply must query.

Think of it was practice for book markets that will require you master the query even if you’re selling fiction.

To convince an editor to gamble on you, a query must convince the editor…

* that you are qualified to write the story/article or that you have access to qualified sources and can recognized what makes a qualified source.

* that you have the skills to write the story/article.

* that the story/article will fit well in that specific magazine because you understand the style, tone, and needs of that magazine.

* that the finished story/article will be special.

* that the finished article will be accurate.

Clearly, you vastly increase your chances of accomplishing all of these things if * you know the magazine in question and demonstrate that knowledge in the letter.

* you have read the writing guidelines of the magazine in question.

* your query does not suggest a pattern of poor scholarship – such as addressing an editor who hasn’t been at the magazine for years, spelling the editor’s name wrong, getting the editor’s sex wrong, targeting the wrong age group, etc.

* you don’t send typos – a query is short, if you can’t get rid of all the typos in a short letter, what will the editor expect from your manuscript?

* you make the letter look attractive – don’t crowd margins to cram in more words, don’t use faded ink, If anything about the letter looks unappealing, fix it and print it again.

* you don’t forget your contact information.

* you don’t forget your SASE (if querying by mail) and don’t forget your contact information (if querying by email – be sure the editor has enough information in the body of the email to respond to you by email, phone or print.)

Editors like it best if you make their job easier. Now, you can do that by writing a terrible query since that makes it easier for an editor to reject you, but that’s not really our goal, is it? Still, to make a query work, you need to make it easy.

* Identify the type of article you intend to write early in the letter so the editor knows what to expect from the submission. Are you offering a how-to piece? Are you offering a profile based on interviews by email or phone or in person? Are you offering a biography based on research? Are you offering a very focused informational article? Don’t make the editor guess at the type of article you intend to send.

* Highlight the elements of the article that you believe will be most interesting for the reader. Keep in mind that the editor’s job is to serve the reader. So don’t tell her what the magazine ought to be publishing. Don’t highlight all the short-comings of young people that will be fixed by your proposed article. Instead, present the things about the article that will grab the reader’s attention and keep the reader wanting to read.

* If possible, tie your query to something timely to encourage quicker purchase and publication – but choose a subject that will be interesting and relevant even if not published in that time frame. For instance, in an letter about an article on the Henson/Peary expedition to the North Pole, I noted in the letter that the anniversary of the event was coming up, but I made sure the article itself was timeless and didn’t need to be tied to that anniversary.

* If applicable, tie informational articles for younger kids to school curricula – editors are always interested in increasing their magazine’s appeal to teachers. Thus, they are especially interested when an article will appeal both to the readers and to teachers.

* Keep the letter short out of respect for the editor’s time.

* Don’t include a lot of extraneous things such as the writer’s hobbies, day-job, number of children – or other things not directly related to the piece being pitched.

Queries don’t need to follow a rigid format. They aren’t a school test – they are a means of communicating your ideas, plans, and skills to an editor. Editors are more flexible than you think – all they want is something wonderful from a writer they trust. Convince them your piece will be wonderful. Give them reason to trust your professionalism. You’ll be delighted with the result.