I did hear from several people about this word-count issue. All I can say is I’ve never proposed a word length for a story…but it can be a way to show you’ve read their guidelines — as in “I think this would be a fit for your 800-word ‘Hot button’ column…”

Ultimately, every writer has to decide what they feel shows their strengths in a query letter and what they feel comfortable saying…above is an outline of what’s worked for me. Meanwhile, my friend Robert Howells of Surefire Writing I know has a totally different approach and starts his pitches like he’s shooting the breeze in person with the editor, as in, “I’d like to pitch you a story about…” Which I gather works for him, but which I think seems forced and goofy! I prefer plunging in to grab them by the lapels with how amazing my story concept is. I think each writer has to experiment a bit and see what gets results for them.

Thanks for commenting!

Carol

I’ll have to think about this a bit more.

It’s true, sometimes guidelines will say, X department is 800 words long or whatever. But what if you pitch your idea for X department, but the editor might have thought hey, this could be a 2,000-word feature? I guess I think it comes off as bossy. But maybe that’s because I just had a PR source command me to write a 2,000-word profile of their client, when I don’t really know many publications that commission anything that length right now…but if you link it to a particular column or department in the publication, maybe it comes off more like ‘I’ve read you’ instead of ‘I know better than you what your magazine should be doing,’ which is what I fear it usually comes off sounding like.

Thanks for your comment!

I’ll have to think about this a bit more.

I’ll have to think about this a bit more.

Alice