What to Do (and Not Do) in Your Cover Letter

Generally, a cover letter won’t hurt your lit mag submission but could help it.

Cover letters are a part of the submission process that writers tend to have a lot of questions about. They often don’t know what to put in them or if anyone even bothers to read them.

The truth is that every lit mag editor and reader handles cover letters differently. Some read them before they read your work, some after, some not at all. In my early days as a lit mag reader, I almost never read them — only when the work was either really good or really bad (out of sheer curiosity). Now, I always read the cover letter simply because I want to see what writers are doing, but it doesn’t impact my vote on the submission.

I’ve heard from several lit mag editors that a bad cover letter won’t keep them from accepting excellent work. However, a good cover letter may persuade them to work with a writer in situations where they’re on the fence about a piece. So, while your cover letter probably won’t hurt your chances of publication, if it’s done well, it may help you.

Ultimately, your cover letter is an opportunity to make a good impression on lit mag editors and readers, so it’s best to take advantage of it. Here are some basic do’s and don’ts for your cover letter.

Do

• Keep it short & simple

  • We’re not looking for your life story here. Greet the editors; acknowledge the title of your work, the word count, and the genre; thank them for their time; and provide your brief third-person bio. That’s it!
    

• Acknowledge if it’s a simultaneous submission

  • Most journals want you to tell them if you’re submitting the piece elsewhere. Even if they don’t explicitly ask you to do this, it’s still okay to include. Simply add a sentence like, “Please note this is a simultaneous submission. If accepted elsewhere, I will withdraw it immediately.” or “This piece is also being considered elsewhere.”

• Let them know if it will be your first publication

  • If you haven’t been published before, or haven’t been published in that particular genre before, let them know! Lit mags love being the first to publish a new, talented writer. You can say something like, “If you were to accept this piece, it would be my first publication.” or “If you were to accept this piece, it would be my first fiction publication.”
    

• Include a content warning (if needed)

  • If your piece deals with difficult material, consider including a content warning in your cover letter, as well as at the top of your submission as a courtesy to the readers and editors reading your work.

Don’t

• Address your letter using Mr., Mrs., Ms., Sirs, Gentlemen, etc.

  • It’s 2025, and guessing at the gender of strangers is always a bad idea. Personally, I don’t think you need to spend time looking up the editors’ names at all. But if you do, just address them by their first names. Otherwise, “Dear [Genre] Editors & Readers” (replace [Genre] with Fiction, Poetry, Nonfiction, etc.) is just fine.

• Explain your work

  • This is the number one mistake writers make in their cover letter. Don’t tell us what your piece is about or what happens in it (unless the magazine specifically asks you to do this). Your writing needs to stand on its own. You don’t need to “sell us” on your work or try to pique our interest in the cover letter. We have to read your piece one way or the other, and we will decide what your work is about when we read it.

• List all your publications / awards / fellowships / etc.

  • If you’re lucky enough to have a number of publications, please don’t list them all. Choose the three most prestigious ones and then acknowledge there are others. Example: “Her work has appeared in The Paris Review, American Short Fiction, and Ploughshares, among others.” The rule of three applies to listing awards, fellowships, etc., too. Also, don’t list the titles of the pieces you’ve published — just list the journals your work has appeared in.

• Name-drop

  • When writers have a thin bio or cover letter, they tend to start name-dropping successful writers they’ve taken classes or workshops with to try to fatten it up. Your professor’s or teacher’s writing success has no bearing on your own, so please don’t include this info. It doesn’t impress anyone.

Example

Keeping these do’s and don’ts in mind, here’s an example of what your cover letter might sound like:

Dear Nonfiction Editors & Readers,

Enclosed for your consideration is my 2,200-word personal essay, “Sunset Towers”. This piece is also being considered elsewhere. If you were to accept this piece, it would be my first nonfiction publication.

Thank you for the opportunity to submit my work. Your time and attention are much appreciated, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Best,
Janelle Drumwright

Janelle Drumwright (she/her) teaches creative writing at The Writers Studio and is a reader at The Masters Review. Her work has appeared in Moon City Review, Necessary Fiction, and Naugatuck River Review, among others. She received an Honorable Mention in Glimmer Train’s Short Story Award for New Writers and has been nominated for two Pushcart Prizes. Find her at janellewrites.com

Interested in learning more? My next “How to Submit Work to Literary Journals” class starts on Saturday, Aug. 9, and there are two spots left. We’ll talk about how to know when your work is ready to submit, how to find magazines that are a good fit for your work, bios, cover letters, formatting, and more. Click here for more details.

👋 Hi there, and thanks for reading! I’m Janelle Drumwright, a writer, teacher at The Writers Studio, instructor at Chill Subs, and reader at The Masters Review. I help writers strengthen their work and submit to literary journals. Find me at janellewrites.com.