The Cover Letter: A Taste of What Is To Come

Before you sit down to write your cover letter, you need to ask yourself what it is you hope to accomplish in the letter. You want the letter written in proper form, free of grammar and spelling errors. You want to share your publishing history and professional affiliations like SCBWI.

While all of this necessary and important, I can’t stress enough the importance of the first paragraph. This is the paragraph we use to introduce and briefly summarize our book. I stress briefly for a reason. Oftentimes, writers think they need to tell the entire story in the cover letter. I’ve heard several editors speak at conferences and though they all had differing tastes in books, the one thing they all had in common was that they were busy! They asked that cover letters be short and to the point. They want the story summarized in 2-3 sentences. They will be getting a taste of what’s to come, though, so you want the taste to be delicious and tempting. You want to leave them anxious to read your story.

But how do we narrow our 32 page picture book or 200 page novel down to just 2 or 3 tempting sentences? I found a tool that has helped me a great deal. If you search for a book on amazon, you will find a product description. Look up 3 or 4 of your favorite books and read how they are described in just a few concise sentences. Here’s what they say about Margaret Wise Brown’s GOODNIGHT MOON: “In the great green room, tucked away in a bed, is a little bunny. ‘Goodnight room. Goodnight moon.’ And to all the familiar things in the softly lit room, to the picture of the three little bears sitting in chairs, to the clocks and his socks, to the mittens and the kittens, to everything one by one, he says goodnight.” This example successfully sets the tone of the story to come.

Kate Dicamillo’s BECAUSE OF WINN DIXIE is described as: “When ten-year-old Opal Buloni moves to Naomi, Florida with her preacher father, she doesn’t know what to expect. She is lonely at first—that is until she meets Winn Dixie, a stray dog who helps her make some unusual friends. Because of Winn Dixie, Opal begins to let go of some of her sadness and finds she has a whole lot to be thankful for. The description gives us a taste and makes us curious. Why did they move? Why is she sad? Just who are these unusual friends? Where did this special dog come from?

Both of the above descriptions give us a taste and leave us wanting to read more. This is our cover letter mission!