Appendix

The Best Stuff That Wouldn’t Fit in the Book Proper

Sample Queries

As promised: more queries! If you’re seeking a triple dose of inspiration or a recap of things done right, read on.

Here’s one from writer Donald Vaughan, who shared this pitch that resulted in a commission from Cat Fancy. From the raw, striking lede to the transition into the core elements of what the article will include, Vaughan turns his personal story into a pitch that will undoubtedly benefit the publication’s readers.

Ms. Debbie Phillips-Donaldson, Editor

Cat Fancy Magazine

Dear Debbie:

We buried Mai Ling, our Himalayan, today. She had a stroke yesterday morning, and we had her put to sleep at an emergency clinic late last night.

Dr. Frank Bandel, our veterinarian, told us that stroke is a common ailment in older cats, but that often they are able to throw it off and live many more years in near perfect health. He urged us to give Mai Ling a couple more days before making our final decision, but as the evening wore on, it became evident that she was slipping away. She quickly lost the use of her hind legs, was unresponsive to touch or voice, and completely blind. Even though she wasn’t in apparent pain, it was clear that to keep her like that would be cruel, so we had her put down. It was a difficult but necessary decision.

Based on this experience, I would like to pitch a Cat Fancy feature on cats and stroke. I was amazed to find that the symptoms are very similar to that in humans—partial paralysis, loss of specific senses, catatonia, etc. The most intriguing aspect, however, is that small animals such as cats are often able to overcome what would result in lifelong disability—or death—in humans.

In this piece I would discuss how common stroke is among cats, traditional symptoms, common causes, which breeds are most susceptible, what owners can do to reduce risk (if anything), how cats respond physiologically to stroke, how they are able to throw it off and how owners can make life easier for a cat that has experienced a stroke. I would also discuss common ailments that can mimic the symptoms of stroke in cats, including hypoglycemia, diabetes and renal failure. My primary sources would be Dr. Frank Bendel, who saw Mai Ling; Dr. Andrew Faigen, director of For Cats Only in West Palm Beach, FL, and neurologist Dr. Julia Blackmore.

I hope you find this idea of interest, Debbie. It was extremely difficult losing Mai Ling—especially since we lost our Siamese, Mandy, just last year—but hopefully others can benefit from this experience. Should you wish to discuss this idea further, please don’t hesitate to call me at [phone number].

Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Don Vaughan

This query, from author Craig Silverman to Writer’s Digest, resulted in a commission for a front-of-the-book story. Note how Silverman establishes his credibility on the subject instantly, details what the piece will contain, and even explains how his piece will differ from a recent article we had published on the topic of accuracy. Moreover, he touches on the narrative elements of the piece, which gave me a chance to see how it would come together on the page and fit within the magazine..

Hello [Jessica Strawser, editor of Writer’s Digest],

I’m a journalist and author based in Montreal. Jane Friedman passed along your e-mail address after I told her that I’d sent an article query to the general submission address at Writer’s Digest. She suggested I send it along to you.

I’m the editor of Regret the Error (www.regrettheerror.com), the media errors and corrections website, and author of Regret the Error: How Media Mistakes Pollute the Press and Imperil Free Speech (Union Square Press/Penguin Group Canada). I also write a weekly column for Columbia Journalism Review and am a former columnist for The Globe and Mail. I have an idea for a first-person InkWell article. The story details how I came up with a new way to correct errors contained in my book. It also reveals the surprising amount of joy I experienced from publicizing my own mistakes. Call it the “Joy of Error.” Every writer should experience it.

My book, which was just released in paperback, is about the history, cause and impact of media errors. I’ve spent over four years researching and blogging about the issue on my website, and my book won the 2008 Arthur Rowse Award for Press Criticism from the National Press Club in Washington. While writing the book I was confronted by an obvious challenge: How would I handle my own inevitable mistakes? I spend a good part of the work chiding newspapers for not offering proper corrections, so I needed to walk the talk. I needed to invent a new way to identify and correct book errors.

The system I came up with relies on free online tools that can be used by any author. It also helped me connect with readers and even generated a little bit of publicity. I’d like to share this with your readers. Here’s what I did:

• Included a Statement of Accuracy at the beginning of the book. This brief section outlines the steps I took to fact-check the book. It also reveals the weaknesses of those steps and asks readers to help me discover factual errors. I informed readers that they could report errors using a form on the book’s website (book.regrettheerror.com) or by mailing in a printed form contained at the back of the book. Finally, I told them they could read all of the book’s corrections at my website.

• Created an Error Report form both online and in the back of the book. This form encourages readers to hold me accountable. To my knowledge, no book has ever included an error report form.

• Maintained an Online Corrections Page. The book’s website houses all of my corrections. This has been done before, most notably by Seth Mnookin. But I took it a step further: Readers could sign up to receive corrections either by RSS feed or by e-mail. That way, they could come to my site once and then automatically receive the latest corrections either in their RSS reader or in-box.

In the end, I published 12 corrections to the book, 11 of which were the result of reader submissions. All of the errors are corrected in the paperback, and my new introduction gives credit to some of my error-spotting readers, bless their hearts.

Now, after the release of the paperback, I can’t wait to see if readers will step up once again and help me correct more errors. I also hope this article will encourage other writers to embrace the concept of book corrections.

I believe this piece could work well in your front section, but I would also be eager to expand it into a larger essay that can provide more detail about The Joy of Error and Thrill of Correction. I can also produce sidebars that give step-by-step instructions for handling book corrections and preventing errors. (I realize you published a Tips piece about accuracy in the Feb. 2008 issue, but I have some useful advice that wasn’t covered in the piece.)

I’d be happy to send you a copy of my book, and you can read some of my clips at www.craigsilverman.ca. I also encourage you to take a look at a recent op-ed I wrote for the Toronto Star: www.thestar.com/comment/article/556662 and read my CJR columns: www.cjr.org/regret_the_error. They relate to this topic.

I’m very excited about the possibility of sharing my experience and expertise with your readers, and would love to be a part of your magazine.

Best regards

Craig

And finally, this query, from writer Kerrie Flanagan to Writer’s Digest, also resulted in a commission. This is one of those “who-the-hell-knew?” pitches, and she executes it perfectly. I had no idea Andrew McCarthy is now a travel writer, and so I was immediately intrigued—and knew our readers would be, too. Flanagan weaves in the great narrative of how McCarthy got into travel writing in the first place, makes the pitch, recaps her deep writing experience, and leaves it at that. I was reaching for the Writer’s Digest checkbook soon after.

Dear Zac,

… Andrew McCarthy, best known for his roles in 1980s classics like Pretty in Pink and Weekend at Bernie’s, is not one of those celebrities dabbling in writing; he is a writer who happens to be a celebrity. Since his first published article in National Geographic Traveler back in 2006 to the release of his best-selling memoir in 2012, McCarthy has and continues to show his talent as a writer.

He is an editor-at-large at National Geographic Traveler, and his dozens of articles have been published in publications like The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Travel + Leisure and National Geographic Adventure. The Society of American Travel Writers named him their 2010 “Travel Journalist of the Year,” and in 2011 he won their “Grand Award.”

Ten years prior to the publishing of his first article, he traveled the world and journaled about his experiences. He then began reading travel magazines and felt there was a lack of depth in many of the stories. He set up an appointment to meet with the editor of National Geographic Traveler and told him he wanted to write for the magazine. When the editor said, “You’re an actor,” McCarthy replied with, “Yes, but I know how to tell a story.” After a year of e-mails and badgering, the editor finally agreed and sent McCarthy on assignment to Ireland.

McCarthy says he has become successful as a travel writer for two reasons. “First, travel profoundly affected my life and is the undercurrent in everything I write. And secondly, I approach my writing from a story-first point of view.”

I am proposing an article profiling Andrew McCarthy. He is an incredible writer who doesn’t just tell readers about the places he is visiting; he takes them along with him using vivid descriptions, authentic dialogue, compelling storylines and a willingness to show his vulnerability. Through interviewing him, I will find out how he is able to achieve this depth in his writing, how he is able to find good stories, what his writing process is, other writers he admires, the challenges he faces with writing and how he is able to find continued success.

I am the director of Northern Colorado Writers and a freelance writer. Over the past decade I have published 130+ articles in national and regional publications and enjoyed two years as a contributing editor for Journey magazine. I have articles in the 2011 Guide to Literary Agents, as well as the 2012, 2013 and the upcoming 2014 Writer’s Market. I am a frequent contributor for WOW! Women on Writing, the author of the children’s book Cornelius Comma Saves the Day and five of my stories have been published in various Chicken Soup for the Soul books.

I look forward to talking with you more about this article,

Kerrie

--

Kerrie Flanagan

Director: Northern Colorado Writers

Freelance Writer

[address]

[phone]

www.KerrieFlanagan.com

Fact-Checking Checklist

Everyone hates fact-checking, but it’s a necessary evil. To help out WD’s associate editors, I created this brief checklist:

• Are all names, places, events, book titles, series titles, and all other proper nouns exactly correct and as they appear on a reputable source—e.g., the publication’s website, Amazon.com, the author’s website, and never Wikipedia? (Publishers Weekly, not Publisher’s Weekly; The Da Vinci Code, not The DaVinci Code; Frank McCarron, not Frank Mccarron; Stephen King, not Steven King.)
• Are all major claims and facts presented by the author of the piece sound? (“More than one hundred people have…”; “Best-selling author”; “winner of the TK prize.”)
• Is all quoted material (“As John Updike used to say…”) sound and properly attributed to the right speaker/author?
• Is all text excerpted from books exactly as it appears in the original work? (For many titles, you can verify with Google Books.)
• Is relevant pricing/location information correct wherever mentioned?
• If any information is unverifiable on the Web, has a reputable source (e.g., a conference organizer, an author) been contacted for verification?
• Do all links work?
• Do all numerical references add up, and are all statistics sound and properly sourced?

Querying Magazine Articles: A Checklist

Speaking of checklists, here’s another. Copy and print (or, heaven forbid, tear out) the following, gleaned from the “Pitch Perfect” query chapter, and tick everything off this list before you hit “Send.”

Before the Query

• Read two to three copies of the publication, and know it well. Make sure it’s the right market for your work and that you can envision your piece in it.
• Browse the publication’s online archives—and those of its main competitors—to ensure they haven’t recently covered the topic you’re proposing.
• Find and study the publication’s submission guidelines, and follow them to a T.

The Query Itself

Make sure it …

• is not exceedingly longer than a page.
• is written in AP Style (or the publication’s preferred style), in flawless, sparkling prose.
• has a short, punchy intro, like a logline.
• is to the point and focused like a laser on one idea.
• matches the general tone of the publication.
• explains, whether directly or indirectly, how the story will benefit readers.
• includes a few concrete examples.
• includes a proposed word count.
• explains why you’re the best person to write the piece (which could be any number of factors—an expertise, a connection, a fantastic and fresh angle, etc.).
• includes a short, relevant bio.
• includes links to clips (if you have them).
• has been edited, tightened, and polished until, frankly, you can’t stand the sight of the thing.

After the Query

• If you haven’t heard back, wait until the time frame stated in the submission guidelines has elapsed, and then send a quick, simple follow-up note.
• Regardless of whether you get accepted or rejected, be polite and thank the editor for her response. (After all, freelancing is all about building relationships and not burning bridges, even with curmudgeonly/surly editors.)
• Be sure to inquire about the publication’s editorial calendar.

Words of Wisdom

Here I give you Marc D. Allan’s “The Search for Universal Truth”—an article that manages, in a mere 800 words, to be one of the most wisdom-laden meditations I’ve read on the craft, and a favorite piece of mine.

The Search for Universal Truth

Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Gene Weingarten shares his thoughts on writing, reporting and how, exactly, to capture the meaning of life.

By Marc D. Allan. Originally published in Writer’s Digest, December 2011.

Gene Weingarten suggests that winning a Pulitzer Prize is “pure luck.”

“The Pulitzer is a crapshoot,” The Washington Post feature writer/humor columnist says. “Your piece has to hit a few people the right way at the right moment.”

Easy for Weingarten to be modest: He’s the only two-time winner of the Pulitzer for feature writing. In the first, 2008’s “The Fiddler in the Subway” (“Pearls Before Breakfast” when it first appeared in The Washington Post), Weingarten arranged for violin virtuoso Joshua Bell to play outside a D.C. Metro station during morning rush hour to see if anyone would notice. His 2010 winner, “Fatal Distraction,” recounts stories of parents who accidentally killed their children by forgetting them in cars.

Those stories and 18 others are collected in The Fiddler in the Subway, which includes an introduction that doubles as a superbly instructive primer on writing.

Here, the feature-writing guru offers the inside story on how he crafts his Pulitzer-grade prose.

What’s the one thing an aspiring writer must understand about writing?

I can tell you what it’s definitely not. It’s definitely not “I before e except after c,” because what about ‘either’”?

But seriously … is there one thing an aspiring writer must understand?

That it’s hard. If you think it’s not hard, you’re not doing it right.

One of the things I admire about your work is that you consistently prove that great writing begins with great reporting. Talk about the importance of reporting.

Well, let’s start with the maxim that the best writing is understated, meaning it’s not full of flourishes and semaphores and tap dancing and vocabulary dumps that get in the way of the story you are telling. Once you accept that, what are you left with? You are left with the story you are telling.

The story you are telling is only as good as the information in it: things you elicit, or things you observe, that make a narrative come alive; things that support your point not just through assertion, but through example; quotes that don’t just convey information, but also personality. That’s all reporting.

What distinguishes a well-told story from a poorly told one?

All of the above. Good reporting, though, requires a lot of thinking; I always counsel writers working on features to keep in mind that they are going to have to deliver a cin­ematic feel to their anecdotes. When you are interviewing someone, don’t just write down what he says. Ask yourself: Does this guy remind you of someone? What does the room feel like? Notice smells, voice inflection, neighborhoods you pass through. Be a cinematographer.

Do you have any particular writing rituals or techniques that would help other writers?

Until I got to the end of your sentence, I had an answer. Alas, I don’t think this would be helpful to many writers: After I report a story, I look at my notes carefully, then lock them away and don’t look at them again until I have a first draft. I find it liberating to write without being chained to your notes; it helps you craft an ideal story. Then I go back to the notes and realize what I wrote that I can’t really support, what quotes aren’t quite as good as I thought, etc. It can be hugely frustrating, but it also sometimes leads me to go back and improve reporting, to make the story as good as I thought it could be. Not sure this will be helpful to most people. It’s kind of insane.

You say all stories are ultimately about the meaning of life. How do you find that heart of the story?

By persuading yourself, going in to a story, that it must be about something larger than itself—some universal truth—and always searching for whatever that is. Sometimes, midway through, you realize it’s not what you thought, it’s something else. But, to quote Roseanne Rosannadanna, “… It’s always something.”

Let’s say you only get 20 minutes with your subject. How do you find the meaning of life in 20 minutes?

Nasty question. But you gotta be fair here: I never said all stories have to explain the meaning of life. All stories have to at least try to explain some small portion of the meaning of life. You can do that in 20 minutes, and 15 inches. I still remember a piece that the great Barry Bearak did in The Miami Herald some 30 years ago. It was a nothing story, really: Some high school kid was leading a campaign to ban books he found offensive from the school library. Bearak didn’t even have an interview with the kid, who was ducking him. The story was short, mostly about the issue.

But Bearak had a fact that he withheld until the kicker. The fact put the whole story, subtly, in complete perspective. The kicker noted the true, wonderful fact that the kid was not in school that day because “his ulcer was acting up.” Meaning of life, 15 inches.

Marc D. Allan is a freelance writer based in Indianapolis.

15 Things a Writer Should Never Do

And, finally, I'll leave you with the following. It was written in about twenty minutes, but has gone on to be my most popular piece for Writer's Digest (besting the ones that took weeks to write and left me in search of a toupee). I attach it here, and bid you well on your writing journey.

1. Don’t assume there is any single path or playbook writers need to follow. (Or, for that matter, a definitive superlative list of Dos and Don’ts …) Simply put: You have to do what works best for you. Listen to the voices in your head, and learn to train and trust them. More often than not, they’ll let you know if you’re on the right path. People often bemoan the surplus of contradictory advice in the writing world—but it’s there because there really is no yellow brick road, and a diversity of perspectives allows you to cherry-pick what uniquely suits you and your abilities.
2. Don’t try to write like your idols. Be yourself. Yeah, it sounds a bit cheesy, but it’s true: The one thing you’ve got that no one else has is your own voice, your own style, your own approach. Use it. (If you try to write like anyone else, your readers will know.) Perhaps author Allegra Goodman said it best: “Know your literary tradition, savor it, steal from it, but when you sit down to write, forget about worshiping greatness and fetishizing masterpieces.”
3. Don’t get too swept up in debates about outlining/not outlining, whether or not you should write what you know, whether or not you should edit as you go along or at the end. Again, just experiment and do what works best for you. The freedom that comes with embracing this approach is downright cathartic.
4. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket when it comes to pitching something—always be working on your next article or idea while you’re querying. Keeping your creative side in gear while focusing on the business of selling your work prevents bigger stalls in your writing life down the road.
5. Don’t be unnecessarily dishonest, rude, or hostile—people in the publishing industry talk, and word spreads about who’s great to work with and who’s not. As I said earlier in the book, publishing is a big business, but it’s a pretty incestuous business. Keep those family reunions gossip-free.
6. Don’t ever hate someone for the feedback they give you. No piece of writing is universally beloved. Nearly every beta reader, editor, or agent will have a different opinion of your work, and there’s value in that. Accept what nuggets you believe are valid, recognize the recurring issues you might want or need to address, and toss the edits your gut tells you to toss. (If the changes are mandatory for a deal, however, you’ll need to do some deeper soul-searching.) Be open to criticism—it will make you a better writer.
7. … But, don’t be susceptible to the barbs of online trolls—you know, those people who post sociopathic comments for the sake of posting sociopathic comments.
8. Don’t ever lower you guard when it comes to the basics:1Yes, the missing r was intentional. Though I still got trolled for it when this piece was originally published online, of course. Good spelling, healthy mechanics, sound grammar. They are the foundations that keep our writing houses from imploding … and our queries from hitting the recycling bin before our stories can speak for themselves.
9. Don’t ever write something in an attempt to satisfy a market trend and make a quick buck. By the time such a book is ready to go, the trend will likely have passed. The astronomical amount of romantic teenage vampire novels in desk drawers is more than a nuisance—it’s a wildfire hazard. Write the story that gives you insomnia.
10. Don’t be spiteful about another writer’s success. Celebrate it. As author Amy Sue Nathan recalled when detailing her path to publication in the July/August 2013 issue of WD: “Writers I knew were landing book deals and experiencing other things I was working toward, so I made a decision to learn from them instead of begrudging them. I learned that another author’s success doesn’t infringe on mine.”
11. Don’t ever assume it’s easy. Writers with one book on shelves or one story in print often had to keep stacking up unpublished manuscripts until they could reach the publisher’s doorbell. (The exception being those lucky nineteen-year-old savants you sometimes hear about, or, say, Snooki. But, hey, success still isn’t guaranteed—after all, Snooki’s Gorilla Beach: A Novel has only sold 3,445 copies.) Success is one of those things that’s often damn near impossible to accurately predict unless you already have it in spades.
12. Don’t forget to get out once in a while. Writing is a reflection of real life. It’s all too easy to sit too long at that desk and forget to live.
13. Don’t ever discount the sheer teaching power (and therapeutic goodness) of a great read. The makeshift MFA program of countless writers has been a well-stocked bookshelf.
14. Don’t be afraid to give up … on a particular piece. Sometimes a story just doesn’t work, and you shouldn’t spend years languishing on something you just can’t fix. (After all, you can always come back to it later, right?)
15. But, don’t ever really give up. Writers write. It’s what we do. It’s what we have to do. Sure, we can all say over a half-empty bottle of wine that we’re going to throw the towel in this time, but let’s be honest: Very few of us ever do. And none of us are ever really all that surprised when we find ourselves back at our computers, tapping away, and waiting for that electric, amazing moment when the pebble of a story shakes loose and begins to skitter down that great hill. …

 

1Yes, the missing r was intentional. Though I still got trolled for it when this piece was originally published online, of course.