You ask, we answer: Committing to a quote
Jennifer writes: “I’ve learned that good queries typically include quotes, stats, anecdotes, etc. and I understand the reasoning behind this. My question is… if I were to include these in my queries am I then committed to including these exact quotes, stats, etc. in the actual body of the article? I can think of a few instances where I’d include a statistic in my query to demonstrate the timeliness of the topic, but then write the article in a different format where using the statistic may not make much sense. I’m guessing this is okay, but since I’m new I wanted to make sure that editors don’t expect this exact information to be included in the article.”
I often include information in the query that doesn’t end up appearing in the article. The reason is simple: Once I get the assignment stats, I find that the info or structure the editor wants differs from what I included in the query. For example, I may have started out with a stat, but the editor wants me to dig up an anecdote for the lede instead. Also, word count sometimes prohibits me from including everything that was in the query: If the editor wants that anecdote, there may not be room for the stat at all. So I’d say not to worry if some information disappears between query and finished article.
Got a question for the Renegades? Send it to questions [at] therenegadewriter [dot] com. [lf]
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Nov 13, 2006 Advice, Query letters, Writer Q&A, Writing, You Ask, We Answer
