You ask, we answer: LOI or query letter?
Susan asks, “When should you send a query letter and when should you use a letter of introduction?”
Susan, here are the guidelines I use. I send letters of introduction (or LOIs) to:
- Trade magazines
- Custom publications
- Editors at magazines and newspapers with whom I have some connection. For example, if an editor I wrote for at one magazine moved to another, I might send them a note to say hi and remind them of who I am. Or if one of my editors recommended me to a friend … that sort of thing.
- Commercial clients (I no longer do any business writing, though)
Whenever I send out an LOI, however, I always mention that I have a few story ideas in mind — it’s never a hi-here-I-am-type letter, which doesn’t work well for me. They’ll either call with an assignment, or they’ll ask me for those ideas.
Everyone else gets query letters. I write mostly for publications that have an unquenchable thirst for story ideas, so that’s probably why I write so few LOIs. Plus, I actually enjoy pitching my own ideas. However, many writer friends of mine get most of their work from sending LOIs, perhaps because they have specialized skills (they’re former stockbrokers or CPAs, for example) or they do more commercial work.
Anyone else have different guidelines? Let us know in the comments section. And if you have a writing question for us, send it to questions [at] therenegadewriter [dot] com . [db]
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Have you written anything specifically about LOIs? Blog post, article, etc.?
Try the book, Alicia!
Which book? Query Letters That Rock? I just finished The Renegade Writer and it was AWESOME, now I’ve gotta check out that Query Letter book.
I agree that you have to have a specific offer (ie, I’d love to send some ideas your way) in the LOI to get results. When I’ve included a statement like that in my letter, it has been much more effective than simply introducing myself. In fact, I landed one of my biggest writing clients right now thanks to an LOI with an offer to send story ideas. So it really does work!