This article is reprinted with permission from Marcia Layton Turner’s fab newsletter Become a Six-Figure Writer.

The road to writing wealth begins with catching a potential client’s attention. This is true whether your goal is to break into book publishing, magazine article writing, web copywriting, corporate writing, or some other writing niche. But getting your email messages open is perhaps most challenging among magazine editors, who are deluged with queries on a daily basis.

Of course, unless they take the 30 seconds to open your email and read your article idea, you’ll never break in. You need them to at least hear you out. That requires reading your subject line, which needs to be enticing.

Some of the best strategies for crafting an intriguing subject line include:

* Identifying yourself as a writer, not a PR rep. Since you’re competing with publicists for an editor’s attention, be sure they know you’re not trying to promote a client’s product. Instead, start your subject line with “QUERY” or “WRITER QUERY.”

* The most important piece of information in the subject line, however, is the topic. Your challenge is to describe your article idea in as few words as possible while still sounding fresh. Make sure you’re summarizing your punchline. “QUERY: How to help pets adjust to new furry siblings.”

* Some writers zero in on any controversy or counterintuitive aspects of their topic in the subject line, such as “QUERY: Well-to-do among the most avid coupon clippers” or “QUERY: Why children of divorce are often happier,” both of which I totally made up.

* Another smart idea is to study the coverlines of the magazine you are pitching – that is, the headlines featured on the publication’s cover. What is their preferred preference for titles? Use that approach in your subject line. For instance, if you see the magazine loves numbers in its stories, your query might look like this: “QUERY: 9 Ways to Make $1,000,000 in 6 Months.”

* Don’t try and be cute, however. Cute rarely comes across as you mean it electronically and unless you know the editor well, may brand you as slightly unprofessional. Not a good start to a working relationship.

* Try and incorporate as many of the five W’s and one H as you can, in ten words or less, to be most effective. This is typically easiest when you’re proposing a profile, as in “QUERY: Astronaut heads underwater to prep for future mission to Mars” (another fictional story). Here I managed to at least get the who, where, what, and why into the equation.

Be succinct yet highlight the out-of-the-ordinary aspects of your idea in your subject line and your odds of piquing an editor’s interest rise exponentially. Make sure the topic is appropriate for that particular publication, of course. If it is, you’ve got a serious shot at catching an editor’s attention. Ultimately, that should be your goal anyway because if an editor likes your writing style, whatever your initial article idea, he or she may assign you a story they’ve already decided to do. And then you’re in! —Marcia Layton Turner

Readers, what are your secrets for writing email subject lines that get read? Please post your ideas in the Comments! [lf]

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