The Golden Pencil: The Freelance Writer’s Resource

This Week’s Question About Freelance Writing

by Anne Wayman on July 28th, 2005

Question: I know that generally when you have an idea for an article, you first submit a query letter to the editor. My question for you is this. What if you have already written the article? Should I still submit a query highlighting the major details along with the research and information I already have or should I go ahead and submit the entire article? I would appreciate any advice you could give me on this matter. Tina

Answer:Hi Tina, you’re talking about making an over the transom submission. It’s a perfectly acceptable way to submit an article and even has some advantages. The editor can make a decision based on the actual article rather than on a query, which is a promise. It particularly makes sense to submit the complete article when you have few credits.
The only disadvantage is that you shouldn’t… read the rest of the answer to this writing question

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