92 Journal of Scholarly Publishing

Writing Successful Covering Letters for Unsolicited Submissions to Academic Journals

STEVEN E. GUMP

Writing a covering letter is a necessary step before submitting an unsolicited manuscript to an academic journal. In cases where the author has not queried the editor of the target journal prior to submission, the covering letter can and should be drafted to serve three functions. This article demonstrates how a covering letter can (1) establish the authors credibility, (2) help ensure that the manuscript is seriously considered for publication, and (3) initiate a positive rapport with the editor and editorial staff of the journal. In addition, this article includes sample texts from successful covering letters: covering letters that, ultimately, result in having the accompanying manuscript accepted for publication.

Regardless of whether an author submits an unsolicited manuscript in hard copy by post or electronically as an attachment, the covering letter accompanying a submission to any academic journal has two obvious purposes: to identify the author (or authors) and to request that the enclosed or attached manuscript be considered for publication. Such letters, however, can do more: They provide the manuscript submitter with some vital one-time opportunities and thus should not be taken for granted. Unfortunately, how-to guides on publishing in journals often fail to emphasize anything beyond the surface uses for covering letters.1 While a well-crafted covering letter can by no means guarantee that an unsolicited manuscript will be accepted for publication in an academic journal, a successful letter can, at the very least, (1) establish the authors credibility especially important if he or she is a junior academic or fledgling writer, (2) help ensure that the manuscript is,
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Successful Covering Letters for Journal Submissions 93 indeed, seriously considered for publication, and (3) initiate a positive rapport with the editor and/or editorial staff. A covering letter must be included, so why not take advantage of these opportunities? This article explains why and how to craft a covering letter that accomplishes these three goals. Preliminaries The decision to accept, reject, or reconsider a manuscript (after revision) is, of course, almost entirely dependent on the needs of the journal and the content and presentation of the manuscript itself; but the covering letter should also reflect the care and attention to detail that characterize the document it accompanies. The covering letter should be concise, neat, and free of errors. Pay as much attention to the covering letter for a manuscript as you would to a covering letter for your rsum or curriculum vitae in a job application: Remember the value of a first impression. Such an impression is especially important with a submission to an editor-only reviewed journal, where the editor who receives a manuscript is the one who decides whether to accept it. (Even with a peer-reviewed journal, however, the ultimate decision rests with the editor and/or the editorial board, not with the outside reviewers.) Indeed, while the editorial method at the target journal may affect the usefulness of the covering letter beyond the practicalities, creating a good initial impression is still a wise move. Before submitting a manuscript to any journal, though, you must ensure that you have targeted an appropriate venue for your work and have abided by the submission guidelines for that particular journal. No matter how ideal a covering letter you write, if the accompanying manuscript is not appropriate, for any reason, it cannot be considered publishable, as is, by that journal. Even if a manuscript falls within the guidelines for length, consistently handles references correctly, and is otherwise properly formatted, for example, an inappropriate writing style one that is inconsistent with that of material previously published in that journal will make its chances for acceptance slim. The best advice, offered repeatedly in the literature,2 is to become familiar with any journal to which you plan to submit a manuscript: Understand its intended focus, its intended audience, and its intended mission.3 After you have written a piece that you (and, ideally, at least one or

94 Journal of Scholarly Publishing more objective colleagues) believe to be worthy of publication in a journal with which you are familiar, you are ready to submit. Both Kenneth Henson and William Van Til, for example, suggest preceding the submission of any unsolicited manuscript by a letter of inquiry;4 but I agree with Abby Day and Hyman Rodman, both of whom generally see such letters as an unnecessary and, for some editors at least, an annoying step.5 Unless journal editors specifically state that they welcome inquiries, most would rather work with appropriate manuscripts, not with ancillary reading and correspondence.6 In covering letters, conciseness is crucial. A covering letter for a journal manuscript should fit nicely on a single page. (If you submit a manuscript electronically, the covering message, if printed out, should also fit entirely on one sheet of paper.) The more white space, the better, for the manuscript should be able to speak for itself. Yet a successful covering letter nonetheless includes certain essentials for accomplishing the three goals listed above: establishing your credibility, increasing the manuscripts chances for consideration, and initiating a positive rapport with the editor and/or the editorial staff. Goal 1: Establishing Credibility The covering letter is a key vehicle for establishing credibility, a conceptual commodity that is especially important if you are a junior scholar or a not-yet-published writer. In a covering letter, you may present your affiliation and educational qualifications without pretension. The extrinsic merits of education and affiliation should not but may prejudice an otherwise objective reading of the manuscript:7 a good thing, perhaps, when they work to an authors advantage. If writing from within academe, (1) use institutional letterhead; (2) suffix your name, on the signature line, with your post-graduate degrees; and (3) include your title or appointment (e.g., Graduate Research Assistant or Associate Professor of History) on the following line. If you are not writing from within academe, use the letterhead of your company, institution, or organization; suffix your name with any post-graduate degrees; and include your title. The most awkward situation arises if you have no association on which to rely and, thus, no institutional letterhead: In such a situation, you must establish credibility in a different way, perhaps by stating briefly, in the body of the letter, why you are qualified to present the material you do in the

Successful Covering Letters for Journal Submissions 95 enclosed manuscript. Mention, for example, the number of years of experience you have in your field, or simply point out a previous affiliation. If you submit a manuscript electronically and are thus deprived of the opportunity to use credibility-establishing letterhead, use, if at all possible, an email account affiliated with your place of employment. Also include your degree qualifications and title after your name. Goal 2: Increasing Chances for Consideration While authors who have followed the advice of Henson and Van Til, for example, and have queried and received some encouragement to submit their manuscripts have a right to fair consideration,8 Richard De George and Fred Woodward also argue that authors who submit manuscripts over the transom (that is, without prior contact with an editor) also deserve fair consideration.9 Such consideration, however, is not implicit, since simple submission of a manuscript carries with it no automatic right to review.10 Thus a main objective of the covering letter is to persuade its reader to consider, seriously, the accompanying manuscript for review. The person who first receives a manuscript and covering letter may, in fact, make the ultimate decision as to whether to accept that manuscript for publication; thus the impression made with the covering letter can be of great importance. But outside readers and reviewers, if used, will not see the covering letter. In such cases, only the person (or people) involved with recording receipt and perhaps with carrying out the preliminary screening will see the letter, so the letter can be thought of as a tool that, if properly used, can help ensure that the accompanying manuscript moves beyond the introductory stages and enters the review stream. Six elements are key. Keeping these elements in mind will result in a covering letter that is personalized for each manuscript and each particular target journal. Form letters, Gary Olson warns, will not be received well.11 First, address the covering letter to the correct (current) editor. Do not misspell her name, and do not use an incorrect title. If you do not know the editors title, Editor can be used (as in, Dear Editor Jones); you do not wish to insult an editor by not realizing, for example, that he or she has a doctorate. If a target journal does not identify its editors by name, I recommend avoiding an impersonal Dear Editor:

96 Journal of Scholarly Publishing salutation. Instead, use the simplified business letter format that omits both the salutation and the complimentary close, replacing the first with a Subject line (for example, Subject: Submission to the Journal of Scholarly Publishing). Submitting manuscripts electronically as attachments makes omitting a personalized salutation easier: Simply begin the body of the message with what would be the beginning of the body of the covering letter. Second, include the manuscripts title and the number of words in the first sentence of the covering letter. And instead of making yourself the subject of the opening sentence (as in, I have enclosed three copies of ), place the focus on the editor, the journal, or the manuscript itself.12 In the preferable opening, Please consider the enclosed manuscript , for example, the subject is the assumed you of the editor; the object is the manuscript. Including the number of words lets the editor know at a glance whether the manuscript is of an acceptable length though excessive references, notes, figures, or tables may complicate the conversion from word length to number of finished journal pages, once prepared for printing. (Manuscript submission guidelines often suggest page ranges for acceptable submissions; the editor can easily flip through a manuscript to gather this information. Especially if you use a typeface other than Times Roman or Courier, however, visually approximating the number of words is much less straightforward unless you have sent the manuscript electronically or have included the file on an accompanying floppy diskette. Regardless, save the editor a step by stating the number of words in the covering letter.) Third, remind the editor that you are familiar with the journal. You may, for example, refer to an article that is relevant to what you have written (perhaps the article that provided inspiration for the current submission) or make a general statement that demonstrates how the topic of the manuscript should be of interest to readers of the journal. If you would prefer not to use such an obvious tactic, a brilliant way to inform the editor and/or reviewers of your familiarity with the journal is to use articles previously published in that journal as references.13 The added benefit of this approach, of course, is that the covering letter (and your identity) can be removed from the submission (as with blind readings), while the references and, thus, evidence of your awareness of related literature previously published by the journal remain.

Successful Covering Letters for Journal Submissions 97 Fourth, include a confirmation that the manuscript is original, has not been previously published, and has not been submitted to any other journal for consideration. (Professional ethics call for abiding by these conditions especially if stated in the covering letter.14) If true, you may also state that the manuscript was specifically written for the journal to which you are submitting it. Such a statement reassures editors that the manuscript will probably not need to be rejected because of unawareness of the intended audience or house style (formatting preferences) of the journal and, thus, that reviewing it will not be a waste of their time. Fifth, incorporate your contact information (mailing address, phone number, fax number, and email address) if it does not appear on the letterhead or in your email signature. Sixth, include an itemized list of enclosures. This list should show the editor, at a glance, that you have met the requirements for how many manuscript copies to enclose and that you have included envelopes, return postage, a floppy disk with your manuscript saved in an appropriate document format, and/or any other required supporting documentation. Finally, note that some journals may have special requirements that you should specifically mention in the covering letter (which the journal may call something else, such as a letter of transmittal). Read the calls for submissions and notes to authors carefully and completely, and make sure the covering letters reflect an accurate understanding of the specific requirements for manuscript submission to each journal. Goal 3: Initiating a Positive Rapport You can best initiate a positive rapport with the editor and/or the editorial staff by (1) keeping the covering letter short and to the point, (2) being kind yet authoritative in your wording, (3) offering to consider any revisions the editor may deem necessary prior to acceptance or publication,15 and (4) concluding with an expression of goodwill. If the covering letter is succinct, the editor will know that you value his time. Kind wording, for example, emphasizes the release of the manuscript from your hands to those of the editor. Offering to consider the editors suggestions demonstrates that you value her editorial opinions (and/or those of the outside readers), though such a statement is

98 Journal of Scholarly Publishing optional, as most editors expect a willingness to make changes. And a goodwill closing (e.g., I am looking forward to your response.) places trust in the editor yet reminds him that you are eagerly awaiting his decision. Bodies of Sample Covering Letters While all the considerations mentioned above may seem as if they would result in a covering letter that exceeds the one-page limit, the body of a successful letter, if printed on letterhead that provides your contact information, need only include three sentences. For example:
Please consider the enclosed manuscript, Writing Successful Covering Letters for Unsolicited Submissions to Academic Journals (2,867 words, plus notes of 672 words), for an upcoming issue of the Journal of Scholarly Publishing. This original piece has neither been previously published nor submitted for consideration to any other journal. I look forward to your decision.

But you may find the above letter a bit too terse, or a bit too much like a form letter into which you have merely inserted the details of a manuscript in the opening sentence. Here is a more personalized covering letter that incorporates the above elements (and more):
Please consider the enclosed manuscript, Writing Successful Covering Letters for Unsolicited Submissions to Academic Journals (2,867 words, plus notes of 672 words), for an upcoming issue of the Journal of Scholarly Publishing. The JSP seems an ideal forum for a manuscript addressing, in a how-to format, strategies for writing effective covering letters. Indeed, this topic is not limited to any specific discipline but is relevant to all who submit manuscripts to scholarly journals. While I have used the second-person point of view in the manuscript, the resulting text seems to complement the relaxed and conversational tone of the many highly readable articles that have recently been published in the JSP. I trust, therefore, that you will consider my manuscript to be appropriate for your readership. Following your submission guidelines, I have enclosed one paper copy of the manuscript as well as an electronic copy on a 3.5" disk. Endnotes are in

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humanities style, and my contact information and biographical note appear on a separate page. Since this original piece was written specifically for the JSP, it has neither been previously published nor submitted for consideration to any other journal. I look forward to receiving your decision.

The above letter reassures the editor that the author is familiar with the journal and has followed the appropriate style and submission guidelines. Thus, the author is able to write with conviction that he believes, at least, his manuscript is appropriate for publication. Ideally, the editor will agree. Conclusion: A Persuasive Marketing Approach Writing with conviction, of course, should not be restricted to covering letters; such writing should also be apparent in the accompanying manuscript. Sheridan Baker reminds us of a key goal of both our manuscripts and covering letters and virtually everything else we write: You must write to persuade people of your worth and of the worth of your ideas. All communication is largely persuasion.16 Such an approach may be termed a marketing approach by John Munschauer, among others;17 but the covering letter is, indeed, a powerful tool for advancing any manuscript through the process of consideration for publication. Before you sit down to write your next covering letter, think of a possible worst case scenario: If you were the editor of an editor-only reviewed journal, how would you react to a covering letter that is wordy and disorganized, is poorly formatted, is addressed to someone else (the previous editor, perhaps), and contains typographical or other technical errors? You would probably assume that the author who wrote the enclosed manuscript is long-winded, disorganized, not aware of your journals house style, not interested in keeping up to date with the editorial situation of your journal, and otherwise lazy, inattentive to detail, and just a poor writer. What would be on your mind as you subsequently flip through the enclosed manuscript? Would you not want to find major problems with the document as if to prove your intuition, even if you know you are obligated to be as objective as possible18 in the review? On the other hand, think of how you would react to a concise, neat,

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polite, error-free, and correctly addressed covering letter that projects professionalism and attention to detail. Such are the successful covering letters described in this article: covering letters that assist in establishing your credibility, increasing your chances for fair consideration, and initiating a positive rapport with the editor and her staff. While they cannot atone for a poor or unsuitable manuscript, successful covering letters can, indeed, help ensure success in your attempts at getting suitable, well-written manuscripts published in academic journals.

STEVEN E. GUMP, most recently a graduate teaching assistant in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, has previously written successful covering letters to such journals as International Education, The Journal of Language for International Business, and Phi Delta Kappan.

1 For example, Abby Day presents the covering letter as a mere formality: Always enclose a covering letter stating your name, the title of the paper, brief paragraph describing the contents and referring, if possible, to why you chose the specific journal. If there has been previous correspondence relating to a synopsis or a telephone call, refer to it and to any further guidance from the editor which was given at that time. How to Get Research Published in Journals (Brookfield, VT: Gower 1996): 117. Nothing more is said on the issue. 2 Hyman Rodman, Some Practical Advice for Journal Contributors, Scholarly Publishing 9 (1978): 23541; W. John Harker, Publishing in Canada, in Stephen N. Judy, ed., Publishing in English Education (Montclair, NJ: Boynton/Cook 1982): 11286; William Van Til, Writing for Professional Publication, 2nd ed. (Boston: Allyn and Bacon 1986); Day, How to Get Research Published in Journals; Gary A. Olson, Publishing Scholarship in Humanistic Disciplines: Joining the Conversation, in Joseph M. Moxley and Todd Taylor, eds., Writing and Publishing for Academic Authors, 2nd ed. (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield 1997): 5169; Kenneth T. Henson, Writing for Professional Publication: Keys to Academic and Business Success (Boston: Allyn and Bacon 1999) 3 Harold S. Wechsler recommends also learning the lore of a journal by reading, for example, the editors comments in a recent issue and asking

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5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

13

14

15

16

17

colleagues about the journal at a meeting of a scholarly association. Publishing a Journal Article, Thought & Action 6, 2 (1990): 526, 14 Henson, Writing for Professional Publication, 10711; Van Til, Writing for Professional Publication, 19. According to Olson, query letters help entice the editor into paying close attention to your article. Publishing Scholarship in Humanistic Disciplines, 58 Day, How to Get Research Published in Journals, 83, 93; Rodman, Some Practical Advice for Journal Contributors, 23739 Wechsler, Publishing a Journal Article, 11 Richard T. De George and Fred Woodward, Ethics and Manuscript Reviewing, Journal of Scholarly Publishing 25 (1994): 13345, 137 Ibid., 134 Ibid., 14344 Ibid., 134 Olson, Publishing Scholarship in Humanistic Disciplines, 64 All nine (lengthy) sample query letters given by Van Til (Writing for Professional Publication, 2534) begin with personal pronouns that emphasize the author or authors. Why not emphasize the editor, journal, or manuscript instead? Day recommends referring to articles published in the same journal when appropriate; yet she later warns of sycophantic behaviour, especially with respect to exaggerated references to works by the editor in a journal submission. How to Get Research Published in Journals, 62, 81 See, for example, De George and Woodward, Ethics and Manuscript Reviewing; Estelle Irizarry, Redundant and Incremental Publication, Journal of Scholarly Publishing 25 (1994): 21220. For example, the second paragraph of the covering letter reprinted by Robert C. Maddox reads as follows: Naturally, I will be most willing to make any changes in the manuscript which you think desirable. Likewise, I have no objection to your making any editorial improvements that you deem necessary. We Still Have Quite a Backlog of Articles , Scholarly Publishing 6 (1975): 12735, 128 Sheridan W. Baker, The Practical Stylist, 6th ed. (New York: Harper & Row 1985), 2. Donald W. Fiske agrees that a goal in preparing a manuscript for submission is persuasion that the paper should be accepted for publication. Planning and Revising Research Reports, in Joseph M. Moxley and Todd Taylor, eds., Writing and Publishing for Academic Authors, 2nd ed. (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield 1997): 7182, 72 John L. Munschauer, Jobs for English Majors and Other Smart People

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(Princeton, NJ: Petersons Guides 1981): 72. See also Henson, who writes that the purpose of a covering letter is to sell a manuscript to the editors (Writing for Professional Publication, 112), and Day, who refers to the editors, reviewers, and readers of journals as customers (How to Get Research Published in Journals, 48). 18 De George and Woodward, Ethics and Manuscript Reviewing, 139