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queries query letters writers on call writing a query
The simple query letter is the real basis for any freelance writing career. If you can write a winning query, your career will flourish.
If you can’t write a winning query…well, you won’t get the chance to work with a variety of publishers and editors. You won’t get to make a living from your writing. You won’t get to see your name in print.
If you need help with your queries on a regular basis, then Writers on Call is for you.
During the entire month of April we’ll be focusing on writing winning queries. You’ll get the chance to submit a query every week for review, then we’ll talk about your query Thursday night during our Writers on Call weekly teleclass.
In addition, you’ll learn tips and tricks for writing winning queries during each of these 55-minute group coaching sessions.
If your queries aren’t landing you the writing assignments you want, then join Writers on Call today and find out WHY your queries haven’t been working. Then learn what you need to do to change them so they DO land you the paid writing assignments that you want.
Join Writers on Call here.
If you’re the owner of a small business and have limited resources, use the power of numbers to obtain more customers or clients. Create an informal co-op. 
If you’re having trouble focusing on your freelance writing career, or you just don’t know where to start, subscribe to Writers on Call, weekly teleclasses for freelance writers.
Just let me know your toughest problem in creating the freelance writing career of your dreams.
Christian Parenting Today is targeted to Christian parents of children under 15. “I get way too many pieces on what parents are doing wrong,” says Editor Carla Barnhill. “Articles for Christian Parenting Today need to be encouraging practical, and authoritative. I look for articles that clearly fit our editorial grid. We have a very tight focus and I can tell in an instant whether someone has read the magazine and looked at our guidelines.”
Vegetarian Baby & Child is a black-and-white magazine that provides easy-to-understand information for vegetarian and vegan families with children of all ages, from newborns to teens. Editor Melanie Wilson regularly receives submissions that are not quite right for the magazine. “Writers often submit articles dealing only with adult vegetarian nutrition issues. This is a parenting publication. We also receive lots of alternative health articles, which we generally do not publish unless they are specifically tied to vegetarianism.”
Dovetail is a journal written by and for Jewish/Christian families, and has no denominational affiliation or agenda. Editor Mary Rosenbaum offers some tips for writers: “Articles may reflect any of a variety of approaches and strategies (e.g., conversion of one partner or maintaining both religions), but should not have a proselytizing or negative tone. Personal experiences are welcome, as are articles based on research.”
Parenting with Spirit, a quarterly designed “to assist parents in finding inner (spiritual) guidance,” has both an online and a printed version. Editor Judith Costello says, “We can’t pay a lot, but our publication is growing through exposure on Amazon.com and other marketing efforts. We encourage writers to come and grow with us!”
Parentinghumor.com, a nonpaying market, is an online publication for parents and child-care workers that features humorous articles and cartoons on parenting, family issues, and marriage. In lieu of payment, this publication offers an author’s biography and a link to the author’s website, making it an excellent way for beginning freelancers to gain clips and exposure for their work.
Guidelines for Daughters are available online. If you have published work about parenting teenage girls, or if you have a special expertise in this area, you might want to send a query about the story you’d like to write to Daughters, a newsletter written to provide parents of girls with information, guidance, and the support they need to raise strong, self-confident young women. This newsletter is published six times annually, and has a national readership. Daughters buys all rights to the stories it purchases, with payment made on publication. “Be sure to read several issues of the newsletter before you query, so you’ll know what kinds of stories we use,” cautions Editor Lynette Lamb.
Back in the days of Wally and the Beav, parents like Ward and June Cleaver didn’t have many magazines to turn to when they had a question about child care.
Working for these special markets requires a unique focus, which means wriers must learn to target materials more carefully if they are to sell to these publications. “You wouldn’t send the same article to Christian parenting magazines as you would to alternative families parenting magazines,” says writer Lisa Harkrader, “so writing for these publications helps you learn to target submissions of all kinds.”
Generally, I think people can achieve whatever they want to do as long as they: 
This picture reminds me of the trouble many of my coaching clients have. They want to stay focused on developing their freelance writing careers, but they don’t know how to do it. 
Many of the freelance writers I coach don’t have a website or blog when I first start coaching them. They figure that until they have at least one book published, there’s no real need to have a website or a blog.
Editors today expect any serious writer to have some sort of “online presence.” And, there’s no easier way to create that online presence than with a blog.
