Twenty query letters and no responses. Even my SASEs weren't returned.

I bought a great book called How to Write Attention Getting Query and Cover Letters by John Wood. Merging its advice with my style, I sent off queries that editors responded to.

Let me tell you what I do. If you follow these guidelines, I'm willing to be that you'll increase your response rate too.

The basics of good letter writing are essential. Get editor's name correct, use good grammar, and double-check your spelling. Editors WILL throw out good ideas if writer's work is amateurish.

The first paragraph of my query is always a catchy paragraph similar to what I'd use as opening for an article. It usually contains a quote or an anecdote, idea of article, and a lead that makes reader want more. A paragraph written in a style similar to that in magazine I submit to always receives good responses.

Here's an example:

"The thrill of victory, agony of defeat," says a popoular television sports announcement about excitement of watching athletic events. That's how we tend to see loss. Loss is defeat, failure, and death. When I graduated with a physician assistant license, I experienced both of those things - thrill of graduation and agony of not getting a job. I was pregnant and considered unemployable. Like small child in my womb who underwent apoptosis to change a paddle into a hand, I went through a painful spiritual apoptosis that made me more useful to God.

The second paragraph of my query tells editor what I'll do for him. It gives length of article (which always matches magazine's preferred length for similar articles), title, what article will do for reader, and experts I plan to interview. The benefits of article for reader are most important thing discussed here. Editors need articles that give readers something they want.

Word Count: 679

Cooking With Annie Dote by Barbara Carr Phillips

The submission deadline to an anthology is looming and I want to write an essay for it. I take a seat at my kitchen table, and begin flipping through my journals for inspiration. "What are you looking for," my husband asks. An innocent enough question. "An anecdote," I reply. "An Annie who?" he says, raising his eyebrows and casting a sideways glance at our teenage son. Our son grins and chuckles softly, knowing his dad likes to tease me about writers and their mysterious words and ways. I should have known. "Not Annie, anec, an-ec-dote," I repeat. "Something I can build on to make a story." "Uh-huh," he replies, "like a prescription or something?" "No, not like a prescription. Well . . . kind of like a prescription, insofar as it relieves dreaded symptoms resulting from staring at a blank page." He and my son sigh in unison and grab a soda from fridge. Thankfully, I'm saved-by-the-whistle. They disappear into living room to watch game, where they will discuss words and ways they can relate to, like "rebound" and "three second rule," (or is it five seconds? I don't know.) What is an anecdote? An anecdote is a short, entertaining account of an incident. Metaphorically speaking: an anecdote is life. Life that contains laughter and tears, and most importantly, an anecdote is a moment in life worth remembering.