Consider being the proud editor of a polished publication and having two hundred queries to peruse. Of the two hundred, the crème de la crème will compete -- not the writers whose 1 or 2 grammatical errors rear their ugly heads post-"send" button. You are in the business of writing perfection, so act the part!
Understand Query Letters are Everything
Poewar will take you to an excellent query letter example, complete with format description. The owner of Creative Solutions (an author promotion service) sent it to me as her gospel guide. Please note, however, the example's snail mail addresses are less necessary as most editors allow for email queries these days.
Reselling the Query
Reselling writing means more money. It also means you can take the accompanying query letter, make minor changes to it and rework it to fit many editors' needs.
Query Manipulation
For instance, you might stress the poetic elements when submitting an article query about a poetry-laden memoir IF submitting to a poetry-oriented publication. When submitting the same piece to a female-hyped publication, you might instead mention the author's career path as a female writer. Editors can then see how the essay belongs within their pages. You can, in fact, sell most of your works this way, bringing in more contacts and pay! The idea is to resubmit to multiple, non-competing markets using short teasers for queries (1-page tops). The results are more editorial / writing contacts and a wider audience.
Ideas
Can you come up with ideas for any of your pieces? You might be inspired by a personal memoir that hints at a course. You might then approach an online school's reps such as Suite University with your idea. You could then follow your course with an e-book based on the course's teachings.
Never Published? No Problem!
Even a wonderful piece that has never been published has superb potential: let's say you wrote a heated journal entry in response to a major world event. Use the piece to come up with a new article or story that you can resubmit to an appropriate market or publish as a new column, newsletter, e-book, etc.
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