What Should a Short Story Cover Letter Say?
Quick answer: What should a short story cover letter say? Title, word count, a two-line bio and thanks, in under 100 words. What to include, what to cut, and a template.
A short story cover letter should say almost nothing: the story's title and word count, a sentence noting it is a simultaneous submission if it is, a two-line biographical note listing your strongest prior credits or stating plainly that you are new, and thanks for the editors' time. Under 100 words, addressed to the editors by name where the masthead makes that easy. No synopsis, no themes explained, no self-review. The letter's job is to be professionally invisible so the story speaks first.
Writers agonise over cover letters in inverse proportion to their importance: slush readers consistently report skimming them or reading them after the story, if at all. But a bad letter can hurt, since arrogance, desperation and ignored guidelines all leak through, so the craft is writing one that cannot.
The Anatomy, Line by Line
Line one names the transaction: the story's title, its word count, and the fact that you are submitting it for consideration. If the magazine allows simultaneous submissions and yours is one, say so here in half a sentence. Line two, optionally, is the personal touch done right: one specific, true sentence about the magazine, such as a recent story you admired, only if it is honest and you can name the piece.
Then the bio, in third person or first, two lines: prior publications if you have them, chosen for relevance and strength rather than completeness; a prize or shortlist if you have one; your day-world in a phrase if it is interesting or relevant. Then thanks, and your name. That is the entire machine. Editors have publicly confirmed for decades that this is all they want, and the persistence of three-paragraph letters is pure nerves.
What to Leave Out, and Why
The omissions do more work than the inclusions:
Worked Examples
A newcomer's complete letter: Dear Editors, Please consider my story, The Allotment, 3,400 words, for publication in your magazine. It is a simultaneous submission, and I will withdraw it promptly if accepted elsewhere. This would be my first publication. Thank you for your time and for reading. That is 47 words, and no editor alive wants it longer; new writers should know that first publication is a discovery editors actively enjoy making.
A more established version swaps one line: My fiction has appeared in two named magazines, and a story of mine was shortlisted for a named prize. Note what stays constant: no synopsis, no adjectives about the work, thanks at the end. Contest entries often need even less, since blind judging strips identity out; Writory's monthly contest, which judges every story anonymously against its published rubric, is a reminder that in the fairest systems the cover letter barely exists and the pages do everything.
Details That Quietly Matter
Address editors by name when the masthead lists one for fiction, and Dear Editors when it does not; guessing wrongly is worse than the plural. Match the magazine's stated formalities: some ask for specific subject lines, third-person bios of a set length, or content notes, and compliance is the actual test being run. Proofread the letter harder than its length deserves, because a typo in a 50-word document is a statement.
Keep a master letter on file with slots for title, word count and the personalised line, and rewrite the bio as credits accrue, pruning weaker ones as stronger ones arrive. And once the letter is sent, forget it. No cover letter has ever rescued a weak story, and none has sunk a strong one; the proportion of worry it deserves is exactly the proportion of the submission it makes up, which is almost none.
One last calibration: when guidelines say no cover letter is needed, believe them, and send at most two lines. Nothing signals a first-timer faster than ceremony where none was requested.
What poets can take from this
- Keep the whole letter under 100 words; brevity reads as confidence.
- State title, word count and simultaneous status in the first line.
- Write a two-line bio and let it be short when your credits are.
- Cut every adjective about your own story before sending.
- Follow the magazine's letter formalities exactly; that compliance is the real test.
- Reuse a master template, but make the personal line true each time or cut it.
Try it yourself
Write the story behind a cover letter: a 60-word letter appears in full at the top of the page, perfectly professional, and the story beneath it shows the chaotic week in which those calm five sentences were composed, one draft at a time.
Questions
What if I have no publications to mention in a cover letter?
Say so plainly or simply omit the bio line; this would be my first publication is a perfectly strong sentence. Editors enjoy discovering new writers, and unpublished is a category they read eagerly, not a defect to disguise.
Should a cover letter summarise the story?
No. Fiction editors read the story itself, and a synopsis suggests you doubt the opening pages can hold them. Save summaries for novel queries to agents, where they are a required and different form.
How do you address a cover letter when no editor is named?
Dear Editors or Dear Fiction Team works everywhere and offends no one. Avoid To Whom It May Concern, which reads as a mass mailing, and never guess a name the masthead does not show.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working poets. Updated July 2026.
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