Think like an Editor: Tips for Getting Your Submission Noticed

When you're a struggling writer, it's common to develop almost a mythological view of editors. Because editors are the people who control the fate of your work, they may seem elusive, powerful, and difficult to relate to-almost a different species whose daily activities and thought patterns are shrouded in mystery.
In reality, editors are people like you and me and they share the same wants and needs we all have in this fast-paced modern world: Just like you, editors are hardworking, overworked, often underpaid, and gradually losing patience with the little signs of incompetence they have to face every day in the grocery store line, at the Department of Motor Vehicles, and-most of all-at work.

To increase the odds that your submission to a publisher will be read and eventually printed, you have to break through the mists of mythology to expose the real person who is "The Editor"-and learn to think like he or she does.

1. Make sure you're sending your work to the right place. If you worked in a bank and a customer came in and tried to get you to sell him a pound of ham, you'd probably think he was crazy. That's because he's bringing his request to the wrong place.

Similarly, editors want the writers who send in their work to make sure that their writing fits into the general category of material that the publishing house puts out. It is easy to find detailed information about publishing lists in Writers Market or at the publishers' Web sites. Even so, few writers take the time to do this simple research.

In my career, I've had a writer send me a rather graphic how-to book on dating through personal ads while I was working at a children's book publisher, and I've had writers send me preschool-level picture books when I was editing college-level science texts. Needless to say, I didn't sign up these writers.
Do your homework. Your editor will appreciate the extra effort it takes you to find just the right place to send your stuff.