Agents & Editors Recommend

For me, the most important thing is the writer’s voice. A synopsis and outline for a nonfiction submission can be very helpful, but a proposal should have a sample introduction and at least a chapter to communicate the quality of the writing—if the finished manuscript isn’t available. With fiction, however, although a sentence in a cover letter regarding the subject matter is welcome, nothing causes me to glaze over more quickly than a plot summary. I read for style, not for plot. If you’re submitting a novel or a story collection, I will want to have full access to it.

My motto as an editor started out as a design standard in the U.S. Navy: Keep it simple, stupid! I like to read writing and translation that’s kept simple. I do not mean that I am a minimalist, or that I only want to work with minimalist writers. I do mean that I love encountering a mind that shines, bright and unobstructed, from the page.

Don’t labor over your cover letter when submitting to a journal or magazine! I mean, of course read the publication’s guidelines, and if they’re asking for something specific, by all means provide it. But honestly, the best cover letter is the simplest cover letter. If you address your submission to the editor by name, great. “Dear Editor” works too. Every editor will tell you they’ve received submissions addressed to another magazine—oops! It happens, we get it. I’ve even published a couple of those submissions. It’s not cause for rejection, but try not to do it.

Since its inception in 2000, poetry has been in the DNA of Serendipity Literary Agency, which represents poets such as jessica Care moore and Marilyn Nelson, among other writers. In my work to stay current and keep my finger on the pulse of the market, I’ve noticed three big opportunities bubbling up and intensifying in the poetry world that poets should have on their radar: