Query Letter Samples

Freelance writers rely on query letters and other pitch letters to find freelance writing jobs. This section provides examples of query letters that worked, plus my favorite resources for query letter samples from other successful writers.

How To Write a Query Letter
What is the key to successful query letters? What specific information do you need to include in your query letters? This article goes through the major sections of a good query letter.

Query Letters That Worked
These query letters landed me assignments with trade magazines, major websites, and consumer magazines.

Sample Query Letter to a Major Website
Sample Query Letter to a Consumer Magazine
Sample Query Letter to a Trade Magazine

No Great Article Ideas to Pitch?
If you can't think of any article ideas, don't fret! You can still land freelance writing jobs through what's referred to in freelance writer jargon as letters of introduction (LOIs). I've used this type of query actually more than traditional "idea" queries. It's a great way to land assignments with trade magazines. It's also a great way to pitch yourself as a marketing copywriter.

Dollars and Deadlines
This writing blog by freelance writer Kelly James-Enger features a wide range of query letter examples with her detailed notes on what works well and how they can be improved.

Have you already written a fantastic query letter?
Don't miss my tips on submitting your query letter to editors and how and when to follow up.

More Query Resources

Perfecting the query letter takes time. I still get anxious about writing a good query letter. There are many wonderful books devoted to writing query letters, and I encourage you to continually study the craft of writing great queries.

For more examples of query letters, pitch letters, and follow-up letters, I highly recommend the book Six-Figure Freelancing: The Writer's Guide to Making More Money by Kelly James-Enger. She shares a lot of templates that you can customize. It's just an all-around great book to read on freelance writing.

Another book with some great letter examples is MediaBistro's book Get a Freelance Life: mediabistro.com's Insider Guide to Freelance Writing by Margit Feury Ragland.

Finally, a great query guide is The Writer's Guide to Queries, Pitches and Proposals, Second Edition by Moira Allen. This book has many types of letters that a book and magazine writers can use as inspiration. This book is special to me because I contributed a chapter! Check out chapter four titled Approaching Trade Magazines with Letters of Introduction.