They also help you connect with your editor because it gives them a chance to understand who you are as a person, rather than just some words on a page.

@Paula – I am not a big fan of submitting queries, although I will if I need to. I am a relationship person and I like to develop a relationship with the editor before I begin working with them. I am not sure if this is WAY unusual or if more people prefer to work this way. With a LOI, I feel I can ask the editor "What can I do to help you?" rather than piling more work on their desk.

Using Lori terms, LOIs are a fairly informal form of marketing.

Thanks!

That kind of result should motivate everyone here to send off some LOIs by week's end. Thanks for sharing.

My very first LOI (and only for that matter) was to a local magazine. It was the first time I had ever even attempted to write for print. Within a couple hours of hitting send on my LOI (it was by email, with a few clips of articles I had done for other clients) I received a call and 1,500 words between two different articles.

It was a lot of fun and I will have to get more LOIs out on the street soon. My biggest issue is trying to find a better way to see if a topic has already been covered by a magazine if they do not have content online…talk about a lot of skimming at the library 😉

Susan – You raise a good point. A lot of publications have slashed freelance budgets. This year several of my LOIs elicited responses along the lines of, "We don't have a freelance budget now, but we'll keep you in mind if anything changes." Like you said, it's a numbers game, so if you send enough LOIs, eventually something should click.

Wendy – Glad you learned something that I hope will prove useful!

Thanks for the post. I think I have some brainstorming to do now.