What would we like to see in your submission email, other than an award winning story?
Useful information. Otherwise please keep it short. We'd all rather spend our time reading your submission instead of reading about your awards.
Subject Line
Include the name of the publication that you're submitting to, the title of at least one of the pieces you're submitting for consideration, and your name. These are all so that we can easily find the email later.
Introduction
Acceptable - Dear Editors OR Hi OR Hello OR Greetings OR Dear 518
Not acceptable - Dear Sir/Madam. We're a woman run publishing company and this shows you didn't do your research. It won't get auto-rejected, but it could tip the scales on two equally good submissions.
Body
Please include your name, pen name, word count, and story title. If submitting multiple pieces please include a different line with the word count and title for each one.
Then include one line about how you found out about our anthology.
Then include one line with awards or previous publications or an interesting and relevant bit about yourself. If you have a tie to NY or have not been published before please put that here.
It is acceptable to skip written sentences and simply have bullet points as long as all the needed information is there.
Signature
Include your name, your address (for sending a check or physical copy of the book), and a link to your website.
Naming Your Submission for Attachment
The naming of writing documents evolves with each revision. "ZZZ_Final_Final_ForRealFinal" happens to me quite often, but that's not really presentable outside of beta readers.
When getting your submission ready to attach to your email please name it with the title first, then your pen name, and save it as a .docx. If you don't have word on your computer you can upload the file to a Google Document (for free) and download it as a .docx. It's simple and will help get a response that much faster.
Example of an Ideal Email:
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