Reimagining the Covering Letter: Why, When, and How to Communicate with Journal Editors before Manuscript Submission

Abstract

Online submission portals for scholarly journal manuscripts regularly include space for a covering letter or its equivalent. But why should that opportunity mark the first contact between author and editor? This article reimagines the submission-accompanying covering letter by exploring the value of earlier outreach and correspondence between authors and editors. For authors planning submissions to journals in the humanities and humanities-adjacent social sciences, especially, this article explains the purpose and practice of initiating contact via query letter after manuscript conceptualization but before manuscript composition. Following a positively received query letter, a covering letter becomes a straightforward letter of transmittal accompanying an anticipated submission that an editor should be predisposed to welcome.