The Trump guide to query writing
Love him or hate him, Donald J. Trump is arguably the world’s best query writer. With every Tweetstorm, he captivates the media’s attention.
That’s exactly what a query — the short “elevator pitch” sent to convince an editor to publish an oped — should do. Here’s a few query-writing tips from the Donald that will help you bigly.
1) Keep it short. The best queries are the length of a Tweetstorm: 50-100 words.
2) Don’t summarize. Queries should grab an editor’s attention and explain why the oped is timely and important. But there’s no need to list the oped’s arguments point by point.
3) Assume a little background knowledge. Editors are up to speed on the news — so don’t bog them down with extensive background information.
If you keep these tips in mind when writing your next query, you’ll yugely improve your oped’s placement chances. Just be sure to proofread it before you click send.
