A poetry pamphlet is a small book with a large ambition: twenty-odd poems that have to hold together as one thing, not just a folder of favourites. The poems do the real work. But the covering letter — three or four short paragraphs, usually pasted into the body of an email — is what an editor reads first, before they have any reason to trust you. Get it right and they arrive at page one expecting to enjoy themselves. Get it wrong and they arrive braced.
Most UK presses call this a covering letter rather than a cover letter. Either term will do. What matters is that it does its job quietly and then gets out of the way.
What the letter is actually for
It has three jobs, and none of them is selling. It confirms that you have read the guidelines. It tells the editor what is attached and what shape the pamphlet takes. And it gives a short, credible account of who wrote the poems.
That is all. A covering letter is a handshake, not a pitch. If you find yourself writing the word "unique", stop and delete the sentence.
Read the guidelines before anything else
Pamphlet publishers differ wildly. Some want the whole manuscript; some want a fixed number of sample poems and a synopsis; some want a bio of exactly fifty words. Some read year-round, some open a window for a fortnight in spring and close it without ceremony. Some accept simultaneous submissions, some ask you to wait. A few say, quite plainly, that they do not want a covering letter at all.
Where the guidelines conflict with anything below, the guidelines win. Every time.
The letter, part by part
- The greeting and first sentence. Use the editor's name if you can find it; otherwise address the press. "Dear Sir or Madam" reads as dated and is often simply wrong. Then say what you are sending: the title, the press, the submission window.
- The pamphlet in two or three sentences. Title, rough length, and the thread that holds it together. Concrete beats cosmic. "A sequence about my grandfather's years as a skipper on the Moray Firth" tells an editor far more than "a meditation on loss and the human condition".
- The bio. Fifty to eighty words is usually plenty. Where you live, pamphlet or collection credits, two or three magazine credits rather than twenty, relevant prizes, and anything that genuinely illuminates the poems — a residency, a job, a language you write in. First person or third person both work; just be consistent within the letter.
- The sample poems. Say which poems you are sending and confirm that the titles in your letter match the titles on the files. If poems have appeared elsewhere, name the magazines and say which ones are previously unpublished. First-publication status matters to editors, and hiding it never ends well.
- The close. One or two sentences. Thank them for reading, give your contact details, and mention simultaneous submission if their rules allow it and you are submitting elsewhere.
A model letter
Dear [Editor's name],
I would like to submit my pamphlet manuscript, The Cold Store, for your next open reading window. It is a sequence of twenty-one poems drawn from my family's years in the herring trade on the east coast, and it runs to twenty-eight pages. The full manuscript is attached, along with the four sample poems your guidelines ask for.
I live in Aberdeen. My poems have appeared in [magazine] and [magazine], and "[poem title]" was commended in [prize] in 2023. I run a monthly poetry group at [venue] and have read at [festival].
The four sample poems are previously unpublished. Several others in the manuscript first appeared in [magazine], and the details are listed on the contents page. This is a simultaneous submission, as your guidelines permit, and I will let you know immediately if the manuscript is taken elsewhere.
Thank you for reading. I admired [title of a pamphlet they published], and I hope The Cold Store might sit well alongside it. I am happy to send anything further you need.
With best wishes,
[Your name]
[Email and telephone number]
What to leave out
Editors notice apologies more than they notice confidence. Cut "I know you must be terribly busy" and "I hope you don't mind me sending this" — you are not imposing, you are submitting to a window they opened.
Also cut: exhaustive lists of every poem you have ever published; explanations of why the work is important; bold claims about the state of contemporary poetry; jokes that need a paragraph of setup; coloured fonts, elaborate formatting or five separate attachments. Never mention how many other presses have passed on the manuscript. Never compare yourself to a famous poet. It reads as either insecurity or swagger, and neither helps.
Sending it, and the small print
Keep the letter in the body of the email rather than as an attachment, so it can be read without opening anything. Send the manuscript as a PDF, or as a Word file if the guidelines specify one. Name your files clearly — Surname_Title_Pamphlet.pdf is easier for everyone than finalFINALversion3.docx.
Do not send at the last hour of the last day of the window if you can avoid it. Do keep a copy of every letter you send, along with the date, so you know what you promised and to whom. If you are submitting to several presses at once, check that each one allows it, and if a manuscript is accepted, withdraw it from the others the same day, politely and briefly. Postal submissions still exist at some presses: one typed page, folded neatly, with a stamped envelope if they ask for one.
Final checks before you press send
- Have I used the press's name correctly, and spelled the editor's name right?
- Does the number of poems I am sending match what the guidelines ask for?
- Do the titles in my letter match the titles in the files?
- Have I stated which poems are previously published, and where?
- Is the whole letter under three hundred words?
- Have I read it aloud once, to catch the sentence that sounds like someone else wrote it?
Then send it, close the document, and go back to the poems. That is where the time is best spent, and it is the part of the submission an editor will remember.
Photo: Polina ⠀ / Pexels