Going Solo by Julie Barlow

Author:Julie Barlow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sutherland House Books
Published: 2023-06-16T00:00:00+00:00

1. The letter of intent

This can also be an email, but generally it’s quite long. The letter of intent explains:

Your idea

Who you are

The context of your proposal

The value of what you are proposing

Why you are interested

Writing a good letter is about making a direct mental connection with the recipient. It is a special exercise that is not everyone’s forte, but it can be learned. The best letters, while not necessarily personal, are always personalized. If your letter follows a meeting at a cocktail party or convention, you should remind your correspondent of the event. If someone has recommended you to reach out to this client you, you should say so. If you have completed relevant or prestigious projects that make you particularly qualified, state it as clearly as possible. That said, unless we know the person very well, we are careful not to be too familiar, among other things because the document will probably be circulated to others.

This is not the place to make quotes or provide contractual information. The letter of intent is similar to a cover letter for a job, except that it often proposes a service that the recipient may never have thought of. Even if you were able to discuss the matter verbally beforehand, the letter of intent will provide more details about the nature of the project. If several people have a say, your letter of intent should summarize the steps involved, who proposed the idea, etc. (this is what we call the “context” of the proposal). This is especially useful because a letter of intent supplies the same information to everyone.

Sometimes it can take a while to move from that letter to the next steps. For some book projects, for example, we have waited fourteen months before getting an answer. During that time, we checked in several times with the prospective client to see if they had forgotten about us. They told us they were thinking about it, so we let them keep thinking. There’s no point in forcing a client to talk about a project if they are not ready to. Insisting rarely makes things move more quickly. In this case, when the client called us back, they were ready to go, and the whole project—a $70,000 writing job—was tied together in two weeks.

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