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Non-Fiction Writers Workshop
by Carolyn Dekat


Query Letters, 2

I hope you had time over the weekend to look at some leads to some articles and examine what makes them work. Remember, oftentimes article leads and query leads are one and the same. Just in case your weekend was busy, here are a few examples of actual article leads, and the tools they use to hook a reader. Imagine that the author used these leads to hook an editor's interest, too:
By the year 2005, almost 150 million people will be employed in the U.S. That's nearly a 12-percent increase over today's workforce. But not many of these employees will receive a gold watch for 30 years of service to the firm. Instead, Americans will change jobs 7 to 10 times during their working years, and many will make complete career changes 4 or more times.
--Debra Solberg Gibson in Hot Careers for the Class of 2000, Better Homes and Gardens 1/97
"There was work on the kitchen table, a desk near the bedroom, supplies out in the garage -- stuff was strewn everywhere, and the business infiltrated the family life, too," says Lara Nieto. She's remembering how ther mother-in-law, Renay Nieto worked before the guest wing off the family's Corrales, New Mexico, home became a brand-new office space with it's very own kitchen.
From Before and After, in American Home & Garden, Oct/Nov 1997
Barrel tile roof, Spanish Colonial-style architecture, screened-in pool, beautifully finished interiors: At first glance this new house in central Florida seems an unlikely house of the future. But that's the beauty of it. Invisible to the eye are state-of-the-art systems that make this custom house an reassuring example of how homes will look and perform in the 21st century.
--From Comfort Built Right In, Special Report: House of the Future, in American Home & Garden, October/November 1997
Do you itch to grab a paintbrush, after viewing a watercolor? Do the pirouettes of ballerinas make your toes quiver? Do you thrill to the sounds of a symphony? If so, you may be able to channel your interests in the arts into salable articles.
--Lori Van Pelt in Writing About the Arts, ByLine, June 1998
Most of us enjoy listening to music without being fully aware of its impact. Here are a few of music's therapeutic uses:
--Three Reasons to Listem While You Work. Writer's Digest, June 1998


Homework

Can you:
  • Name the type of lead used (refer back to the chat notes for a list of some types of leads)?

  • Tell briefly why it hook (or might not hook) a reader?


© 1998 Carolyn Dekat