How to Write a Business/Cover Letter
This tutorial will guide you through the process of writing a business letter (for example, asking if the rights to a literary property are available) or a business cover letter.
What is a Cover Letter?
A cover letter is a document typically sent with another longer document such as your resume or a press kit. If you are e-mailing a journalist the press release for your film, a cover letter will be the body of the e-mail while the press release is the attachment.
A cover letter typically explains WHY the recipient should look at the more detailed information.
Guide to Writing a Business Letter (including Cover Letters)
Effective business letters clearly express WHAT you want (e.g., “I am interested in obtaining the rights to make a motion picture based on your novel.” or “I am enclosing my resume because I am applying for the position of ________” or “It would be great if the Orlando Weekly could publish an article about this Florida filmmaker during the Florida Film Festival.”).
A really successful business letter explains WHY the recipient should respond to your request.
A short well-structured business letter (from first sentence to last, as described below in this tutorial) is very helpful when contacting a business-person for the first time. Once you get to know someone, you can be more informal. But the first contact should be focused (try to ask for only one thing) and direct.
When you write a business letter, try to think about what the busy recipient wants to know as they read your letter:
What Do You Want?
The first sentence of every business letter should refer to what you want from the person you are writing to:
Why Are You Writing To Me? Why Now?
You then can begin a new paragraph with the most relevant information:
What Specifically Needs To Be Done?
You may include other supporting information as your third paragraph, but include only what is absolutely necessary to explain what needs to be done:
Why Is This Person Wasting My Time?
In general, professionals don’t want small talk in a business letter. In your initial business letter don’t tell an agent how passionate you are about making a film from the novel they represent. And HR people, collecting resumes, aren’t interested in a letter that details how excited you are about your potential career. In your first contact with a business person, err on the side of brevity and directness. Don’t waste a professional’s time.
Business letters should be direct and cover only the information needed to facilitate action. You should convey to the recipient exactly what concrete actions you want them to take. But your letter should also be considerate. Here’s a link to a blogpost with two sample letters, demonstrating the difference between pushy (bad) v. considerate and direct (good):
Why Am I Doing This?
Because people need to cover themselves, you should also include what justifies the action you are requesting. Sometimes a simple reminder like “As we discussed on the phone…” is enough. In other cases, you might want to include a subtle reminder of how the action you are asking for is in their best interest:
What Happens If I Just Ignore This Letter?
In a separate paragraph, let them know that you are going to follow up:
Then, politely and briefly (and probably in another paragraph, because it looks cleaner) thank them.
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Licensed by Randy Finch and Nick Martinolich under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. This license allows you to copy, distribute, and transmit this work as well as create derivative works. Any copies or derivative works may not be used for commercial purposes, must be distributed under a same or similar license, and in addition must contain the following language: “The Film Fest Marketing Project was developed by Randy Finch, Nick Martinolich, Sam Torres, Alex Bowser, Morgan English, Masha Murakhovsky, Jeph Alexander, and the faculty and students of the University of Central Florida’s Film Department, working with the Florida Film Festival, and with the support of the Sarasota Film Institute.”
