Hey, writers. I love Sean Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens. (A book based off of his father’s book.) Today, I’ll cover the first habit in the first installment in a series of articles.

Hit the jump, writers, and let’s discuss.

The first habit in the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (by Stephen Covey) is to

Be Proactive

Those are two simple words, but for me, they are life-changing. Here’s a simple example that I love: Say some guy hated his job and he wanted higher pay. Some guys? That’s an easy night of drinking and bellyaching.

However, a better AKA more proactive approach to wanting more money is to create a solid resume and to start knocking on doors (or emailing if that’s your preference.)

Also. There’s pros and cons to knocking on doors, but that’s an article for another day.

In the same sense, if you feel like your writing benefit from more exposure, I would direct you to Habit #1: Be Proactive.

Instead of wanting and wishing, a better step might be to work on your query letter. Having said that, here’s a quick tip on query letters.

I’ll start with a generic tip as there are many kinds of query letters with many targets. This particular tip is something I do, and I know for a fact that it has helped me in the past. (My employers told me afterwards that it was one of the determining factor.)

Writers, I make it a point to do thank you letters.

(Yes I realize that today’s article is about query letters and yes I’m talking about thank you letters.)

I recommended this first because it is something someone can instantly include in a query letter system. I know for a fact that they can have a positive impact.

Again, I believe it would be a great benefit to any writer to incorporate thank you letters. Having said that, I do not believe they will have some kind of magical drastic change. But I do believe that they do help.

It’s writing, it helps, and hey, I think it would even count for NaNoWriMo.

So what do you think, writers?

Will you include thank you letters after a query letter? Why or why not?

Sound off in the comments below!

Aloha,
Alvin

P.S. Make sure to spell their name right! Don’t waste this gesture of good will with a clumsy, unintentional insult.

Remember, there are Seven Habits of Highly Effective People in total:

Habit #1. Be Proactive. Do Thank You Letters as well as Query Letters.
Habit #2. Begin with the End in Mind.
Habit #3. Put First Things First.
Habit #4. Think Win-Win.
Habit #5. Seek First to Understand, then to be Understood.
Habit #6. Synergize.
Habit #7. Sharpen the Saw.