It’s funny how you forget that a term you use all the time isn’t self explanatory to someone new in your field. I had a new writer ask me what a query letter is today and thought I’d share my answer with other new writers:

A query is a letter you send to an editor outlining an article or story idea. It usually isn’t written yet because the editor may have a different slant on the article. Query writing is almost harder than writing the actual article because you have to catch the editor’s attention.
Here is a really good article on writing query letters:
http://www.writing-world.com/basics/query.shtml
Katelyn