On another forum, I saw this link to a “Publisher’s Dating Dictionary” suggesting chat-up line equivalents for statements in submission letters, and it made me laugh out loud. Don’t read it if you are feeling fragile, or if your covering letters are anything other than very boring indeed!
http://www.kitwhitfield.com/publisherdating.html
Harsh! 
(I couldn’t decide whether this post was a Writer’s Block sort of thing or a Now For That Latte sort of thing. Writer’s Block won, because there is some solid advice in that article, despite the uncompromisingly tough line.)