Getting it published is just as hard.

As Noah Lukeman, author of "The First Five Pages" points out, your novel took x amount of hours to write at $x per hour. Whoo! How large a number is that? Even if your novel is only worth minimum wage, chances are it cost you a bit to write in terms of your time. So, you should "spend" just as much time researching agents and publishing houses, then preparing marketing material that will catch their eye.

Da Book

You've spent months, more likely years, slaving over your first draft, your second draft, revision after revision and now you finally think you are ready to present your book for representation or to be published.

Critters

Hopefully you have been aided by a critique group - NOT family members and friends - who have been straight up with you when reading your work. Critting is a touchy business - recently a fellow writer was incensed because I liked her passage and had no negative comments. Who knew?

Your first few crits will cut to the quick. How could they call your mc "lifeless"? Why was the adverb invented if it has no place in your book? Well, maybe there ARE a few thousand in there. Pay attention, because these are READERS, but readers with a knowledge of the craft and they will serve you well.

Why are they being so picky about the use of a comma vs a semi-colon? Isn't that what editors are for?

Actually, no, that is not what editors do today. Things have changed. Sophisticated word processing and even specialized software packages now make it possible for you to present a clean, edited manuscript that is easy to read and follows publishing guidelines. This is YOUR job, not the editor's.

Get Reviewed by an Author

There are a lot of published authors who also teach. Getting one of them to read your work can be a tremendous asset. Preferably you will be able to find an author whose work you admire to advise you. I did. When I sent in my first one hundred pages, for a fee which I was happy to pay, I waited anxiously for her response. I secretly hoped that she would announce that my work was a diamond in the rough and that it would be her honor to help me polish it to perfection.

Nope. Didn't happen. Her response to it was a model of carefully chosen words, letting me know that I was making the standard first time writer mistakes, but to not give up hope.

I was daunted, but read through the comments and soon saw much of what she was teaching me. However, there were some concepts that I just couldn't grasp. For that reason, having more than one source of criticism is such an asset. Later on, this same author made a remark that made my largest hurdle an easy three foot fence.

What I didn't know then was that I had just touched the surface of all the techniques I would have to master to turn my profusion of words into something worth reading.

Take Workshops

If you are fortunate to live in a large city, you will probably find local writers clubs. If you are not, then you can find writers groups online. There are writing forums where you can share your work and dozens of workshops are being offered at all times.

I think it's fair to assume that you can never learn enough about writing and that you will glean something from any lecture or workshop you attend.

Read Your Book Aloud

Hopefully, after all this, you still like your book enough to read it one more time - aloud. For that is what the reader is doing - in their minds, the words are being spoken. Cadence and rhythm are important. You will find yourself nipping and tucking as you read and smiling as the words make you feel the way you intend your reader to feel.

Do your Homework

Revved, you rush to your computer and begin to search the web for agents and publishers, only to find yourself overwhelmed by options, warnings, suggestions and a maze of process that you must untangle.

You read articles where discouraging numbers regarding how many manuscripts are rejected each year make your stomach drop. You read blogs that tell you how idiotic most editors think writers are. You hear of authors who have been published multiple times and are still making the rounds with their latest book, to no avail.

The industry is in a flux - self publishing is on the rise. On the one hand, you see books listed on Amazon that the author has paid to put there. Is that fair? To the reader, I mean? Shouldn't someone be checking that thing, making sure it's decent?

No one is sure about all this. It's a gamble. If you publish yourself, it stands to reason that folks who make a living promoting your work are not going to be too interested in dealing with you in the future, unless you by some WILD chance put out a blockbuster hit.

Well, so what. Nothing's that easy. Get a plan.

The Query

Start with the basics. No point in even sending anything to any of these people unless you have a kick ass query.

This is really gonna be an eye opener. You have to write something catchy that summarizes your entire book in a few sentences. I can't do that!, you say. The book is hundreds of pages long. Well, if you can't do it, there may be something wrong.

When I first started trying to write a query last year, I toiled over it and asked other writers to help me. After six or seven really crappy tries, two published authors gave me some news bulletins.

1. I wasn't sure what my genre was

2. I wasn't even clear on who my main character was - in terms of I didn't know her that well, and was concentrating on a supporting member of the cast.

What a shocker! Six months later, I think I have resolved those issues. So, if you can't write a query, try to decide why.

More to come...