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Hi everyone,

I've been PLANNING to participate more on this board for a long time, and haven't made it over here yet. (Guilt!!) I have about ten years' experience publishing my writing, and I can probably answer a bunch of questions you may have in those areas. I'll start out by sharing some basic info some of you might find useful.

If you check out my website (link below) you can read pieces of my books and find a bibliography of stuff I've published in the past ten years. Publishing your writing, I'm happy to say, is somewhat easier than landing a #1 hit song. However... that elusive "#1 NYTimes Bestseller" is still just about as hard to land as a #1 on Billboard... and you have to get just about as lucky.

I've been asked many times how to go about getting your work published. There is a basic process... and that's a bit easier than producing a radio-quality song demo, I can tell you that!

Basically, you need two things:
1) A manuscript (MS for short) that's ready to go
2) Somewhere to send it!

One of the first things I teach new writers to remember is based on the Serenity Prayer: Do all you can about the elements you CAN control, and don't stress about the rest.

What you can control, when it comes to publishing your writing, is: WHAT MS you send out, WHEN you send it, WHERE you send it, and HOW you prepare your MS to go out the door.

What you can't control is: WHAT the editor will think about your MS, WHEN they will get back to you, or WHEN you will actually succeed in publishing something.

With that in mind, it's best to set writing goals that sound like this: "I will send out one MS a month," or "I will submit 50 poems by the end of the year." It's not so helpful to say, "I will be published by January 2008!" --because you actually can't control that date, so it can easily lead to frustration, anxiety and unhappiness. Mostly because you've allowed outside, uncontrollable forces to be in charge of achieving your goals. Savvy?

All right. There are some universal steps to good MS preparation. Some publishers or magazines will vary from this standard (more on that in a minute), and writers and authors will go the rounds on whether or not you still have to use Courier. That's its own article by itself. But the basic idea is:
1) Use wide margins (1 - 1.5") and white paper
2) Use Courier 12 pt. font
3) Double-space
4) Contact info (name, address, email, phone number) at the top left
5) Word count at the top right
6) Space down about halfway on the first page, type your title, double-space and type your byline (name you'll be publishing under)
7) Following pages include a GOOD header across the page with: page number, name, article/story title keyword, and phone number
8) Do not staple your MS. The large clips are OK but not necessary.
9) ALWAYS include a SASE (Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope). Some go the rounds on this one too, because you can be notified by email now, but I still include them. It's professional to do so.
10) Include a single-page, single-spaced cover letter. This is a professional but brief business letter in standard business letter format. Include information that tells the editor: WHO you are, WHAT you want, and WHY they should care. Cover letters are a whole article by themselves too.

Second: Where do you send it? Thankfully this is easier to figure out than tip sheets, too. Go find a copy of one of these: Writers' Market (nonfiction books and other magazine articles), Novel & Short Story Writers' Market, or Poets' Market, for the current year. We're in October, so I recommend waiting a few months to buy the 2008 editions, unless your tail's on fire to get going. They recommend you buy a new one each year--and they do get outdated fast--but I go for about every other year, depending on how much I'm submitting. Your local library should have these books in their reference section as well, and you can photocopy pages you need. They will usually have older editions that you can check out and take home. The books are easy to use and interesting to browse through.

What they do is provide listings of publishers who are looking for what you write, from poems to stories to unique articles on starfish. You'll want to read the listings closely to make sure what you submit matches the types of things they publish.

OK--I have to get a move on to my own local Seattle writers' group tonight, but I'll send this much out and see where your questions are. Fire away!

Linda