As Milagros is the first novel I’ve been fortunate enough to have published, I am not passing myself off as a publishing guru-far from it-but I do know that when I talk to an author, any author, I’m just as interested in how he or she got published as I am in their latest release. Everyone knows the basics:

• Read as much as possible.
• Write, write, write.
• Put your writing away for 6 weeks and return to it for polishing.
• Polish, polish, polish.

And some say, take a class, give your writing to others for their critiques, etc. All this is good advice, but along with it I’d add:

• Publish small pieces before your novel, to build yourself a bio.
• Publish on the internet and in print publications.
• Submit at least once a month to at least 5 or 6 publications.
• Once a magazine accepts you, look at any book reviews they do and note who the publisher is for future reference. When your novel is ready, the connection you can make between having been published in the magazine will help you get noticed by the publisher whose work was featured there.
• Expect rejection. If you’re not getting rejected, you’re not submitting enough.

I like to submit online, as it’s cheap, easy and fast. I don’t usually pay reading fees, unless it’s Glimmertrain or a magazine of that quality. I don’t hesitate to submit to foreign markets. (I’ve had some success in Australia with Etchings Magazine.) When I read other people’s stories and poems, I take note of their publishing houses and if their work is any way similar to mine, I submit there as well.

Write what you know; write what you love; just write!

And then submit.

It doesn’t make sense to spend your life writing if nobody is going to read it!