the secret

I asked an editor and a couple of other author/illustrator friends at dinner last night what question they hated most to answer. In fact, everyone had a different specific question, but they were all shades of the same thing:

What's the secret to being published?

There is no secret. Why would there be? There's no secret about becoming a doctor—go to med school. You want to play the piano? Practice. Get a teacher. Listen to CD's. Will you sell a million books if you spend years working ...