Everything You Need to Know to be a Published Author:

Most large publishing houses are closed to queries and to submissions.

The exception to the above rule is if you go to a conference with an editor from a large house. Often then the editor will give permission to conference goers to submit in a small window with a code of some sort.

Smaller presses are sometimes open to queries and submissions. Smaller houses often give a very small advance or no advance. There's nothing wrong with this. Sometimes smaller presses will do a great job editing and promoting. Sometimes they won't. You may like less pressure. It's completely up to you as the author.

If you want to know addresses of publishing houses and names of editors, go to the library and get Writer's Digest or go on-line and get a membership. Be aware that almost all the editor names will be outdated by the time your submit to them. There's a lot of editorial musical chairs going on.

Agents are usually open to submissions, though some may require a client referral. If you want that, get it and don't fake it. Never ever lie to your agent. Seriously. Never. Not before you sign and not after, either.

Most agents are on-line and have their submission rules posted. Follow their rules to the letter.

You should expect to pay an agent 15-20% and sometimes some incidentals on top of that. A good agent is worth every penny. But this money does not come upfront. It comes off the top after you land a deal. Any agent who suggests otherwise is running a scam.

Likewise, any agent who tells you that you should send the manuscript to a professional editor to be cleaned up before submission is running a scam. This agent will send you a list of approved editors from whom he gets a kickback of some kind. Run.

Agents often go to conferences, as well. You can buy some cheap pitch time, but don't have high hopes that you will sell based on this. You'll be better off using the time to chat amiably, or if you find the agent in a bar, just have a normal human conversation.

Authors you meet at conferences are often happy to talk shop, but please don't ask them to read manuscripts. If you have a book coming out for publication, your agent or editor can ask for blurbs. That's the appropriate time for contact. Before that, the author really can't do anything for you.

Most authors do not sell their first book. Or their second. It is perfectly normal to spend several years submitting. There's nothing wrong with this.

If you aren't ever submitting anything, you can't be published. No one is going to send your manuscript in for you and beg someone to publish it. You have to do it yourself. Yes, it's scary. Yes, do it anyway.

If you send in manuscript after manuscript that is rejected, there is no list of losers that agents or editors accumulate unless you are truly obnoxious and send nasty responses back. Keep submitting. Yes, this is how real people get published all the time.

It can be very tempting to sign a bad deal where you give up all rights or even sell your future books before they are written. I recommend against such deals. Don't sell your birthright for a mess of pottage.

Writing an author to suggest a collaboration unless you know each other very well personally is a bad idea. Don't say you're going to do all the work and you just want to use their name. Just don't.

There is no secret handshake. There really isn't. You just have to be a better writer. I know it hurts to hear that. Believe me, I know. I wrote 20 novels before I got one accepted. Every rejection hurt, but also please believe me when I say that none of those novels were ready. I wouldn't publish them now if someone offered, which they won't.

Don't quit your day job when you get your first contract. I've seen too many people who end up with problems because of this. Wait a while and see how it turns out.

Likewise, don't quit your day job before you get your first contract. Don't quit it to get time to write your book. You've got to figure out a way to work around other stuff because writing always has to work around other stuff. Real writers end up spending most of their regular hours answering emails or doing appearances. Many still write at night.

Keep up good health habits. If you have to lose sleep to write, don't do it every night. Try to get exercise in daily, and don't hunch over your keyboard for hours on end.

Your real life is still your real life. Just because people around you have reasonable reservations about a writing career is not a reason to dump them. Writers often need some grounding in the real world. You need your friends as a high and mighty writer, too.

Write what you feel compelled to write, but don't ignore the advice or response of others completely, either. It's possible no one understands your great vision. It's also possible you aren't communicating it well.

Read. If you're going to be a writer, you should love books. You should be able to talk about what books you love and what books you hate. Reading is excellent practice for writing. It's also great for when you need to talk about a book that isn't yours, just to be polite and not sound like a jerk.

It takes a long time to get a book out. Once you've finally sold a manuscript, it will likely take 2 years before it is printed and available in a bookstore. Those two years will be put to good use. Trust me. You still need multiple passes with the editor, then copyediting, a galley pass, and time for reviews to come out. And you want a good cover, not one slapped on at the last minute.

Don't be surprised if you spend several years getting ready to send a manuscript out with an agent.

Feel free to come up with new ideas, even write drafts. You don't know if the book that brought you your agent will sell, and you might need to talk about the next project at some point. Editors will also sometimes want to know about a second project. But don't lose focus on the prize.

When you get an advance, it is usually parceled out as either half on signing, half on delivery (when the manuscript goes to press after copyediting) or half on signing, quarter on delivery, quarter on publication or similar.

When you sell a book, people will ask you if the book will be made into a movie. Resist the urge to hit them. Books are rarely made into movies, and there's no reason that they should be. A book is a book. A movie is a movie.

If you are lucky enough to sell movie option rights to your book, that doesn't mean a movie will actually be made. In fact, it is pretty rare that it will be. Enjoy the money and write the next book.

When deals get reported to the press, they sound a lot bigger than they are. This is usually because they are multi-book deals. It's useless to explain this to your parents or friends, but most of the time, you get less than ¼ of the money up front and the rest is doled out over the course of several years as you write more books.

Just because you have a contract for two books does not mean that you and your editor/publishing house will ever actually agree on what the next book will be. Yes, this can be extremely frustrating. Yes, authors try to avoid it. It still happens.

Try to remember how much you want to be an author, because there will be a lot of things that will beat you down.

When you get a bad review—and you'll get at least one—everyone does—do what you need to do to move on.

Get some good, professional author photos to put on a book. Try to make them look as real as possible, not like a glamour shot.

Figure out social media, but don't obsess over it. Monitor your time on it if you notice you have a tendency to lose hours.

As Mom says, don't spend all your advance in one place. More importantly, don't rack up debt in anticipation of an advance that may never come. Seriously, even if you have a phone call and a promise, the deal sometimes falls through anyway. When the check comes, then you can spend it.

Always be working on the next book. You're a writer. That's what you do. Even if you're just thinking about it and not writing it, this is your new world.