ONE: Read stories, and be a story teller. Write because you love to write, and write what you love. Tell a wonderful, exciting story. Forget everything about spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Tell the story completely from the heart. An editor is looking for a wonderful book that will make readers laugh, shiver, or cry far more than anything else, not a perfect English assignment. (Listen to books on tape, then try reading your own material aloud. That will often help you to decide if you have a wonderful story or not!) To go with your wonderful story, create wonderful, warm characters. Remember, the reader must care about the characters to care what happens to them. It doesn’t matter what genre you’re working in, straight romance, suspense, horror, contemporary, or historical. The most horrible things in the world can happen to people you don’t like, but when ill fortune descends upon a cast that have captured the heart, then a reader will cry right along, perhaps triumph right along, and in the end, laugh right along, and maybe even fall a little bit in love, right along with the characters.

TWO: You’ve got your fascinating story and your wonderful characters. All the marvelous action has flowed from you and into the page. (Forget any of the bad moments, the blank page, etc.) Now, remember grammar. When the story is all told, right from the heart, then is the time to go back and check spelling, punctuation, and all these things. Make the pages as neat as possible, as legible—remember, she or he will go partially blind fast enough.

THREE: Know your market. Know who is actively seeking what you’re writing. If at all possible, get to know editors; have a name on your manuscript when it goes by.

FOUR: Don’t be discouraged by rejection. Okay, we’re human, there’s going to be depression. But also, have faith. Look again at the avenues open to you. Remember, writing and reading are subjective. One editor may not care much for your style, another may love it. Remember, some of the biggies—Hemmingway, Saroyan—said that they could have wall-papered houses with their rejection letters. Also, try not to play the ‘I’m better than this!’ game about published books, as in, "This is absolutely horrible! If it’s been published, my book is certainly no worse!" Remember that you want to keep your standards up to the very best of what has been published, and certainly, not the very worst!

FIVE: Stand fast against criticism.

SIX: Listen to criticism. All right, you join a critique group, and read aloud your most heart wrenching scene yet, your heart is in it, your soul is in it, your whole body it in it. Someone thinks you change him, someone else thinks you change her. It remains your manuscript. Listen to advice and weigh it carefully. Really carefully. Be willing to be your own hardest critic. Now that you’ve listened, go with your instincts.

SEVEN: Remember, friends can advise, they can’t buy a manuscript.

EIGHT: Remember, an editor can. This still doesn’t mean that you should rip up a manuscript after a first rejection. Another editor may love that part of a story, that character, etcetera, and hate another. If you’re really comfortable, hold fast.

NINE: Once you’ve held fast, be willing to change like the wind. If you consistently hear that a piece of writing has the same problem, and editors (the ones who can buy the manuscript) suggest you change it, it just might be time to see things in a new light!

TEN: Be tenacious. At least five of the writers in our Florida RWA group tried for several years to publish before their first manuscripts were bought. Then they suddenly managed to sell very well. It’s difficult to get a foot in the door, but there’s often a lot of help once that foot is in.

ELEVEN: Be tenacious. Remember, it is subjective and very contradictive field. What no one is looking for today, they might be scrambling for tomorrow.

TWELVE: Be tenacious. It is should be changed, change it. If it should be pitched, pitch it. (Don’t really pitch it, just keep it in a drawer.) Don’t ever stop. When one manuscript is out, be working on another.

FOURTEEN: Be tenacious. Don’t say, ‘I’m going to do this, you know, just as soon as I can!’ There are always good reasons for delay—but never for a complete stop. Spend some time every day or every week writing, even if life curtails that time! Be willing to work with the dream, but always keep it in sight.

FIFTEEN: Never, ever forget to read, read, read! Read what you love, read the TV guide, read the newspaper, read the authors you admire—keep reading. No matter how rich and famous you may manage to get!

And after all this, remember the bottom line. One of the major publishers put out tip sheets for one of their imprints, and right after the tips, there were a few simple words that said it all. "Write a great book, and we’ll buy it!"

Heather Graham also writes as Heather Graham Pozzessere and Shannon Drake. She has written more than sixty books and has more than 20 million copies in print in more than 15 languages.