The biggest difference between being published and not being published is finishing projects. That’s it. That’s all. Whether its a phenphedrine review for a health magazine, a short story for Ellery Queen or a novel for the fantasy section… no one is willing to publish an unfinished manuscript.

Sure, even a finished manuscript can be bad and avoid publication… but finding the time to finish a project vastly improves its odds for reaching published status.

Fortunately, some agents and editors are willing to let you know what they are looking for. For example, there is a very good agent who I’d love to have represent me. I pitched him my favorite personal project, Thirty Minutes or Less, and it’s not what he’s looking for.

So now, I’m pitching him a novel from his “What We’re Looknig For” list and hoping my take on the topic is one he’ll like enough to give me a shot.

Would I rather be writing my own original idea? Sure. But I’d also like to get published, get established and then maybe have a better shot at getting my Pizza Delivery Mysteries into print.

The trouble is, just the opposite is true; to become a great romance writer, one ought to read great romances to see how the good ones are pulled off successfully. The same goes for horror, mysteries, science fiction and even general literary novels.

How could anyone hope to capture college culture without reading great previous examples of novels like that, such as Catcher In the Rye or Less Than Zero? How could anyone write well about the lives of an athlete without reading some of the better contemporary examples, such as Friday Night Lights, The World According to Garp or even Vision Quest?

Those who try to plunge into a genre of writing without reading the finest examples of those genres usually end up writing cliche-driven, boring tripe, rather than startlingly original works of fine art. There is no better education for a writing than reading, and reading a lot!

Sure, there are other differences in tone and writing style; but the setting is what gives each novel flavor and texture and uniqueness. It’s like the difference between an LA townhouse and a two-story colonial set on some prime Wilmington NC real estate.

One of the damaging elements of TV shows and movies is that probably two-thirds of mass media entertainment is set in either New York or Los Angeles. Yet that is so incredibly limiting. And I’ve seen many a young fiction writer attempt to seem sophisticated by setting their stories in New York or Los Angeles just to fit in, despite growing up nowhere near those settings.

That’s what makes novels fun. Harris knows how to embrace her Southern roots, so her fictional worlds have a style all their own. While any soulless screenwriter can fake a New York or Los Angeles vampire story, only someone from the Deep South, like Harris, could write about Bonne Temps, LA, convincingly.

Now that I’m rolling on a novel for the first time in years, I’m starting to give some time and thought to finding a market for my novel. Of course, the best approach I can think of is the most direct: find out the publisher – and if possible, the editor – of the authors and novels that are in the same genre as what you’re working on, and send it to them.

Of course, you have to make sure your own work isn’t to imitative of the novels you enjoy as a reader; if so, yours will be just another sound-alike novel without the name-brand value that an established author brings.

Yet assuming the novel you’re working on has a voice all its own, it doesn’t hurt to send your submission to the guy or gal who handles the same type of book you’ve written. For example, it wouldn’t do much good to send a science-fiction novel to the person who specializes in celebrity biographies, would it?

While the Writer’s Market can be a huge help in cases like these, it’s best not to submit things to a generic submissions editor; if you can find out the name of a published author’s editor, that can sometimes help, although some authors are more willing than others to give out such information.

And remember, always register your completed novel with the US Copyright Office before submitting it anywhere. The government now has an e-version of the Copyright Office that lets you upload your completed work in PDF format for a minor, $35 registration fee ($10 off traditional mail-in registration), so it’s now more convenient than ever to protect your intellectual property!

That’s kind of what I like about it. I was never big into journals and so most of my writing time was invested in novels and short stories that somehow, by and large, never found the right market to achieve publication. Journalism helped with the need for an instant-gratification outlet, but ultimately it’s not a personal form of expression.

That’s why blogging is such a godsend to writers like me. I can blog and blog until my mind’s clear of all the stray thoughts and refuse, and then I can dig in and really get into a groove with whatever creative project I’m currently working on.

Jumping from about 70 channels to over 200 means there’s almost always something to watch on at any given moment. And that’s dangerous for a writer. It takes willpower to stay committed to writing. Eventually, if you approach it as a professional, even writing can feel like work. That’s because it is work. Staying focused on the task at hand is the only way to keep producing hard copy.

While these are not glamorous writing positions, they are opportunities to get your work out there and gain experience. For example, a lot of my script writing experience has come from writing “opening sketches” for a college Christian group I was a part of in college, as well as for a Lutheran church singles group I never attended myself.

Has that work landed me a job filling Tina Fey’s shoes as Saturday Night Live’s head writer? Nope. But it’s made me a better script writer. So that’s my message of the moment; stop being part of the wine club and start appreciating the opportunities to write that life tosses into your path; they’re there for a reason, and it’s not to brush up on your pinochle game.

Writing research-based papers and ministry messages isn’t always thought of as an art form, but many of my efforts have been spend in exactly those areas of late. I have a series of lessons I’ll be writing for the next year and a half that is aimed at the ministry needs of messianic pre-teens. It doesn’t pay in a way that helps meet rent, but is invaluable writing experience.

And my recent in-print publication credit only netted me a free copy of the print magazine, but it is credits like this which could lead to book deals down the road. Like I always say… keep writing and eventually it’ll take you where you want to be.

So forget about the well-paid Hollywood types who live in condo hotels. This is advice for people who haven’t made it that far just yet, but want to.

Jump at every chance to write!

Look for any chance to write for money; and sometimes, even be willing to write gratis if it means getting something produced or in print.

For example, I’ve done newspaper work (professionally, and have won awards), write blogs (for pay, modest though it may be), ghost-write for my rabbi (sometimes for pay, sometimes for free), write videogame and DVD reviews (for free product but no money), have written skits for a friend’s singles ministry at his church (for free), and have written a couple longer one-acts for another church that got produced and staged, for the exposure but no compensation.

And that’s certainly not a complete list.

In other words, while you’re working on your masterpiece, find every chance you can to get into print or produced and JUMP on it! The more writing credits you accumulate, the better a writer you’ll become and the more professional you’ll come off when you do approach a publisher with your book.

Be willing to write anything on the road to writing what you really want to write.

Well, all I can say is, it’s time to abandon the baby furniture concept, wait it out, and let oneself mature into a writer who’s ready to sit at the adult table. That’s right, my next bit of advice is simple.

Avoid self-publishing like the plague!

In some areas of nonfiction writing, like Jack the Ripper research, on a rare occasion you’ll hear about someone who survived an incident of self-publishing without going bankrupt. But not often, so avoid self-publishing like the plague.

Especially if it’s fiction. A publisher should be paying you, even if it’s a pittance or in author copies. A professional writer never pays for the privilege, and if you’re not at that level yet, wait it out and keep honing your craft.

Remember, for every writer who makes their money back, there are dozens who end up with nothing but a big printing bill and boxes of unsold books that won’t even move on eBay.

But eventually you need to grow beyond that and submit your work to an editor. That’s when it pays to be aware of this next bit of advice.

Electronic submissions and other submission guidelines

When it comes to what font to use, don’t get fancy. Some writers prefer Times New Roman as a default, but I tend to disagree. I know of many editors who, by far, prefer Courier, because it’s a monospaced font, rather than relative-spaced like Times New Roman. Courier looks like a typewriter and that’s what editors like to see, for the most part.

Many editors these days also prefer electronic submission over traditional paper mailings. Even those who don’t ask exclusively for electronic documents, at least prefer to get an electronic document along with the paper submission. Usually, burning the manuscript onto a CD takes very little time and money, and makes an editor’s life far easier.

Also, don’t get fancy with writing programs. Over 90 percent of editors looking at electronic submissions want the file sent to be in MS Word format, so even if you’re not using MS Word, make sure your program can OUTPUT an MS Word-formatted document.

Big clue: Editors HATE MS Works files! It may come free with your computer, but NO editor I know wants to deal with it. Same goes for WordPerfect.

If you can’t afford MS Word, at least use WordPad, which will create MS Word-compatible documents for you, is free with Windows, and although it may have a lot less features, it produces flawless MS Word-compatible .doc files.

Finallu, no matter what anyone says, do NOT output in .rtf, .txt. or anything else like that. The .doc format that is native to MS Word is the ONLY way to go.

The key, though, is to query for submissions guidelines so you can meet each publisher’s or editor’s expectations with no hassles.