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<h1>Getting Your Work Published-A Few Tips</h1>

In 1996 at a casino dealer's school in Albuquerque, New Mexico,
my blackjack teacher, William Hanner, found himself sitting on a
dynamite story. With only a third-grade education under his belt,
he needed someone to write his true-life Damon Runyonesque tale.
William's story hit me like a punch in the solar plexus. The
scrawled words he'd set down in his dog-eared notebook so
captivated me that I resolved to write his book no matter what it
took.
I'd never written anything but, fired with unquenchable desire
and possessing the optimism born of ignorance, I started to write.
It was God-awful writing at first. Then I learned a writing
technique&#8212;similar to creating an Oriental lacquer
bowl&#8212;of carefully adding layer upon layer of details to flesh
out the story's bare bones framework. Diligent research and
interviews with William's closest friends and family rounded out
the picture. My biggest task lay in preserving William's "voice," a
problem faced by many ghostwriters. After about 20 drafts, it was
time to find a literary agent.
Here are some things I learned through nine years of writing and
researching. While all are important, none is original:
1. Write a good book! Sounds self-evident, but it's not easy.
Great writing is its own best advertising and attracts agents and
publishers like a magnet attracts metal filings. Bill Roorbach in
his book Writing Life Stories says, "Editors are extensively
trained in the detection of crap." Roorbach also quotes
astrophysicist Ernest Rutherford, "If you can't explain your theory
to a bartender, it's probably no good."
I try to write as if I were telling a story to just one person,
like I'm talking to you. If something sounds false, the reader will
sense it in a heartbeat. Whereas authentic, from-the-gut writing is
hard to resist.
2. Write a killer query and book proposal or outline. Creating
these seemed more formidable than writing the book! But they're the
required foot-in-the-door with agents. It's amazing how your story
comes together when forced to describe it in brief but powerful
terms. When designing your query letter, imagine you're in an
elevator with a producer or publisher. You're under the gun to sell
your idea before the doors open. (Not my idea, but a good one.) An
editor told me: "Remember that your opening line&#8212;be it a
query, a proposal, or the book&#8212;must "hook" the reader's
attention enough to drive them to read more."
My proposal, a sales letter of sorts, attracted the attention of
the Farris Literary Agency I located through Firstwriter.com. They
weren't the folks we signed with ultimately, but supportive and
professional, nonetheless. [For valuable advice on proposals see
Jill Nagle's article:" Bulletproof book proposals" in
Firstwriter.com's 4/05 newsletter]
3. Cut, cut, cut. Tight writing is powerful writing. Learn to
chop your manuscript with gusto. You don't have to "bleed" in the
process. I made it a game to see how much text I could delete
without losing important elements. I stated everything as simply as
possible. When I couldn't find anything else to cut, I figured I
was through. Our publisher confirmed my feelings saying the writing
was "tight and needs little editing."
4. Trust your instincts. Along the way, William kept insisting
the manuscript was "good enough," though my gut feeling said
otherwise. So, several years into writing, I sent out queries to
about ten literary agents I'd located through the Writer's Guide.
One agent graciously penned a few lines on their standard rejection
letter: "Great idea, but writing not up to industry standard."
You've heard it before&#8212;don't stop until you're satisfied that
you can't make it any better. I felt that if I gave it my best
shot, I'd find an agent. And that's how it happened, which led to a
contract with Barricade Books to publish our book Thief! (working
title.)
I also learned to be careful whom I allowed to read my writing.
Even well meaning friends and family can inadvertently undermine
your confidence. I decided to follow Mario Puzo's advice,
"Don&#8217;t show your stuff to anybody. You can get inhibited."
[From "Mario Puzo's Godfatherly Rules for Writing a Bestselling
Novel."]
5. Find thee a literary agent. Like they say, unless you have an
"in" with a publisher, you need an agent. My most valuable resource
proved to be Firstwriter.com. The Website allows you to fine-tune
your selection process and submit queries online, saving precious
time. Before sending out queries, I crosschecked literary agents I
found at Firstwriter.com with their descriptions in the Writer's
Guide, another great resource.
While I actually ended up with a literary agent through a mutual
friend, my query letter attracted the solid interest of three
agencies listed at Firstwriter.com. [Read Jill Nagle's article in
Firstwriter.com's newsletter, 11/04: "Seven essential points on
literary agents]
6. Fame and Fortune. By the way, a famous writer whose name
escapes me once said, "If you're writing for the money, you will
grow bitter before you grow rich." Late night television attracts
millions of viewers with authors who "hit it big." What most people
don't realize is less than 1% of all authors, such as J.K. Rowling
of Harry Potter fame, get rich writing. And it took her years of
struggling before she was published.
The above points are by no means all-inclusive. However,
following them helped me, a non-writer, morph into a
soon-to-be-published author. If a novice with a lousy
ball-and-chain full-time job, writing somebody else's story can get
published, so can you!
Thief! by William Hanner and Cherie Rohn, in press with
Barricade Books, www.barricadebooks.com, is due to hit bookstores
in 2006. Currently, the authors seek a publisher for another
manuscript, Dog Justice, a mystery story for young readers.

<div>Author Info 
"Nothing is dull," says Cherie Rohn who has racked up an
interesting list of experiences so far as a nightclub singer, scuba
instructor, TV personality, and poker room floor
supervisor&#8212;to name but a few. Cherie took one look at William
"Slick" Hanner's 20-page, hand-scrawled bio at a casino dealer's
school in Albuquerque, NM, and vowed she'd write his fascinating
story. Cherie lives in Ft. Myers, FL, where she writes and dives
coral reefs.
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