read. Did you know that there are seven times as many people who claim to want to write a novel than actually buy one every year? Okay, people, that makes no sense. If you want to write, you have to read. My suggestion is to read everything and anything. William Faulkner said you can learn from even bad writing. And Hunter S. Thompson used to write out pages from novels he liked to get the feeling of flow and pace. Read, read, read!

write. Sounds obvious, but the hardest part about getting published is having something to publish in the first place. Unless your name is Ethan Hawke, first-time novelists have to have a finsihed manuscript in hand before an agent or editor will even look at it.

have a friend read your book, and not just any friend, a blunt, honest, no-holds-barred kind of friend. one that tells you if you have spinach in your teeth. This will prevent you from sending out a manuscript that has the equivalent of toilet paper on its shoe.

write a pitch letter. Books don't usually sell themselves. they need pitch letters. Pitch letters tell what the book is about, who you think will buy it and why an agent and/or publisher ought to consider representing it.There are lots of good books out there about writing pitch letters.

get an agent. Most publishers won't bother to even look at your manuscript if you don't have an agent. Don't wind up in the recycle bin.

don't give up. I got fifty rejections (most of them the silent treatment of not being answered at all), and the rest along the lines of "you don't fit our needs" and "you're just not what we're looking for right now." Keep at it. If you quit, you'll never be published.