Check out Abby’s interview with literary agent Pamela Harty, of The Knight Agency, here.

Visit again to see forthcoming articles on aspects of the craft of romance writing. In the meantime, here are three tips to be going on with….

1. If you’ve finished a book, submit it to an editor. Yes, you need to polish it, but polishing can’t go on forever. If you’ve been through it a few times and all you’re doing now is changing the odd word here or there, mail that manuscript TODAY, then start another book. Abby may not know much, but she does know that if you don’t submit, you will never sell.

2. Rejection is part of the business. Maybe you’ll be the kind of writer everyone else hates, a writer who sells the first book they write. More likely, you need to get rejected so many times that it doesn’t hurt any more. That’s the only way to survive in this incredibly tough world. You can fast-track yourself to rejection-numbness by submitting as often as possible—see the point above.

3. Clearly, once you’re inured to rejection, you’ll be able to keep submitting with impunity (yes, we’re back to point number one again), and that’s a good thing, because persistence might just see you through when other writers, some of them better than you, fall by the wayside. If you decide writing’s not for you, then that’s just fine. But if you want to be a published writer, then don’t give up. Ever.