How I got published: famous authors tell you in their own words

Why you should buy this book (everybody loves a good story)

Three J's: Judo, jazz, and Japan / Barry Eisler

Did you know your agent died? / C J Box

Say no to nothing-the right attitude / Donald Bain

Practical demon keeping / Christopher Moore

I decided to take a more devious approach / Clive Cussler

Interview with Dave Barry

My life in writing / JA Jance

How I got started and how I keep going / F Paul Wilson

How do I become a TV writer if I don't have any contacts? / Lee Goldberg

Secret to getting published / Ray White

I didn't know any better / Gayle Lynds

Getting started getting published / Greg Bear

There's a word for a writer who never gives up-published / J A Konrath

Above movies / John Gilstrap

Long, lonely road: some informal advice to new authors / David Brin

Write two novels / John J Gobbell

Becoming a published author / John Lescroart

Tough cookies / Cassie Miles

Mild-mannered professor with the bloody-mined visions / David Morrell

Writing the (ugh) synopsis / Ray White

With a little help from my friends / Kathi Kamen Godmark

Wall of shame and Tom Clancy / Kyle Mills

How Nymphos and vampires got me published / Mario Acevedo

Twelve-letter expletive made my novel interactive / Patrick McManus

Bondage paraphernalia / Raymond Benson

Seven ways to avoid the risk of being published / Gillian Roberts

Finding a literary agent / Steve Alten

Just put your butt in the chair / Stephen White

Plan of attack / Troy Cook

Gripping title and a short, catchy tag line / Duane Lindsay

Bucking the cross-genre issue: / M J Rose interview

Five rules / Hallie Ephron

Don't try this at home / K J A Whishnia

Dayenu / Keith Raffel

Send the damn thing out / Jack Bludis

Photographed in President Reagan's Office / Stephen Coonts

Write a bit of a novel / Simon Levack

Write stuff / Steve Hockensmith

No one wants to read this crap! / Sue Ann Jaffarian

Getting to know literary agents and editors / Duane Lindsay

Most powerful force is luck / Thomas Perry

People who need people / Brian Freeman

Writing lies for fun and glory, but very little money (so Far) / Carl Brookins

Poster child for persistence / Hilari Bell

Never give up / Jeremiah Healy

On agents / Ken Kuhlken

Romeo and Juliet with needle marks / Mark Arsenault

Everything I knew was wrong / Michael Siverling

Best query letter ever / Duane Lindsay

In search of a publisher / P D Cacek

Who done it? / Robin Hathaway

Snowball's chance / Sandra Balzo

Fear? We don't need no stinking fear! Shane Gericke

Writing in the cracks of the day job / Zoe Sharp

Holding back the years / A J Hartley

Your goal is not to be published / Charles Benoit

Being orphaned / Christine Goff

Life is not a four-letter word / Ann Parker

Fish where the fish are biting / Ray White

Guy can dream, can't he? / Darrell James

How I started / Marian Keyes

My scabby ego / Jess Lourey

Fiery road to publication / Jonathan Santlofer

Follow the yellow brick road / Kathy Brandt

Little, but mighty / Laura Bradford

Sixth-grade education / Michael A Black

Confessions of a late bloomer / Kristine Smith

Two books in one week / Karen Rose Smith

Bob Richard story / Jerry B Jenkins

Killer nonfiction proposal / Ray White and Duane Lindsay

Chiefs did the trick: / interview with Stuart Woods

Things I wished I knew / Louise Penny

Critiquing and the green-eyed monster / L L Bartlett

Despite lazy agents, crooked and dead publishers, perseverance paid off / Marilyn Meredith

When I couldn't get an agent / Martha Powers

Are you sure you don't want to be a lawyer? / Michelle Gagnon

Talk about naive /Rita Lakin

F Scott Fitzgerald had it wrong / Robert S Levinson

Rule of twelve / Susan Okeksiw

Love it or leave it / Grant Blackwood

Join a critique group / Ray White

When writer write about writing / Chris Knopf

If the shoe fits / Kate Pepper

Don't go through that door / David J Walker

Act two / Dianne Emley

How to market a five-hundred-pound gorilla / Joyce & Jim Lavene

Look away from the review / Julia Pomeroy

When to read rejection letters? After you've been accepted somewhere else / Chris Grabenstein

Path / Cathy Pickens

When expectations are gone / Jeff Shelby

Three major life mistakes I've made that force me to write these mysteries / Victoria Houston

Ten steps to getting published / Ray White & Duane Lindsay

Tenacity over all / Aimee and David Thurlo

Bathroom attack / T A Ridgell

Accountants can do it (so can you) / Anthony Bidulka

Lucky writer's path / M Diane Vogt

If it doesn't sell, write one better / Nathan Walpow

I want it now, if not sooner / Simon Wood

More with less-lessons learned by a beginner / Susan Slater

Sunrise at the broiler / William Kent Krueger

Someday we'll laugh about that / Jeanne Munn Bracken

My mother, my secret weapon / Jenny Siler

Semper persistence / Ray White

Acknowledgments

Index

About the editors.