Writers get asked a lot of questions. Some we can give an easy answer to. Some we can’t.
Where do you get your ideas from?
So you write romance?
Do you write kids books?
How do I get published?
I’ve written a book, but I don’t know what to do now…
Some of the answers, I just try to look intelligent as I go….Uhhhhhh…. 
Some are easy to answer. Yes, I write romance. No, I don’t write kids books.
The harder ones are Where do you get your ideas from? I’d just love a good, clever answer for this, but hey, the ideas are just there. Sometimes from a dream, sometimes from something I hear somebody say, sometimes from something I see somebody doing. Fascinating, yes? No? Yes? No.
How did I get published…I swear, sometimes I still can’t figure out the answer to this one. I had a book. I sent to a couple people who rejected it, so I turn around and sent it somewhere else, somewhere else being Ellora’s Cave. It was a matter of luck and timing, getting it in front of the right editor, getting it in at the right time, right when the company was getting huge. More luck played into my deals with Berkley.
So how did I get published? I got my book in front of the right person at the right time…timing and luck. But the nature of luck kind of makes it hard to predict. Timing? Not much easier for me to predict.
I’ve written a book, but I don’t know what to do now.
Another not-easy-to-answer question. There is no set and certain answer. Everybody’s got a different publishing story, a different journey from unpubbed to pubbed. Some are still on that journey, and sadly, some give up. But one thing that an unpubbed writer and a pubbed writer have in common is that they have a book….
How I got published is going to be a totally different story from how Jaci Burton got published, Jaci’s will be different from Lora Leigh, Lora’s will be different from Nora Roberts…and so on, and so on…
The one thing we all have in common is that we had a book. We wanted to sell it. While getting the book written may or may not be the hardest step, it’s certainly not an easy one. If you’ve got a book written, or you’re working on it now, then you can definitely take the next step. That step takes research, it takes patience, it takes determination. But then again…so did the book.
March 21, 2008 at 1:52 am
But everyone’s different answers are so interesting.
March 21, 2008 at 2:11 am
When it comes to art, there always will be a degree of luck involved. Whether it is writing, painting, photography etc. but you have to have talent to start off with and then you need to put yourself out there. Its human nature to shy away from rejection so this can not be an easy process. I always find myself thanking my favorite authors because their determination allowed me to enjoy their work.
Thanks Shiloh!
~S (who’s brother is a painter)
March 21, 2008 at 2:36 am
Mine isn’t! Uh…. just lacks that fascinating quality…
Hey, I know, gimme your answer. I’ll use it. Hee hee.
Sandy, ain’t that the truth…
And you’re welcome. 
March 21, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Well said.
Folks often seem to think there’s some ‘magic’ answer to questions like those, when really it tends to be a matter of ‘whatever works best for you.’ Back when I was freelancing in the RPG industry, it was luck for me—I had a friend who went to work as a line developer for company, and he was looking for writers whose work he liked and whom he could rely on. He didn’t play favorites—I like to say he wielded a very painful editorial chainsaw on my first works, and boy did I learn a lot as a result. But it was that lucky connection that got my foot in the door, and then my own reliability that got my name passed on from developer to developer after that.
March 21, 2008 at 10:26 pm
I really like hearing different authors answers to these questions.
March 21, 2008 at 11:06 pm
If memory is not playing tricks on me (which is always possible), it was Isaac Asimov who answered the “where do you get your ideas from?” with something along the lines of, “from a store in (somewhere)–very convenient and cheap.”
Hmm… I think I should go look for the correct quote now–it was funnier in my memory