Breaking into the publishing business is not easy, especially in this economy. A logical, organized approach may tilt the publishing odds in your favor.

Publishers are often very tactful while wooing authors. Their reservations are shared after you cash the advance check. It would take several books to describe all of the mistakes we authors sometimes make. Here’s a list of a few steps you can take that will help you avoid them.

Your au­di­ence may be wider than you think. Your mar­ket­ing plan should in­clude strate­gies for reach­ing sev­er­al dif­fer­ent tar­get au­di­ences.

Putting up a nice website, writing a blog, twittering and facebooking, doing a book trailer or a press release and the like, while commendable, are not really going to set you apart, as nearly every single one of those 500,000 authors and companies and 400 million owners of those sites are doing this also. Everybody is doing this. So, what will work?

Writing and editing are two totally different tasks. Writing is a creative process. Editing is a critical process. Each task demands a very specific focus; each must be handled separately. Editing should not start until the writing task is completed.

If you struggle to see yourself living the writer’s life (with all the self-discipline, rejection, and uncertainty that comes with it), you’re going to have a far more difficult road to travel than if you have complete confidence as a writer.