1. Write. Do this every day, even if it’s only 227 words every 24 hours, you will have a book in a year.
2. Write down your ideas, titles that pop into your head, characters you meet. I have lost many.
3. Be proactive, research agents and what they are interested in reading, get organised, devour publishers’ details.
4. Go to Book Festivals, try and understand the complex and confusing world of publishing.
5. Tell everyone you are a writer, you never know what will come of contacts.
6. Social media. Do it. Tweet before your book comes out, do a cover reveal, if you can’t do it yourself find someone who understands it, and let them make beautiful graphics and bring your book to life.
7. Treat your book like a job. Promotion and marketing are exhausting but publicity is all these days. Make sure you are maximizing your chances of exposure.
8. Advertise if you can, print flyers, do book signings, appear and be polite, respond and interact with your readers.
9. Believe in yourself. Good books fail to get published all the time, awful ones get to the top of best seller lists because people have heard of the author. Not fair at all, but don’t give up.
10. Stand out. There are six million books out there. Do something different, think out of the box and make sure you are visible.