Liz Kessler
Children's author

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Section: Writing Advice

My advice would be as follows:

• Write lots. Don't worry about how good it is; just enjoy writing.
  
  
• Show it to people whose opinion you trust, and listen carefully to their advice. If you agree, work on your writing to improve it (Don't worry, writers never get their book perfect the first time. Mine usually take about seven drafts!) If you don't agree with their advice, leave your story as it is. Trust your instincts.
  
  
• If you think you've written something good enough to be published and you've improved it as much as you possibly can, send it to a professional advisory service like Cornerstones (Check them out on my links page).
  
  
• Get hold of a copy of The Writers' & Artists' Yearbook, either from a bookshop or your local library. This tells you all the agents and publishers in the country and the kind of writing they're interested in.
  
  
• Once you feel ready to send your work off, start with agents. Make sure they are happy to look at unsolicited manuscripts and that they are interested in the kind of subjects your book is about. Read the advice in the book about how to send your work off.
  
  
• Then send it to a few agents, sit back and wait – and prepare yourself for lots of rejections before you find someone who wants to publish it. All the best writers get rejections at some point. (Even JK Rowling did!) It goes with the territory I'm afraid.
  

Good luck!