By Leslie Lindsay

Aside from the fact that I just unpacked my bags and have a completed a revised draft of my manuscript, I am still under the (perhaps false) impression I can pull this off. 

My agent pitch session is scheduled for Saturday mid-morning.  It’s my best time, personally.  Here’s how I figure:  I’ll have all day Friday to connect with conference fiolks and fill my head with lots of really great writing tips and tricks.  By the time Saturday mid-morning rolls around, I’ll be set.  (art work courtesy of my 8year old daughter) 

I think. 

If you are like most writers, you are probably scratching your head and wondering, “Can I do this?” 

According to The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published by Arielle Eckstut and David Henry Sterry, there are a good number of skills, criteria, personality that goes into making an author.  Do you have what it takes?

• Can you spend many, many hours working on something that may never see the light of day?
• Are kids, partners, job, and recreation going to be obstancles that you can get around?
• Do you  have the discipline, focus, and attention span it takes to make a book and get it published?
• Are you self-motivated enough to grind it out month after month?
• Can you stand being alone in a room, staring at a blank computer screen or an empty piece of paper?
• Can you put aside regular chunks of time to work on your book?
• Do you have the desire to share your life to make the time you need?
• Beside the hundreds of hours you spend writing your book, will you also be willing to set aside chunks of your day in the great time suck known as social networking, and then continue to nurture those networks for an indefininte period of time?

The authors of this book suggest you take a long, hard look at those questions and answer them brutally honest.  If you can say “yes” to a good majority of them, then you are probably on the right track. 

But, that’s only the beginning.

Next, you need to pick the right idea.  Then you need to effectively carry it out. And after it’s all said and done, you’ll need to “shop it around,” that is, get the right agent to represent it. 

And then the revisions.  (Again).  See bullet points above. 

Hemingway once said, “the hard part about writing a novel is finishing it.”  Well said, Hemingway, well said. 

[Disclaimer:  Image source: www.amazon.com 4.11.13, and also purchased thru Amazon.  Author of this post owns this book.  She does not know the authors of the book either professionally or personally.]