Don't give up your day job. Becoming a successful, published writer who can live off of his or her writing is just about every writer's dream. However, even those who do have their writing published often don't make enough to support themselves and their families with that alone. Maybe one day you'll be able to live off of your writing, but it'll take a lot of work and a lot of time. For now, concentrate on building your writing resume by getting your work published for the honor alone!

Before you submit your writing, proofread and edit it carefully! Spell check doesn't catch everything! Make sure your poem, short story, or book manuscript is as free of grammatical errors and awkward prose as you can make it. For stories, make sure the plot flows! Some great writing is rejected without a second look because of too many typos!

When you've completed a poem, short story, novel, or a nonfiction book, enlist your friends and family to be your first outside readers. If you know anyone who's good with grammar and who can help you catch any errors you might have missed, ask for their help. However, even those without grammatical prowess can make excellent first readers. Ask them if any part of your writing was unclear and listen to their suggestions. Grow a backbone and don't take any criticism personally. If you need to hear it, you would rather hear it from those you know love you and then still have time to make changes than to hear it from an agent or publisher who blacklist your writing forever!

Consider hiring a professional editor. After you've made the changes your friends and family have suggested, you could still take advantage of another outside reader's opinion before you submit it to agents or publishers. Remember, you might have only one chance to impress them! On the Internet, you can find professional editing services as well as freelance editors who can proofread your writing and/or give you feedback on its effectiveness. They won't be afraid to hurt your feelings like your friends might have been, so they'll be completely honest. It's still better to hear it from them than the agents or publishers! Some editors charge a flat rate and some charge per word. Just be wary of scams and make sure there is positive customer feedback and/or a third-party payment protection system (offered by freelance market sites) before you hire an editor.

If your writing is short, think small before you think big. Poems and short stories are sometimes featured in book collections, but not as often as they are in magazines and online publications. Trying to find an agent for just a few poems or short stories will be a waste of time, especially when many writing magazines and Web sites take free submissions for publication and/or writing contests. Some magazines and Web sites charge for looking at submissions or entries into writing contests (usually around $5-25 per piece of writing), especially contests with a cash prize. These are often still legitimate, but there are many free submission options as well.

If your writing is long, go ahead and think big-but start small. If you have a novel or nonfiction book you want published, be aware that publishing houses ignore the majority of unsolicited manuscripts that they receive. You need an agent before you can think about publication houses, and before you can get an agent, you need to write a book proposal. In fact, you can write a nonfiction book proposal and submit it to agents before you complete or even start writing a nonfiction book. You may get money and have an interested publishing house based on the concept alone! However, this does not apply to fiction books; you must have a completed manuscript as well as a book proposal before you send out fiction book queries to agents-which is still a good idea for the nonfiction writer as well.

If you want a book published, write an effective book proposal. Agents and even agents' assistants don't have the time to read every manuscript that lands on their desk. When you send an agent a book query, the first and perhaps only thing he or she will read is your book proposal, not your manuscript itself. It's essential that your book proposal is not only reflective of your work, but persuasive and intriguing as well. Book proposals follow a specific formula, which is different depending on whether your book is fiction or nonfiction. Search online for book proposal instructions and examples and don't forget to edit your book proposal as thoroughly as you edited your manuscript.

Once you have a book proposal in hand, research agents thoroughly. Literary agent databases online make searching for the right agent for your work easy. You can search for agents who accept fiction or nonfiction in the genre that suits your work, make sure that the agents are actively accepting submissions, and check to see if they prefer e-mail or postal mail book queries and/or proposals. However, you can't rely on the database alone. Search the agent's own Web site for any additional information to make sure that you adhere to the agent's specific conditions for accepting work or you may be ignored.

Submit to 10 agents per week. Most agents don't mind-in fact, they encourage-simultaneous submissions, but be sure to try only the agents who do allow this practice. Agents can take weeks or even months before they look at your book query and if they're not interested, you wasted all of that time waiting. If you continue to send a book query to 10 agents per week (make sure they are all from different agencies), you'll increase your odds of contacting an interested agent.

If you can't wait or no agent is interested and you still believe in your work, publish it yourself! There are self-publishing companies online that make publishing your own work extremely easy for a fee that tends to range between $400 and $1200. You can elect to work with the self-publishing company's editors or rely on your own. You can publish a few copies of your book just to hand out to friends or you can pay for the company's marketing service, which sets your book up for sale across the Web and perhaps in book stores, too! However, most of the marketing for the book will still fall on your shoulders. If you can wait, working with an agent is ideal, but self-published authors can still experience success!