Now that my book is getting more press, people have started asking me how I got a book deal. I'll share with you two things I did.

1. I bought Write the Perfect Book Proposal by Jeff Herman and Deborah Levine Herman. Then I wrote a proposal. That took a long time. It is long and hard and it takes a lot of work. But you have to do that first because if anyone is interested in you they will ask for it immediately. It also helps when querying agents to have all of your information crafted because each of them wants something different.

2. I bought the Writer’s Market. Then I started sending query letters to agents listed in that book until I found one that would represent me. Once I had her, she started pitching my idea to publishing houses. I did as much research about an agent as I could before I sent her a letter. I never sent out mass queries.

Steps one and two took about one year (granted, I only worked on it about an hour each day). I got the agent in August of 2007 and the book deal in February 2008.