Your best bet of getting published in a magazine? “Start with little, tiny pieces—pieces that are 200 words, 150 words, 400 words,” says Sosienski. “Then, once [the editors] trust you, they’ll give you bigger and [longer] pieces.”

Test out book ideas with articles.
Chambers recommends writing articles about the topic you’re hoping to turn into a book for a few publications first—even if the pay for the article is low or nonexistent.

“The piece that I turned in to the company that published my [memoir] about my mom, Mama's Girl, was a story that I wrote for a paper that they were giving out on the streets of New York for free,” says Chambers, who adds that having these published articles “shows a publisher that you can take something from beginning to end. Which is really what it’s all about.”

Get your book noticed.
Big publishing houses get mountains of unsolicited manuscripts that all get tossed into a pile that interns flip through during their free moments. If you want your book manuscript to get noticed, find the name of an employee at the publishing company to send it to.

Or better yet, suggests Chambers, look through books that are similar to your style and see who the writer thanks as her agent, then ask her to represent you.

PROFESSIONAL ADVICE
“When you’re dealing with editors, book publishers and agents, [keep in mind that] they deal with things exactly like you [do]—in a very quick fashion,” advises Sosienski. “Keep pitches short and sweet. You don’t need to convince them, either your idea is right or [it’s] not.”