Fifteen years ago, I gave up a successful career as a speech therapist and educational consultant to write full time. What possessed me, you ask? I suspect it was viral. During a vacation, I began working on a novel for my own amusement. I had never previously considered myself a writer, but I found the process completely absorbing and compelling. As my time off expired, I couldn't bear the thought of giving up the book.

Still, quitting the day job made no sense. I had no contacts in publishing, no experience, no particular encouragement or support. My then-husband urged me to write in my spare time, but with two kids and two jobs, spare time was a scarce commodity, indeed.

Instead, I made a deal with myself. I would give the writing folly one year. Our savings were sufficient to ward off financial disaster for that long. If I had no success, I would go back to the kind of sensible job that assured a paycheck.

Faced with that intimidating deadline, I worked harder than I ever had in my life. Every day, I tried to add five pages to my novel, while also writing the essays and articles I hoped to sell to newspapers and magazines. I read writer's magazines and books on the craft. I studied target markets and learned everything I could about the publishing business. I sent out query letters and proposals and short pieces. My rejection collection grew to truly impressive proportions.

Then, the most astonishing thing happened. A small humorous essay I'd written sold to the New York Times. Two months and many more rejections later, I had a call from someone at Working Mother magazine. Thinking she was trying to sell me a subscription, I almost hung up on her. In fact she wanted to buy yet another of my essays. "Is five hundred dollars okay?" she asked. "That will be fine," I managed to say, thinking I would have paid her more for the privilege of having my name in print.

I felt much the same way when a major publisher bought my first novel before that deadline year elapsed. Currently, I'm working on my eleventh book. I've written over a hundred articles for major magazines and newspapers, as well as book reviews and short stories. My novels have been translated into nine languages and one (Someone's Watching) was adapted as an NBC Movie of the Week. My foreign publishers have sent me on tour through Australia, New Zealand, France, England and other countries.

Through it all, I've gotten hundreds of calls from people seeking advice about how to polish and market their written work. I have helped many of them to make the tricky transition from idea to manuscript to published book. There are no right answers or magic shortcuts. But hopefully, the information on this site will help ease your way through the process.