I know a lot of the readers of this site are also writers, so I've put together a list of tips for new writers (romance or otherwise) that I've learned from personal experience. Enjoy!

1. Write what you love. Don't write for the market. Don't target. I know some people say it's a good idea, but I can't work like that. Especially on your first book, write about what you love. It will be better that way, I promise.

2. If you don't know what you love, take some time to figure it out. If you get part-way into a book and don't love it, it's ok to stop and start again. Sometimes it takes a few false starts.

3. Write an entire book before you start pitching around to editors and agents.

4. Make a schedule with deadlines and keep working on a project always. Don't wait around for people to get back to you. Push ahead.

5. Get a website! Believe it or not, agents and editors actually do look at them. I've heard of cases where an editor/agent rejected a manuscript that a writer sent in, but then asked to see a different one that was listed on the writer's website. That's why I keep a list of completed and in progress books as well as a list of "proposals," which are really just blurbs of ideas for books I haven't had time to write yet, but will eventually. Usually only published authors get to work from proposals (the lucky dogs), but it can't hurt to have a few floating around, just in case.

6. Have a Bad Day project. I'm moody, I admit. This is the reason I keep a Bad Day manuscript around to work on when I'm just not in a Happily Ever After mood. I may never finish it, and even if I do, I'm willing to bet no one will publish it (at least not any romance line), but at least I'm working, even when I can't squeeze out any rainbows. And who knows? Maybe when it's done, I will have written the next Catcher in the Rye. Mother would be so proud.