Relationships are everything to a writer. As the old saying goes: “It’s who you know.” And who knows you.

If you have no editorial contacts at all, and are starting your career, your primary aim should be to build relationships.

When I started writing, around 30 years ago, I knew no one in publishing, and yet my first sale as a novelist was a series of romance novels to an English publisher. (I live in Australia.)

I did it one letter at a time. I wrote to publishers, and when the response was positive, sent requested material, usually a couple of chapters and a synopsis.

So start getting to know people. Send an email message. Send a letter. Create a Web site or a blog.

It all starts with you. Make contact, and before you know it, you’ll acknowledge the wisdom of “It’s who you know”.

Nominees: The Edgar® Awards reports:

Best Novel Nominees

Christine Falls by Benjamin Black (Henry Holt and Company)
Priest by Ken Bruen (St. Martin’s Minotaur)
The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon (HarperCollins)
Soul Patch by Reed Farrel Coleman (Bleak House Books)
Down River by John Hart (St. Martin’s Minotaur)

If it’s not on the page; it doesn’t exist.

(Similar to Angela’s Law of Getting It Done: if it’s not written down, it won’t happen.)
Let’s say that your heroine is compassionate. You understand this. As part of the prep for the book, you’ve written 20 pages of this woman’s life story so that you could understand her.

You know she’s a member of Amnesty International, she’s “adopted” a lizard at the local zoo, and she ushers spiders gently out of the bathroom, rather than swatting them with a rolled-up newspaper.

It’s not enough, however, for you to know it. You’ve got to show your heroine acting in a compassionate way on the page.

A major part of a first revision is getting all the material out of your head onto the page. (Don’t worry about it in your first draft. Just make a note on the typescript: “Show compassionate streak”, so you don’t forget later.)