10. Belief! Without belief in yourself and your skills as a writer you won't go far. If you don't believe in yourself, why should anyone else? You must believe without a shadow of doubt that your work deserves to be on a bookstore shelf. Without BELIEF, the first 9 must-haves will be useless.
9. Dedication - you must dedicate yourself to writing the best possible works you can and to always learning about the craft of writing and the business of publishing and promoting.
8. Persistence - this is a slow moving business and you must be able to persevere no matter what. You WILL get rejection letters. Your work WILL be rejected. But it's a numbers game. Wade through the nos to get to that yes! Keep moving forward no matter the roadblocks.
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10. Nora Roberts
9. Eloisa James
8. Linda Castillo
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10. Your Heart Belongs to Me
9. Shadowfires
8. Odd Hours
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10. La Shawn Barber's Corner (La Shawn Barber)
9. Field Negro (Wayne Bennett)
8. Living Life Abundantly (Marenda Taylor)
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10. The Alexandria Link, by Steve Berry (pub 2007)
9. The Amber Room, by Steve Berry (pub 2006)
8. Heat, by Stuart Woods (pub 1994)
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10. Living with Borderline Personality Disorder - http://lwbpd.blogspot.com
9. Alix Rites - http://alixrites.blogspot.com
8. Borderline Blog - http://www.borderlineblog.com
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10. "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat." – Teddy Roosevelt
9. "Whether or not you write well, write bravely." – Bill Stout
8. "Talent is helpful in writing, but guts are absolutely necessary." – Jessamyn West
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10. Neal Stephenson (1959--present)
9. David Brin (1950--present)
8. Greg Bear (1951--present)
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10. “These ideas sound like a 13 year old thought of them” - Anonymous - October 23rd, 2008
9. “Wow. I didn’t know you had reached “the apex of the blogosphere” with the ability to “launch careers” of heretofore unknown artists. Next time I stop by I’ll make sure read your posts with the proper reverence. Who do you think you are, Robert fucking Christgau? Get over yourself.” - Anonymous - July 1st, 2008
8. “Oh, please. We barely make any profit on vinyl. We press out RTI on HQ180 vinyl, and manufacture gatefold sleeves at Stoughton - the costs are huge. Those Burma records - the originals of which are extremely hard to find btw! - were remastered all-analog, live from the original master tapes, without a computer or any digital processing, at Sterling. Do you have any idea how time-consuming and expensive that is? In addition, there are extra tracks not on the original vinyl. We are actually LOSING money on the Burma reissues - they’re a total labor of love. Sorry, but you have no idea what you’re talking about.” - Patrick@Matadorrecords.com - May 1st, 2008
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10. Confessions of a Shopaholic, by Sophie Kinsella
9. Crafty books by my creative girlfriends: Jill MacKay, Marie Browning, Katie Hacker & more
8. Books by Debbie Macomber - lots of 'um!
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