LAST YEAR, WHEN I was eleven, I started writing a book.

It was about some people who got mad at the human race and went underground. Not like spies or secret informers. They really went down underneath ground. They called themselves the Mole People, and their idea was to start a whole new civilization that would come up and take over the old rotten one they were so mad at.

Well, this book never got published. Or so far it hasn’t, anyway. I sent it out, but you know how it is in the publishing world. You can’t get a foot in the door. The book publishers say they won’t take your book unless you have an agent, and the agents say they won’t take it unless you have a publisher.

I didn’t give up, though, and this story about how I became a writer is the evidence of that. It probably won’t get published, either, but that’s okay. A lot of writers don’t make it at first. In fact, if you ask me, that’s one of the best definitions of a writer: some-body who didn’t make it yet, but they aren’t giving up. They’ll be shot before they give up.

People think getting published is the main part about being a writer. THEY’RE WRONG. A lot more comes into it, like how great it is to sit down and write a story out of your own head. You might feel terrible later if the story doesn’t get any notice, but that’s not what you remember if you’re a writer. You remember how you sat down and wrote something amazing, far beyond what you ever thought you could, and you’re hoping like mad you can do it again.

Anybody who wants to find out about this, and also about some tight situations a writer can get in along the way, should turn the page and keep reading. It’s all here in black and white.

But listen: if you already have a story you wrote, and you’re in a sweat to send it out but you’re not sure how, just turn to page 152 and follow what I did. I wouldn’t mind if you read that part first. However this book can help people be writers, I’m for it.