Unpublished and hungry for a book deal? Introduce yourself to literary agents and book publishers so that it sticks in their minds. To be told: “Send me your manuscript. I want to read it.”

1: Create and refine the delivery aloud of a 3-minute speech for your unpublished book project.

Fiction tone sampler (thanks to New York Times Book Review and author’s website): “An Afghan-American returns to Kabul to find out how his friend has fared under the Taliban” is the story of my first novel. I was a skinny, skinny 11-year-old seventh grader when I left Afghanistan with my family. I recently returned to Kabul after completing my manuscript, traveling as a 38-year-old Northern California-based physician, writer, husband, and father of two. My name is Khaled Hosseini. Can I send you a synopsis and 50 initial pages for my manuscript entitled The kite flyer? Here is my business card.”

Nonfiction Speech Sample: “I am 80 years old, an accomplished painter working with studios in Paris and New York, as well as a published writer and poet, and a feminist. From the age of 22 in the 1940s, I lived for a decade .with Picasso, I left him and then raised two of his children. Since then I have been married to the painter Luc Simon and to Dr. Jonas Salk, who developed the polio vaccine. My name is Françoise Gilot. Can I send you a book proposal? with sample chapters for my memoirs? Here’s my business card.”

To practice, visit online the New York Times Book Review‘s and other best-seller lists, study the one-sentence commercials, come up with one that features your own work. Practice your presentation at home in front of a mirror, with other writers, with friends and family, with strangers you meet in bookstores. Practice your speech until your speech is confident, short, sweet, and perfect.

2: Create a DIY website and start blogging. Launch an ezine, develop a following, and capture visitor data. Keep writing your book.

3. Design author business cards and an email signature that includes your 3-minute pitch and all your contact information, your blog, your website, your ezine. Keep these taped and tacked cards on your person, at work, in your car at all times. Give your card to everyone everywhere. Post your cards in coffee shops, library bulletin boards, online in writing communities.

4. Build an author platform database using the information and cards you collect from people you know who visit your website. Reach out in person and meet the managers and buyers of your local chain and independent bookstores.

5. Contact book review publishers across the country, from very local to very national, and start reviewing books for them online and offline using a line with the title of your “next” book, its URL, ezine and blog. Add these names to your platform’s database. Keep writing your book.

6. Write personal essays, short stories, and 250-500 word articles on your book topic using one line with the title of your “upcoming” book, its URL, ezine, and blog. Send copies to agents and publishers you’ve targeted, other bloggers, eziners, webmavens, your local booksellers.

7. Join writing and publishing groups and volunteer. Write for newsletters and insert your signature. Agree to help out at events and escort speakers to and from conferences. Exchange business cards with everyone you meet. Add everything to your platform database.

8. Look for author readings and writer’s conferences within walking distance of your home and attend them. Become a regular. Go have a coffee with the people you meet there; exchange business cards; Write print and online reviews of published books by authors you know to spread the word about your signature. Add more entries to your database. Attend conferences and post trade events and shows further and further from home. The net. The net. Collect business cards. Add to your database. Keep writing your book.

9. Find your way online for bloggers and writers interested in book publishing. Link websites and expand your database with addresses and links to people who read, write, sell and publish books. Keep writing your book.

10. Give a talk on your topic at local libraries, in elementary and middle school language arts or other classes. Teach adult education workshops on writing, blogging, ezine, and book reviews. Make sure your full signature appears in course catalogs and websites. Hand out your business cards to students. Collect the addresses of each attendee and add them to your database. Keep writing your book.

11. Expand your website with new pages to download your online or print byline pieces, your writer’s activities and schedule (volunteer events count!). Offer free teleseminars and workshops online. Keep writing your book.

12. Cheer up, so we can buy your book when it’s published and find you on Oprah. Good luck!