Our friends over at Kirkus are posting a weekly writing and publishing blog that lends practical advice from experts and “How I Did It” stories from some of the nation’s most successful authors and self-publishers. And they’re sharing it with IndieReader.

This week’s advice comes from Barbara Annino.

My path to publishing was a lot like Dorothy’s trip to Oz and back, complete with flying monkeys, false wizards and scarecrows lacking brains.

Except I didn’t get any free shoes.

You should know that I did everything one is supposed to do to become an author. I studied the craft for years. Worked in every writing job I could get my hands on. Wrote the best book that was in me, lined up beta readers, got feedback and revised, revised, revised. I perfected my query, researched agents and pitched at conferences.

I received several partial and full requests on the dozens of queries I sent but no offers. Then, in February 2008, I attended a conference where I pitched to a small press publisher. She took the first three chapters back to her room, invited me to dinner and asked for the full between the salad and the soup. I was over the rainbow.

I sent the manuscript to her the following Monday. Then I waited. And waited. In May, I received an offer of representation from an agent. Having never heard from the publisher and after a lengthy conversation where I asked all the right questions, I signed with the agent. A weeks later, he called to tell me that an editor at one of the Big Six was interested. I could practically see the Emerald City sparkling in the distance.

Read the entire post with Barbara Annino here.

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Barbra Annino is a Chicago native, a book junkie and Springsteen addict. A former bartender and humor columnist for Illinois Magazine, she finds the funny in just about everything. Now, she’s a happily married freelance writer in Galena, Ill., and a Lowe’s regular who is constantly covered in dust and paint thanks to an 1855 brick home, which her family shares with friendly spirits. Or not. But that’s what people tell her. She is currently working on Emerald Isle, the fourth book in the Stacy Justice series. For more on Barbra, visit her site at barbraannino.com.