I am asked often "what advice can you give me to get published?" My first advice is to invest in yourself, and you can find my written advice on that topic on the For Writers page.

But if you're asking "what tools can I invest in?", here are some recommendations. Every so often I will update this page to include more tools, such as advice about editors, proposals, and agents. But for now, let's start with the books that I depend on as the core of my writer library. These should be on your Christmas list this season!

#1. If you only have $15, buy this book. Self Editing for Fiction Writers, by Renni Browne and Dave King. It is the most concise book on editing and fiction writing I have ever read, or will read. All of my editors have it as their top pick. Buy it now! As Sol Stein, the writer's guru says, even "published novelists ought to read Self Editing for Fiction Writers once a year."

#2. James Scott Bell is a personal friend and a valued mentor. His text Plot and Structure is the best there is for laying out the book, and for helping you develop the discipline you need to write every day. As he says on his cover, it provides "the techniques and exercises for crafting a plot that grips readers from start to finish." I use his techniques to write every one of my novels.

#3. The Christian Writer's Market Guide by Sally Stuart is more than a list of agents and publishers. It is the up-to-date wisdom of what is happening in the Christian writing industry and is an essential element of your library. Get to a writer's conference soon and meet Sally. She's an amazing woman, with a wealth of information to provide you through her constant research.

#4. The First Five Pages, by Noah Lukeman, takes you through an in-depth analysis of the pages that a potential reader will thumb through as she makes a decision to buy your book. If those pages sing with the skill of a polished writer, you will likely sell your book. Use this amazing little text to make those pages perfect. Avoid common manuscript errors and take your writing to a higher level.

#5. A Christian Writer's Manual of Style by Bob Hudson and Shelley Townsend provides the Christian writing and editing details you don't find, or don't want to search for, in the Chicago Manual of Style. It's another short but powerful text that will be your standard reference guide for Christian publishing.

#6. Want to create a better character? Invest in Please Understand Me II by David Kiersey and The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman. I learned from my editor, friend and mentor Jeff Gerke (www.wherethemapends.com) of the importance of building characters that are real. You'll learn more about yourself and build better characters with the resources these books provide. And surf over to Jeff's site to learn more about his INCREDIBLE character creation system. It's well worth your time. Jeff edited two of my novels and he continues to advise me in my writing career. Want more? Get a copy of Getting Into Character by the spell-binding author Brandilyn Collins. Hers are proven techniques to create vivid and believable characters.

#7. Have you heard of the Snowflake Method? The king of Internet Tiger Marketing and inventor of the Snowflake Method will lead you step by step in advanced fiction writing. Learn more about Randy Ingermanson and his fiction writing techniques at http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/. I've used his method and his advice on every one of my novels. I highly recommend Randy and his products.

Watch in the coming weeks for more tools. For now, buy yourself some books and curl up with the masters of writing this winter. They will help you elevate your writing to a new and better level.