1. Do have something in the hopper to pitch at all times. While you’re querying your next book or series, keep your creative mind active by brainstorming, jotting down notes, and organizing research.
2. Don’t try to write like someone else. No one else thinks like you, has your life experiences, your collective information, your communication style, or your voice. Copying someone else’s approach means your unique offering is lost—and the world misses out.
3. Do share yourself authentically with the public. Masks don’t work. Allow the truth of who you are to resonate with readers and listeners as you speak from the page and the stage.
4. Don’t let someone else’s negative opinion of your writing stop you. No published piece is loved by everyone. Editors, agents, and readers will often view your work differently. Accept positive encouragement when it’s helpful and honest, but don’t disregard unbiased criticism—it will make you a better writer.
5. Do get out and live life on a regular basis—otherwise you’ll have nothing fresh to write about.
6. Don’t let resentment over another writer’s success distract you from your own work. Instead, celebrate their achievements with them. Not only will you feel better, but human beings are drawn to help positive people, not those who are jealous, jaded, or jerks.
7. Do focus on improving your writing—constantly. Read and re-read books on honing your craft until you develop a master’s degree worth of knowledge on writing well.
8. Don’t be afraid to let a word, sentence, paragraph, chapter, or even an entire project go. Sometimes, a piece doesn’t work, and you shouldn’t waste time and energy trying to force a square concept into a round career. Allow yourself to move on if you feel like you’re pulling splinters to make things fit.
9. Do take care of the people who support, encourage, and follow you. We are all in this world together, and readers are more than people we get something from, (sales), they are people who need the same things from us that they give—support, encouragement, and attention.
10. Don’t expect publication to heal all your hurts and provide lasting happiness. The real you will always hide behind the public persona. Learn to like him/her, then no matter what happens with your writing, you will be okay.
11. Do understand the power of influence. The greater the number of people who like your book(s) and are willing to say so publicly, the more other people will like what you write.
12. Don’t nit-pick, condescend, attack, grumble, or fight with others on social media forums. Followers don’t forget, and often their memory shapes future decisions to support you or not. Breaking the Golden Rule can become a deal-breaker for some of our readers.
Which of these twelve points are the most difficult for you? The easiest?
WordServe Water Cooler 
The hardest one of your points for me would be letting go of a project I’ve worked on. And the easiest is probably always having something to pitch. Yet prioritizing can be a problem, knowing which project to focus on, because multi-tasking is often very difficult. But you knew that about me, right? Great points, Anita!
I agree with your hardest and easiest, and your point about prioritization is spot on. Sometimes we have lots of ideas, but either don’t organize our thoughts well in preparation for presentation, or we just aren’t sure which one to focus on next. 🙂
It used to be letting go old projects … but they’ve turned out to be stepping stones and learning opportunities along the way. Someone else’s negative opinion is still hard to cope with as I need other people to believe in what I’m doing. Therefore, I find it hard to keep going und finish a writing project without editorial support or some kind of contract that the text will see the day of (printed) life.