At nearly every school I visit, there are students who love to write and who have tried to get their writing published. Unfortunately, too few of their stories get published-and it doesn't make them feel better when I tell them that it took me hundreds of tries to get my first story published.

Those hundreds of rejections taught me that there is a big difference between the writing end and the selling end of this business. Now, I write as well as possible when my computer is on. But when I shut it off, I try to think of myself as a salesman, and that attitude has really helped.

This issue's writing tip, then, is about selling your writing. I hope it helps...

A man knocks at your mom's front door tomorrow, holds out a gadget for her inspection, and asks her to invest $20,000 in it.

If she saw a limousine in the background, recognized the man as Michael Jordan, and realized this gadget would revolutionize basketball, chances are she might invest. But if this man was a stranger in grubby clothes and had greasy hair and an unshaven face, and if his gadget seemed of little use or if it didn't work, she would probably dismiss him immediately.

Unlike Michael Jordan, this stranger has no track record to ensure success. Yet, unlike a shabby caller, he has made a good first impression through politeness, intelligent conversation, smart grooming and a nice business suit. This stranger's gadget? It works first try, and there is nothing like it in stores right now. At that point, if she had the money, your mom would at least consider risking money on this investment.

As a writer, each time you send out a manuscript to be published as a book, you become that stranger knocking at someone's front door. Because in so doing, you're asking someone you've never met to invest $15,000 to $20,000 to produce 3,000 to 10,000 copies of your book.

If you're not at the top end of the scale-a well-known writer whose name alone guarantees book sales-you must make a good first impression to get invited inside for that cup of coffee and to have your manuscript considered.

However, if your cover letter is sloppy, if your manuscript is not neatly typed, if you don't follow the simple conventions of presentation common to all professional writers, you will appear as sloppy as a shabby stranger with dirty fingernails.

And if you haven't polished and repolished every page, chances are your manuscript will generate as little interest as a gadget that doesn't work.

While good writing is art, publishing is business. So when you shut your computer off, leave the writing world behind and become a business person-focus on presentation and product. This alone will put you ahead of most adult writers. After all, editors can't guess how old you are by looking at the paper and print-and if your work gets them thinking you are an older professional writer, that means you really are one.