Writing waited, and waited, for TA Powell.

Titles welled up inside her. So did characters and storylines. But she kept the words from tumbling onto script and novel pages - until a doctor diagnosed her tumor, a daughter led her to the theater and a husband dared.

Together, they helped Powell push her passion for the craft to the center of her life around age 45.

"If you wake up in the morning and all you want to do is write, then you're a writer," she said, before discussing how her career delay netted a reservoir of characters. "You end up having that many people living in your head. If I can get any one of them to pay rent, I'd be an extremely lucky woman."

Publishing, she later learned, would be an even more alluring prize.

Polished products delivered to industry execs drew little love for the Iowa native, who can spin routine conversation into spellbinders. She attended writing conventions, workshops and patiently accepted the bad mail, bristling a bit with each rejection letter beginning with "Mrs. Powell."

One wry conversation with a literary pro - who ultimately contracted seven of Powell's plays for Heuer Publishing - described a sense felt by many unpublished writers.

"The pages are so straight, I'm barely certain they haven't been ruffled," Powell told the woman of her previous experience with publishers who promised to read. "If you're going to reject me, can you send (a pink letter). I don't like that shade of institutional green."

Deidre Knight has worked on the other side of the writing desk for 10 years as lead literary agent and founder of The Knight Agency in Madison. Specializing in women's fiction and romance genres, her professional group has sold more than 450 titles to publishers such as Penguin Putnam, Random House, Simon and Schuster and others.

Several of her clients were previously unpublished, including award-winning romance writer Karen Marie Moning and paranormal fiction writer Gena Showalter. Both were unpublished before Knight took them as clients. She did so after they'd moved past the first-time pitfalls Knight views as common in query letters and manuscripts.

"Probably the No. 1 thing is (writers) not doing their homework about the right agency," Knight said. "If you're writing fantasy you don't want to target someone (dealing in) nonfiction."

Another problem is new writers who complete their inaugural work believe it is their best and most publishable work. That is not often the case.

First novels should be considered "training wheels," preparation for the real deal, she said.

Knight, for instance, finished her first novel, and it did not attract publishers. But her second series sold on the pitch alone. Titled "Parallel Attraction," Knight's first book was released by Penguin this spring.

She knew how to attack her work better, having completed and learned through the first book.

"It's why I waited so long to submit," she said, mentioning her first novel she wrote knowing it would be a hard sell. "(First-time writers) Their work is not really ready, yet."

Rejection, Knight said, is part of the learning process - for agents, too.

She has passed on projects that have become successful and still frets when deciding whether or not to sign an author.

"This is the most subjective business on earth," she said. "It just takes one. One editor, one house that can get behind you. What five people hate, the sixth will love."

Powell learned that through the maze of representatives she approached about her plays. Now she has a novel in tow, with ideas for follow-ups.

Her advice is not to get bogged down in the business. Just write.

"It's not always about the paperwork," Powell said. "It's about the passion."

COMMON MISTAKES

• Sending unsolicited or unpolished manuscripts.

• Pitching a work of literature to an agent or publisher that specializes in a different genre than you do.

• Believing writing a compelling novel or script is easy. "We use writing as a basic form of communication. That doesn't mean you have the ability to actually tell a story."

SELLING TIPS

• Know your audience by studying writers who've had success in the genre, or category of literature, you're targeting.

• Consider your first novel a practice run. Refine your craft with multiple drafts and edits.

• Stay true to yourself. Writing about a subject or characters you don't care about shows.

Source: Deidre Knight, literary agent and founder of The Knight Agency and author of "Parallel Attraction."