If you're looking to write about a subject that has deeper meaning than what Lindsay Lohan has been eating lately, there are spiritual writing outlets out there for you. I chatted with Freelance Marketplace Jenni Kosarin, who is the author of books like Everything Divining the Future (Adams Media, 2003) and Everything Astrology (Adams Media, 2005) and is currently working on a book called He's Just Not In The Stars: Wicked Astrology and Uncensored Advice For Getting The (Almost) Perfect Guy (HarperCollins, Harper Entertainment, 2006)

"Let's have a look into my crystal ball," the kindly Professor Marvel tells Dorothy.
"You have a crystal ball?" she asks in horror.
"I had an accident ..."

Maybe spirituality and New Age topics have always fascinated you. Maybe your best buddy, back in the early 90s, waxed poetic about self-help books like Louise L. Hay's You Can Heal Your Life or Richard Carlson's You Can Be Happy No Matter WhatSo you read them. Loved them.

Then you graduated to fun, spiritual, lesson-learning fiction: The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield; Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach; anything by Paulo Coehlo.

Or possibly, you've read every astrology and tarot card book on the shelves. Practiced divining the future-in order to avoid dealing with that wayward gypsy "psychic" on your block. She promised to ward off bad luck by lighting a candle for you, and, instead, succeeded only in depleting your wallet.

You thought, well I can write these books. And then you realized: Damn. No, I can't. I'm no spiritual counselor/teacher (Hays) or psychologist (Carlson).

Truth is, this business will look at what makes you-and you, alone-qualified to write about spirituality. So, you do have to be some kind of "expert." In other words, if you've studied it, put that down in your bio. If you were in an astrology group you held with other believers, ditto. Chakras. Feng Shui. I Ching. Find an angle. Whatever you do, find an angle because publishing houses will be looking for something that makes you marketable ... Something unique: that demonstrates you're qualified to give the rest of us your pearls of wisdom.

Now, go and buy The Writer's Market or Jeff Herman's Writer's Guide. If you have access to an agent, contact her or him. After you get a proposal together. However, you can do it without an agent, too (more on this below).

Incidentally, the proposal for a non-fiction book includes title, genre (left corner), summary (a paragraph summing it up), overview (about 8-10 pages stating your point in an interesting way), a chapter outline, bio (your history and training-leave out college awards and other unimportant data unless you're a recent graduate), competition (what your book most resembles on the market and how yours is different), publicity (what contacts you have, including blogs and access to talk shows, etc.), and target market (who your book is geared toward; statistics help). The proposal can be anywhere from 12-20 pages, and it should include at least one finished chapter (the first).

For a spiritual fiction book, the entire book must be written-especially if you have nothing else published. They'll want to see the arc of the story, and that you can sustain the characters and the forward movement of the plot.

Now. Again, this happens to be a great genre to break into, even without an agent. There are some publishing companies who have a line of spirituality books. Series-like For Dummies guides-are constantly coming up with new, hot topics every year. They contract these books out to "spiritual" writers. Or, they contract out rewrites of their line of spirituality books, already on the shelves.

You can introduce yourself. Tell them what your topics are. If they ask you to write an outline for them, do it. They're interested. If not, ask if you can do one for them. Contact the person in charge of hiring writers for their line of series books and state your case.

Never write to a house and say: "Astrology has always fascinated me. That's why I'd like to write about ..." Tell them who you are, what you do. No "I've read lotsa books about destiny ..." (Though, if your grandma was an astrologer or a psychic-you can mention that.)

These publishing companies also have acquisitions departments-if you want to propose your own ideas. However, assignments on series books are a great way to start out. Houses such as Adams Media, For Dummies, Alpha, Llewellyn, and others, are open to new writers who aren't agented. Most of these companies are looking for psychics who can write, not writers who can write about being psychic-just so you know. That's key. Again, they're looking for "experts" in the field.

Perhaps New Age writing is your forte. Only time will tell. Just remember: nothing is set in stone. You make your own destiny.

Now go get, um, spiritual.