Interview with Author Consultant Mark Malatesta

Interview With Author Consultant Mark
Malatesta

What
is Literary
Agent Undercover ?

Literary
Agent Undercover
helps authors of all genres get top literary agents, publishers, and
book deals. I founded Literary
Agent Undercover
in August 2011, after closing my literary agency called New
Brand Agency Group
(more about that below).

Literary
Agent Undercover
offers a free weekly newsletter, insider articles, audio and video
training (including interviews with top literary agents), the world’s
best Directory
of Literary Agents (online), an interactive Ask
a Literary Agent area (online), and 1-on-1
Coaching and Consulting Services (in person, by phone, and/or
Skype).

Literary
Agent Undercover is
for authors that fit into one of the following categories: 1)
Unpublished authors just starting to write (or pitch) their book(s),
2) Self-published authors who now want to find a real (traditional)
publisher, and 3) Previously published authors who’ve lost their
agent and/or publisher and want to find a new one.

Exactly
what do you do in any given day?

Most
days I get up at 5 am (thanks to 5
am Wake Up Call guru Bryce Chapman in Australia) and spend a few
hours in my home office before going to the gym for a couple hours
(weights, cardio, and laps in the pool keep me sane). Most authors
would probably be surprised to learn that I only spend two days a
week coaching, but I spend much of my time “offline” editing
query letters, book proposals, etc.

I
also post new content on my Literary
Agents Blog each week, and make time to respond personally to
every question and comment posted there. I do a lot of speaking at
live events and online as well. And I coach high-level entrepreneurs
with my wife, Ingrid Elfver, through Born
Celebrity. Lastly, if it’s a Sunday afternoon or Monday night,
there’s a good chance I’ll be watching American football. I’m a
huge fan, much to my wife’s disappointment (football is the
“f-word” in our house).

Who
are some of the best-selling authors you have worked with?

Although
my author consulting company Literary
Agent Undercover
is only two years old, I’ve already helped dozens of authors (in
the United States and abroad) get the attention of top literary
agents and/or book deals with major publishing houses like Random
House and Thomas Nelson. Click here to see some of our Success
Stories. I’ve also listed below most of the book deals I was
personally responsible for as
the owner of New
Brand Agency,
before I founded Literary
Agent Undercover
(I’ve excluded TV, film, stage, and other subsidiary rights for
sake of space).

NONFICTION:
The Marriage
Plan by
Aggie Jordan, Ph.D. (Broadway/Sourcebooks); Soul
Sex: Tantra For Two
by Pala Copeland and Al Link (NewPage); The
Husband Book
by Harry Harrison (Andrews McMeel); The
Women’s Guide to Legal Issues
by Nancy Jones (Renaissance); Say
Yes to Change
by George and Sedena Cappanelli (F&W); Father
To Son; Mother to Son; Father to Daughter; and
Mother to Daughter
by Harry Harrison (Workman); Eat
Or Be Eaten
by Phil Porter (Prentice-Hall); The
Crisis Counselor
by Jeff Caponigro (Contemporary); Get
Weird! by
John Putzier (Amacom); Money-Tree
Marketing by
Patrick & Jennifer Bishop (Amacom); Creative
Selling by
Dave Donelson (Entrepreneur); Fearless
Brewing by
Brian Kunath (Chartwell); The
Dog’s Drugstore
by Richard Redding & Myrna Papurt (St. Martin’s). ADULT
FICTION:
24/7
and Black
Valley by
Jim Brown (Ballantine); Multiple Novels by Rae Foley (Simon &
Schuster); BloodTrail
by Michael Sullivan (Jameson). YOUNGER
READERS: The
Body of Christopher Creed and
many other young adult novels by Carol Plum-Ucci  (Harcourt);
The Finnegan
Zwake Mystery Series
by Michael Dahl (Pocket/Scholastic); The
Young Shakespeare Mystery Series
by Linda Fisher (Hyperion); The
Misfits, Inc. Mystery Series
by Mark Delaney (Peachtree); Multiple Young Adult Novels by Susan
Rottman (Peachtree/Penguin).

Please
note that I’m no longer an active literary agent—the only work
that I do now with authors is in a coaching/consulting capacity.
Also, “Mark Malatesta” is my birth name and “Mark Ryan” is my
stepfather’s name. So, if you’re Googling me to check out my
literary agent history, make sure you search for “New Brand Agency”
and/or “Mark Ryan.” When I was 16 years old (and didn’t know
better) my mother remarried and asked me to take on my stepfather’s
name. I agreed but never developed a meaningful relationship with my
stepfather, so I finally changed my name back to my birth name “Mark
Malatesta” in 2007 (after I stopped being a literary agent).

How
does having an agent benefit an author?

There
are many benefits to having a literary agent. The most important one
is the fact that 95% of traditional publishers like Random House
don’t accept unsolicited submissions from authors. If you send them
your material, they’ll return it to you unopened. Literary agents
are essentially gatekeepers that read (on average) more than 1,000
pitches each month from authors. Then they take the best of the best
and work (for free) until they get you a book deal (and collect a
commission if they’re successful).

Here
are some other reasons to work with a literary agent:

Agents
Know Exactly Who to Send Your Book To

Book
agents are familiar with individual publishers and their lists.
Agents are also intimate with the preferences, strengths, and
weaknesses of individual editors at publishing houses. That knowledge
will allow your agent to submit your book to the perfect editors at
the best publishers for you.

Publishers
Will Take Your Work More Seriously

Top
agents have access to senior editors and other publishing executives
due to the agent’s track record of success. This allows agents to
pitch books face-to-face (sometimes with the author present), submit
books to publishers simultaneously, hold auctions, and get deals done
faster.

You’ll
Get Better Contract Terms

Book
agents are skilled negotiators who can get you larger advances and
higher royalty rates, multi-book deals, bonuses for any awards or
special recognition that your book gets, a bigger promotional budget,
hardcover and paperback edition commitments, an earlier publication
date, etc.

Your
Agent Will Troubleshoot Any Problems

Agents
handle any challenges that come up during the publication or
post-publication process, so you don’t have to. For example:
editors that are difficult, fired, laid-off, or retire; title changes
or bad book cover design; bad reviews or publicity; poor book sales;
changes in the industry or marketplace; etc.

Your
Agent Might Bring You Extra Book Ideas & Book Deals

You
might not be aware of this, but top book agents often bring their
authors ideas for new books. Sometimes those book ideas are something
the agent came up with. Other times, the ideas are something an
editor with a publishing house came up with. There’s never been an
easier way to get a book deal.

What
can authors do before they seek an agent that will help them get one?

My
answer to this question will make some authors very happy; it will
irritate others. That’s because I’m going to say something that
many authors won’t be expecting and might not want to hear.

Here
it is…

Learning
how to write a bestselling book often has a lot less to do with
talent than most authors realize.

Yes,
talent is overrated.

And
that’s not just my opinion.

If
you want to know how to write a bestseller, you probably don’t need
more natural talent. You need a
writer’s education.
And I’m not talking about some literary, highbrow, ivory tower
education made up of academia and MFAs (not that there’s anything
wrong with that). I’m talking about a practical, down-to-earth,
reality-based, how to write a bestseller education. And that type of
education is made up of seven simple parts.

Which
one(s) do you need to add to your repertoire?

HOW
TO WRITE A BESTSELLER – 7 STEPS

Conscious
Reading

You
can’t learn how to write a bestselling book without reading a lot…
but I don’t just mean reading bestselling authors in your genre
that you admire.
You should also be reading bestselling authors in your genre that you
don’t
like. And, you should read bestselling authors in
other
genres.

You
also need to read consciously.
When you’re reading purely for pleasure,
you can permit yourself to get lost in a author’s story or style.
However, when you’re reading for
business
(how to write a bestseller), you should be studying the context of
what you’re reading.

Pay
attention to what you’re thinking and feeling as you’re reading.
Peek “behind the curtain” where the author is busy pulling
his/her strings. Try to deconstruct what’s happening, and why. When
you feel something, try to figure out what you’re feeling and why
you’re feeling it.

Writing,
Writing, Writing

Duh.

This
should be obvious, but some writers think they can learn how to write
a bestselling book without paying their dues. In other words,
you can’t learn how to write a bestseller without spending
thousands of hours writing. I’m talking pure volume here.

A
good idea for a bestselling book isn’t the same as a good idea for
a bestselling book in
the hands of an experienced writer.

Rewriting

One
of the biggest mistakes writers make is measuring themselves (mainly)
by how much writing they’ve done. But it’s not just volume that
matters. It’s quality.
And the best way to improve the quality of your writing is rewriting.
Unfortunately, hard work alone doesn’t always lead to extraordinary
results. It has to be the right
hard work.

In
other words, if you want to learn how to how to write a bestselling
book, you have to design your “writing time” to your specific
needs. For example, most writers spend most (or all) of their writing
time doing one thing: writing. And they spend very little (or no time
at all) rewriting.
Some writers do this for ten years, write ten books during that time,
and never get published (because they didn’t write ten good books,
they wrote ten first
drafts).

Studying
the Craft of Writing

Most
writers understand that they need to spend time studying the craft of
writing, but I want to encourage authors to do more… expand their
range
of study to new areas.

Read
books that might not seem (at first) to apply to you like books on
humor, suspense, story, mystery, horror, romance, etc. If you want to
learn how to write a bestselling book, start by having a more
eclectic approach in what you study. This will make your writing
richer, no matter what genre you’re in.

Here
are a few books to get you started:
 10
Best Books for Writers.

Studying
the Business
of Writing

If
you consider yourself a “creative artist” you might resist this
idea or be intimidated by it. Don’t be. Check out this one simple
resource to help you get more educated and stay plugged in:
Publishers
Marketplace.

If
you want to become a bestselling author, it will show you deals being
done, who’s doing them, and more. 40,000+ publishing professionals
are part of this community. There’s a free newsletter you can
subscribe to as well. And there’s a paid option that gives you
access to even more goodies.

Case
Studies

One
of the best shortcuts to learning how to write a bestselling book is
case studies… learning how other bestselling authors became
successful. The act of writing books, proposals, and query letters
takes a lot of time. Don’t experiment. Take advantage of those
who’ve gone before you.

For
example, let’s say you need to write a query letter to get a
literary agent. You might have read a book or two about query
letters, but you’ll write a much better
query letter if you have a case study to look at first. In other
words, a before and after example of a query letter that eventually
led to success… with a detailed explanation of the changes that
were made, and why.

Case
studies let you see what you would have done differently than the
subject. This process of focusing on different scenarios and
evaluating different solutions is powerful. That’s why the “case
method” is used by top universities around the world like Harvard
and Yale.

Studying
theory is great, but it’s much more beneficial to see that theory
applied
in real-life situations that resulted in success. Guessing
is for the amateur. Case
studies are
for the professional writer who wants to learn how to write a
bestseller.

Coaching
and/or Consulting

If
you want to learn how to write a bestselling book, coaching is
possibly the most important piece of the puzzle. It requires the
biggest investment, but it can also save you years of wasted time and
lots of money working with editors and/or publishing companies that
aren’t the best fit for you. Virtually every bestselling author has
had some type of coaching, for good reason.

If
you want to learn how to how to write a bestseller, you’ll need
some help to see things that you’d never see alone. And you’ll
need help overcoming things that you can’t overcome alone. Coaching
is about discovering shortcuts, being held accountable (for some
people), and having someone on your side who’s actually already
“been there and done that”.

No
one can guarantee you’ll write a bestselling book, but this 7-part
process is as close as you’ll get to a proven formula. These are
the things that you can actually control
(unlike natural talent or ability, if there even
is
such a thing).

Focus
on them.

And,
make sure you’re dividing up your time properly based on what you
really need…
instead of what you want
(don’t neglect one of the areas above that you know you should be
focusing on). If you want to learn how to write a bestseller, you
need to treat your writing more like a business… and less like a
hobby. I don’t mean to take the romance out of writing, but a
balanced writer’s education is the key to helping you write a
bestseller.

And
that’s pretty romantic in my book.

MARK
MALATESTA is
the author who went “undercover” as a literary agent for five
years to find out how to get his own
books published. During that time, Mark became a NY Times bestselling
literary agent and helped many authors launch their writing careers
with major publishers like Random House. The result was millions of
books sold along with projects being picked up for TV, stage, and
feature film (with companies like Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks).
Mark’s authors have gotten 6-figure advances, been on the NY Times
bestseller list, been licensed in more than 30 countries, and won
countless national and international awards and honors. Now Mark is
helping authors of all genres get top literary agents and book deals
through his new training and consulting company called Literary
Agent Undercover.
Get instant access to Mark’s FREE 60-minute mp3 training: Seven
Secrets Every Author Needs to Know… to Get a Top Literary Agent,
Publisher, and Book Deal,
weekly newsletter, insider articles, Directory
of Literary Agents,
interactive Ask
a Literary Agent
area of his website, and information about his1-on-1 coaching and
consulting services. Click Here
Now to Become a Publishing Insider with Literary Agent Undercover.

Copyrights owned by Mark Malatesta & Literary Agent Undercover. All rights reserved.