In this Mark Malatesta review and interview, TV anchor and novelist Jim Brown talks with Mark about how to get a literary agent and publisher. Mark Malatesta is a former literary agent who represented Jim when he was a new author, and helped him get offers from multiple publishers for his novels 24/7 and Black Valley. Mark is now an author coach and consultant who's helped 400+ authors all genres (fiction, nonfiction, and children's books) get literary agents and/or traditional publishers such as Random House, Simon & Schuster, St. Martin's, Hyperion, Prentice-Hall, Workman, Andrews-McMeel, Entrepreneur, Barron's, Amacom, and many more.
Mark Malatesta Review by Jim Brown
"A special thank you to the 'Remarkable Mark' my friend and former agent who created a bidding war for my books, resulting in a 6-figure offer.
Mark is one of the rare and genuine good guys, but he also has incredible information (even his ideas have ideas). One of the most important keys to success as an author is good information and support.
Writing is a very isolating profession. You're alone, in a room, putting words on a page. As a result we often end up in a bubble. And not one of those cute, clear soap-bubbles, but an opaque orb of obstruction.
I can't count the number of times I've been banging my head against the wall – this is not a figure of speech, I have the flat forehead to prove it – only to have Mark casually mention something I've completely overlooked.
Have you tried . . . ?
This is generally followed by a moment of stunned silence, and then a string of words best not repeated. How could I have been so blind? How could I have missed this? It's because I was in a bubble. That piercing insight from a professional is often just what is needed to burst the obstructing bubble."
Jim Brown
Author of 24/7 and Black Valley
(Random House/Ballantine)
Mark Malatesta Interview
Dear friends, writers, and anyone with a great book idea, the question I am most often asked as an author is: "How did I become published?" My best answer is Mark Malatesta! Mark is the former literary agent (now an author coach and consultant) who sold my novels to Random House, secured a six-figure offer for me, and is responsible for my career as an author. (Now you know who to blame).
If he's retired, how does that help you? Good question; you always ask great questions. Mark has agreed to share his extensive insider information in a special, one-on-one interview. And here's the fun part, I'm going to grill – 'er make that – interview him using your questions! How often do you get a chance to quiz a guy whose authors have been on the New York Times Bestseller list?
During this interview we'll talk about how to get a literary agent, the secret to being chosen by a top of the line publisher, and how to become a professional author and make a living at it. If you've got a book or a great book idea this is a rare opportunity to read about everything you ever wanted to know about publishing but might have been afraid to ask – or didn't have anyone to ask!
Mark is a living idea machine when it comes to all you need to know about how to write, publish, and promote a book. Any conversation I have with him always leaves me a little overwhelmed and a whole lot excited. Like a shot of electric adrenaline. That's why I keep him on speed dial. Who needs a defibrillator when I can just call Mark? He's the real deal and I'm honored to call him my friend.
Some of the questions we cover below:
- Why aren't you still a literary agent?
- Do I really need a literary agent?
- Is it hard to get an agent?
- Is it easier or harder to get published now?
- Can't I just send my novel to Random House?
- What if I've already published an ebook?
- Is there a special way to format for publishers and agents so that I look professional?
- What's the number one, most important, earth-shatteringly non-obvious thing I need to know?
- What kind of paper do I use?
- I see small books when I'm waiting in line at Barnes and Nobel and I'm sure I can write something like that. But I don't know if that's a realistic idea or not.
- I've sent out letters to twenty-five different agents and got nothing but form letters. I'm very disheartened what now? Anything?
- I published a book fifteen years ago. It didn't sell very well. Was that it? Did I blow my only chance? I'm a much better writer now. What can I do?
- When you say query letter do you mean something like "I've got a great novel and I've decided to let you be my agent?" What does that really mean?
Pt 1: Mark Malatesta Interview & Review
Jim Brown: Hi everybody. I'm Jim Brown, the author of 24/7, Black Valley, and other novels, and I'm a television anchor. Thank you so much for joining us. This is going to be a lot of fun, and very informative. Mark Malatesta is the man who obtained a six-figure offer on my very first book, and he's the reason I became a Random House author. Mark is the founder and CEO of founder of Literary Agent Undercover, [a division of The Bestselling Author], the only company in the world focused exclusively on helping writers get top literary agents so they can also get top publishers and major book deals, and actually make a living writing books.
Mark Malatesta is a former literary agent who's helped many fiction, nonfiction, and children's book writers launch their publishing careers, including myself. Also, award-winning young adult author Carol Plum-Ucci, who wrote The Body of Christopher Creed, published by Harcourt; nonfiction self-help author Aggie Jordan, who wrote The Marriage Plan, published by Doubleday Broadway; and the bestselling gift book author Harry Harrison, Jr., author of Father to Daughter, published by Workman.
Other houses Mark Malatesta has negotiated contracts with include Simon & Schuster, St. Martin's Press, Hyperion, Prentice Hall, Workman, Andrews McMeel, Entrepreneur, Barron's, Amacom, and many, many, many, hang on, many, many more, resulting in millions of books being sold. Mark's clients' work has also been picked up for TV, stage, and feature film with companies like Paramount Pictures DreamWorks, Lionsgate, and HBO.
Mark Malatesta's authors have been on the New York Times bestseller list, been licensed in more than 40 countries, and won countless national and international awards and honors. Mark also spent several years as the Marketing & Licensing Manager at Blue Mountain Arts. That's the book and gift publisher that invented eGreeting cards, then sold the eCard division for close to $1 billion. Mark has negotiated distribution and licensing deals with top buyers around the world at events like Book Expo America, the London Book Fair, and the Frankfurt Book Fair. Mark also helped scout new talent and develop new products.
A writer at heart, that's the reason he got into publishing in the first place, Mark Malatesta loves sharing his insider information in a way that helps writers position themselves and their work in the best possible way. In other words, do everything they can to get their work to bestseller or high commercial potential status.
Due to his unique blend of passion and expertise, Mark has been invited to write feature articles for publications like The Guide to Literary Agents, and a column for WritersDigest.com. He's delivered keynote addresses and seminars at some of the most prominent writers conferences in the United States, and abroad. He is also one of the most creative and brilliant people I know, and I am absolutely thrilled to grill, um, excuse me, interview him.
Mark, are you with us?
Mark Malatesta: I am, and wow, thank you. I need to set a couple things straight though. First, you promised everybody this was going to be informative and fun, so you'll have to provide the fun. I can only promise the informative part. And, hearing you introduce me made me realize some of those things you said about me might sound intimidating. I want to reassure everybody that, even if you're just getting started as a writer, you can do this. It's a lot of work, but Jim has put together interview questions that will help authors at all stages of development. You don't need to be a rock star like Jim. By now you can see why he's a news anchor.
Jim Brown: I've got a big mouth. Hey, I can also bring you back down to earth. Those were just your basic accomplishments. But here's the bad thing I didn't tell everybody yet. Mark is also friends with me. There's a question of judgment going on there.
Pt 2: Mark Malatesta Review & Interview
Mark Malatesta: [Laughter] I think everyone's going to get a sense of that, quickly, how familiar we are and comfortable with each other, for better or worse, hopefully for the better.
Jim Brown: I hope so, too. Hey, look, I've got a ton of questions from my friends on social media, and I want to pepper you with them as much as I can. One of the first questions I want to get to is something that took me a while to figure out, when I first started deciding I wanted to be an author. The bottom line is, what exactly is a literary agent?
Mark Malatesta: Literary agents can be a lot of things, and a lot of frustrated writers call them a lot of creative names. We'll get to that. In simplest terms, a literary agent is a salesperson, and their core function is serving, essentially, as gatekeepers. As an author you can't submit your writing to publishers, especially the major ones, directly, to get a book deal. You submit a query letter to them and try to get them to represent you. For the most part, their number one function is to knock on publisher doors, set up meetings, make phone calls, maybe have you at some of the meetings, to introduce you to the publishing world and try to get you a book deal.
Jim Brown: I think you've kind of answered my next question. but I want to make sure everything's crystal clear. If I'm somebody starting out and I want to be a writer, do I need a literary agent?
Mark Malatesta: Only if you, I'm going to be a bit of a snob here, want to publish the right way. You really have two options. You can self-publish, or you can publish the old fashioned way with a traditional publisher. Experience has shown me that 99% of authors and aspiring authors don't really want to learn how to market everything and be responsible for self-publishing and driving sales constantly. Self-publishing seems exciting and sexy, but... Everybody always talks about Amanda Hocking. She's, are you familiar with her Jim?
Jim Brown: No, I'm not.
Mark Malatesta: She's a star in the young adult world who self-published and sold millions of copies. She was really smart. Insider tip: When you're trying to sell books as a self-published author or with a traditional publisher, you want to go after individuals who have lots of influence, like big bloggers. That's how she did it, but guess what I read in Publishers Weekly?
Jim Brown: What's that?
Mark Malatesta: She was tired of having to spend all her time marketing, so she went and got a nice, big, fat book deal with a major publisher. 99% of the time, that's really what we want as writers. I'll include myself in that group. We want somebody to do the business side of it, get the books distributed, whether it's in print or digital, and then we can do what we love most, which is spend most of our time writing. And doing some speaking and promoting, not having to spend 80% of our time worrying about selling books.
Jim Brown: Right. Good point.
Mark Malatesta: So, that's what it comes down to, if you want that life, versus the other one, you need a literary agent.
Pt 3: Mark Malatesta Interview & Review
Jim Brown: Okay, well, now that you've said that, is it hard to get an agent?
Mark Malatesta: I'd say it's a joke, but most writers won't think it's funny. The saying, I don't know if you've heard it, but some have said it's harder to get an agent than a publisher. I mean, that can't be possible, but it is really hard to get an agent. I was thinking, preparing for this call, it's a lot harder to get an agent these days, or get a publisher, because you're competing with a lot more writers now.
It's not that there are a lot more people writing. It's that with technology and Google and the way things are online, anybody can get the idea in their head that they can write a book and get published. All they have to do is invest 30 seconds, hop on Google, find a couple agents, and start submitting to them. Before the Internet, it was a lot harder. You had to do extra work, go to the library, spend a few hours, research stuff. It wasn't as easy. So, in one way, it's harder now to get an agent because there's a lot more competition.
Jim Brown: Oh, that's a very good point, because I had to do the whole nine yards when I was trying to find you. Now, this is a question I get a lot from writers who say, "Hey, can't I just take my manuscript and send it to Simon & Schuster or Random House?"
Mark Malatesta: For the most part, 98% of the time, if you submit to Simon & Schuster or Random House, by mail or email, you're going to get a form rejection, saying, "We don't work with unrepresented authors. We didn't review your work." It's not as bad as the movie business. The movie business just returns your scripts and screenplays unopened. They don't want to get sued for stealing your story.
Jim Brown: And they're mean. If they just return it to you, that's just mean. Now, you mentioned the eBooks. One listener wants to know, "What if I've already self-published? What's left for me? What can I do?"
Mark Malatesta: [Laughter] That can be a challenge. I always recommend authors not self-publish their books first. It's more likely to hurt than help. I'll give you an example. I have an author you mentioned in my bio. Her name is Dr. Aggie Jordan. She wrote a book called The Marriage Plan: How to Meet and Marry your Soul Mate in a Year or Less. As an agent, I perked up the second I saw her query letter, because she said she had already self-published and sold 5-8000 copies . I thought, "Well, this will be a slam dunk, getting a publisher. The book is already successful." I got all excited and we got offers. However, we also got a lot of rejections.
Some said, "We really like the book and if it was unpublished, we'd make an offer, but we we're not going to make an offer because she already published, and she might have already saturated the market." Really? 5-8,000 copies? Saturated the market? I mean, bestselling relationship books can sell millions or hundreds of thousands of copies. But you can see their point of view. The opposite is also easy to understand. Some publishers saw it as a positive and said, "This is great, a proven commodity. She's demonstrated that she can and will promote the book, and that, clearly, a lot of people like the book.".
Jim Brown: Good point. Now I have a basic or simple questions from someone: "Is there a special way to format a book for publishers and agents so the author looks professional?"
Mark Malatesta: There are different norms and expectations for an author's query letter, synopsis, book proposal, and manuscript. The best thing to do is get a book by Writers' Digest called Formatting and Submitting your Manuscript. It's really good and has samples. Even if you're submitting magazine articles, pretty much anything you're writing that you'd want to submit and get published, you'll find examples and tips.
Jim Brown: That's good to know, and this is one of the things that really helps dealing with an expert, because a lot of us don't realize everything's not the same way: You write the book in one format, you do the query another way, and the synopsis a different way. So, let me ask you a tough one. Are you ready?
Mark Malatesta: [Laughter] I don't know...you're making me nervous.
Jim Brown: Alright, that was my intent. I wanted to get your blood percolating. What's the number one, most important, earth-shattering, non-obvious thing authors need to know.
Mark Malatesta: Man, only one, huh?
Jim Brown: [Laughter]
Mark Malatesta: I might give you a few...
Jim Brown: Good.
Pt 4: Mark Malatesta Review & Interview
Mark Malatesta: Let's see. The whole reason I got into this business, is that I was a writer just out of college, and I wanted to get my own writing published. I figured, well, what can I do? Then I stumbled into the opportunity to manage a literary agency, before taking it over. The biggest shocker to me as a writer was seeing the sheer volume of competition and query letters that literary agents get. You might think that you know, but you don't know. When you hear the numbers, it's staggering. Some agents get over 1,000 submissions every month.
Jim Brown: Oh my goodness.
Mark Malatesta: A lot of agents would dread it, but to me, that was the most exciting part, looking at new ideas. You're meeting new people on paper, and you're looking for that next big thing that's fresh, different, and fun, that could also make you a heck of a lot of money, which is also not so bad.
Jim Brown: Right.
Mark Malatesta: What I would do is make that a reward for myself. Every Friday afternoon, around 2 pm, I would have this pile, it wasn't all email back then. I would have a pile of envelopes, and it was about two feet high.
Jim Brown: Wow.
Mark Malatesta: A two-foot high stack of query letters and envelopes. plus partial manuscripts. So, maybe it's a query letter plus three sample chapters, and I would go through that pile about two feet high in about an hour, just to give you perspective. Many writers get frustrated because they only have one page to write a query letter to get an agent's attention. They have so much to say. What they don't realize is that agents often aren't reading their whole query letter.
If you picture yourself reclining in a leather chair going through that two foot high stack of stuff in an hour, do you have time to read every letter completely? Absolutely, not. So. basically, each letter is getting about three to eight seconds. Two to three sentences. It's going to sound incredibly arrogant for me to say this, but I can tell within the first couple sentences whether I'm interested. At least initially.
Before you judge me, or other agents, picture yourself in a bookstore. You know what you like when you're browsing books. Let's say you're a mystery reader and/or a horror reader, and you're in that section of Barnes & Noble, browsing. Don't you know, within the first few sentences, if you like that person's writing style, or if it hooks you at least a little bit? Now, imagine having seen 60,000+ books and/or pitches, the way I have. You get a quick sense of whether it's a category or genre you're interested in, and if it's somebody who can write coherently and think clearly.
I have a few more, Jim, if you have time.
Jim Brown: Yeah, hit me. I want to hear the earth-shattering things. This is fascinating.
Mark Malatesta: So, that's the type of stuff that, to me, as a writer, was a stunner. I had no idea. Another one is that you really have to crank things up in that first couple sentences. You've got to use your best stuff. If you have any credibility as an author, say so right away. That could mean your book has been professionally edited, or you have a huge mailing list of 100,000 people. Whatever gives you credibility. I try to get that in the opening two sentences.
I did that as a literary agent, and I do that now as an author coach and consultant helping authors get literary agents. I'll give you an example. I was working with a guy who was a presidential aide during the Nixon administration. He was there during Watergate and wrote a novel loosely connected to that. We had his query letter done, and he let it slip in conversation with me that he was "that guy," the one Nixon ordered to have the 18-and-a-half minutes of audio tape destroyed, the tape that would have got Nixon impeached.
Jim Brown: Wow.
Mark Malatesta: I was like, "Hello, that should be the opening of your query. Who else can say that? That's massive." Not everybody is going to have something like that, of course, but almost everyone can say something to put their best foot forward.
Jim Brown: In television, we call that burying the lead. You want to make sure you get that out. Wow.
Pt 5: Mark Malatesta Interview & Review
Mark Malatesta: Exactly. So whatever your best thing is, you don't want to save that for last. Put it up front. Also, when I talked about that massive pile of competition, something else you don't want to hear, but you need to hear, you'll thank me later, is that a lot of people querying, are in that two-foot pile of query letters or hundreds of emails a week that agents are getting. They're not all unpublished authors.
Some are celebrities. Some have been previously published. Some have already self-published and sold tons of books. Some are currently published, but their agent just passed away or retired. Or their publisher went out of business. Those guys have more leverage and credibility. If you're a new, unpublished author without any of that, or without a huge platform, be conscious that you're competing with those people. Get something juicy in the opening of your query. That's just one of the many types of things I do in my author coaching and consulting to help writers improve their position.
Jim Brown: When you say query letter, a lot of writers think they should just say, "Hey, I've written a great novel, and I've decided to let you be my agent." What you're saying is that it's really more than that.
Mark Malatesta: Oh, man. This is what's hard. For the most part, a book is going to take you at least a few months to write, probably a year, maybe a couple years. If you're going to spend all that time on it, and, once you start to understand the intensity of the competition and the sheer volume of it, you need to take the query letter as seriously as the book.
That doesn't mean you'll spend months or years on it, but you should treat it the same way. When I started agenting, I would literally spend 40 hours writing a query letter. Well, it's not really a query letter at that point. It's more of a cover letter. If I wasn't pitching the project in person, I would call editors at Random House, Penguin, etc. and I'd pitch the project by phone. Then I'd send them the manuscript.
I could have been lazy and said the same thing, right? Like, "Hey, here's a manuscript I think you might like. Just read it." But nobody's going to respect that. There also might be something critical you want or need them to think about before publishers start reading, to make it more likely you'll get an offer. If you don't address that issue or position the book properly, it's over. No book deal.
That one-page query is your opportunity to talk about four things.
One this is your book, what it's about. Most authors writing a query think to do that, but that's just part of it. The biggest piece authors miss is putting the book in context. What I mean by that is you need to compare it in content and style to other books that are somewhat similar. Don't make the fatal mistake of saying there's nothing like your book. There's almost always something at least a little similar.
You should show agents you're aware what's out there. You should also help them see you're capitalizing on what's successful, and that you're adding something fresh and new that's different and distinct. You mentioned one of my authors I worked with as a literary agent, Carol Plum-Ucci.
In her query to me, for The Body of Christopher Creed, didn't just tell me what the book was about. She shared five to seven things about why she thought her work was timely and saleable, based on observations she'd made about her genre. She gave me most of the ammunition I needed to sell her book, in her query letter. I knew she knew what she was doing, and I'd be an idiot to not read her manuscript.
Jim Brown: That was a terrific book, by the way. I've got it up on my shelf.
Pt 6: Mark Malatesta Review & Interview
Mark Malatesta: It's really creative too, because it's about a character you never meet. The protagonist is missing.
Jim Brown: If I'm boiling it down, even though you spend a year writing a book, and you pour your heart and soul into this, and you may have the greatest manuscript in the world, essentially, it comes down to the query letter.
Mark Malatesta: Yep. I know it's the last thing anybody wants to do. You might be thinking, "It took me three years to finish the freaking manuscript. I just want to send it off and be done." But you should give yourself space to take that seriously. I recommend a 30-day process. That's what I do for the most part.
It takes anywhere from a week to four weeks to write a query. It involves answering a lot of questions about yourself, the book, the market, and finding the best material. Put all that into a crappy first draft query, then go through several revisions, the same way you would treat your book. Give your query the same respect.
Jim Brown: Wow, that's important to know. I think in my query letter to you, one of things I said was that my novel was Stephen King meets Michael Crichton.
Mark Malatesta: Yes. that was awesome. And I totally stole that. That was one of the things I used to pitch it. I've got 125 or so things I consider when writing a query letter. That one I call using the familiar as a frame. They do that a lot in the movie business. I know you know this Jim, but, for everyone else, it's taking a couple things people are familiar with, and pairing them together as a shortcut to help people understand something quickly.
You say it's this meets that, and instantly a person knows what it's like. With you, it was you know, what's the Stephen King part? That's the horror part, right? The scary part. And then Michael Crichton was the science part. A big piece of your fiction, at least it was your book Black Valley.
Jim Brown: Exactly. I wish I had been able to talk to someone like you before, when I first started writing. I could have saved myself, literally, years of time, because I spent a great deal of time just finding this stuff out by doing it wrong.
Mark Malatesta: It's interesting. Some of my coaching and consulting clients are authors who've sent out many hundreds of query letters and struggled for years. Others get help from me before starting that painful process, with the goal of making it a faster, more efficient, and less painful process.
Jim Brown: I would have loved that. I would be a lot younger, had I had that kind of information to start with. Well, let me hit you with some more questions, because I want to get answers to as many as I can. Since we're talking about query letters and agents, someone is asking, "I've sent out letters to 25 different agents and got nothing but form letters in reply. Very disheartening. What now?"
You might be able to improve your query letter. 25 isn't a large number of agents. The more queries you send, the more likely it is you'll get an agent, of course. However, if your query is good, it's also more likely you'll get personalized replies when you get rejections. If you haven't gotten any of that, and you've sent a lot of queries, it's more likely you need to improve your query letter.
It all goes back to the all-important query letter.
Pt 7: Mark Malatesta Interview & Review
Mark Malatesta: Yes. Here's another tip. I do this now, and I did it as an agent. After I learned the hard way, once I had a project, I was really confident about it. For one of the first projects I represented, I blitzed everybody. When editors started getting on the phone and giving me feedback about the manuscript, a lot of them had the same questions and suggestions.
I was like, "Oh, man. If I hadn't sent everything out all at once, the author could have revised the manuscript, and addressed some of those things, prior to pitching so many publishers.
Jim Brown: So essentially, you're saying you can let the rejections actually help you.
Mark Malatesta: Yeah, they can teach you things.
Jim Brown: Good point. Here's another question. This is from Michael. He says, "I see small books when I'm waiting in line at Barnes and Noble, and I'm sure I can write something like that." I think these are the little impulse buy books. He wants to know if he's being realistic, even thinking about that.
Mark Malatesta: A lot of times, the people who write those little impulse gift books are advertising people. I love those books. What's great about them for an unpublished author, especially if you have zero credibility and zero resume, is that you don't need those things for a book like that. It's one of the few genres that those things don't matter. All you need is a good book.
It's like the Father to Son and Father to Daughter books I represented as a literary agent, written by Harry Harrison, Jr. that I got published when he queried me. I was familiar with Life's Little Instruction Book by H. Jackson Brown, Jr. in the 80s or 90s. That was a huge bestseller, a little gift book with advice for a son from his dad. It had a little plaid cover. Are you familiar with that one?
Jim Brown: Yeah, I remember that.
Mark Malatesta: People love those books, and sometimes they hate them because they're deceptively simple. A lot of writers get jealous at their success, They think, "Oh, I could write that." But it's hard. All good writing is. If you have a book like that with maybe 300 entries, what most people don't realize is the author might have written 1-2.000 entries to get the 300 great ones that can stand alone on a page.
Anybody can write a book like that though.
The first book in what turned into a series by Harry Harrison, Jr. is called Father to Son. The publisher felt it was important Harry have a son. That's reasonable, right? But then we wanted to turn the book into a series. I was like, "Well, this isn't just one book. If this works, we should do Mother to Son, Father to Daughter, Mother to Daughter, maybe Grandfather to Grandson, etc. Let's milk this thing and make a great series!"
The publisher hated that idea.
The irony is that Harry's second book, I eventually talked him into writing it, and it took years of persuading the publisher to do it, but they finally published Father to Daughter. It's funny because Harry doesn't have a daughter.
I told the publisher, "Harry's a professional writer. He's smart, and he has a formula for the first book he wrote. Why can't he interview dads with daughters and use their advice and insights to create that book?" And that's what he did. Actually, that was the first one of Harry's books to appear on the New York Times bestseller list.
Jim Brown: Wow.
Mark Malatesta: So you really, again, just need a concept.
Pt 8: Mark Malatesta Review & Interview
Jim Brown: Here's another question someone sent me via email. Doug wants to know, "How much of a manuscript do you need to submit?"
Mark Malatesta: It depends on the genre. If you're writing fiction, unless you're famous, you'll need a finished manuscript. I know, Jim, with you, we sold one of your novels based on a synopsis alone, but that's because the first book was finished. So, Random House was willing to buy the second book too, based on the synopsis. You had to have that first book done though.
If you're writing nonfiction, all you need is a book proposal, which outlines and explains the concept of the book, how it's going to be organized, how it's different from the competition, and what you're going to do to promote it. A bit about you as well, and, usually, a few sample chapters. That might sound really easy, but proposals can be 10-20 pages, not counting the sample chapters.
Jim Brown: Right?
Mark Malatesta: That's the smart way to go. If you have a nonfiction book idea, you should team up with somebody who can help you prepare the query letter and proposal, not put years of your life into it. It's basically a test document. Float that out to agents, and they might be able to get you a huge book deal based on that.
That happens all the time.
Jim Brown: So, completely different rules for fiction and nonfiction. It sounds like nonfiction has the better rule.
Mark Malatesta: [Laugher] Yeah, it does. But, then again, I've also worked with authors who, and this isn't exactly the same thing, but it's a lot of pressure to have money in your pocket. or money you've already spent, from a big book advance, and a looming book deadline and an unfinished book. It's not pretty. When you're an agent, it's not always in the best interest of the author to get them a multi-book deal.
One time, when I did that, the author froze up. Those manuscript delivery deadlines came quick, and the author proved to not be good writing on a deadline. I learned from that. You know this, Jim. Some books get written quickly. Some need more time. And when a books needs more time to develop, it sure is nice to have that time.
Jim Brown: Right. I identify with that. As you said, we sold Black Valley, and 24/7 was just an outline. Then the publishers switched things up and we published 24/7 first.
Mark Malatesta: Oh, right, you only had like six months to write the book!
Jim Brown: I had a bit of a freeze, which I never get. I was reading a Stephen King book on writing, and he said, "Write an outline, and then when you're writing the book, throw the outline away." So I just took off writing what felt good for getting what I already outlined. That's the way I finished the book.
But I can understand that that was my little blip of pressure from that. Another question now, Deborah asks, "When you write a book, does all of your spelling, grammar, punctuation, all that, have to be correct, or does somebody at the publishing company proofread your book and make the appropriate corrections?"
Mark Malatesta: I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but your manuscript needs to be pretty clean. Literary agents, I don't think we covered this, but 95% to 98% of query letters and sample chapters get rejected. So, if you're an agent going through that two-foot stack of query letters and partials in an hour, you're going to pass on things that aren't clean.
Jim Brown: Right.
Pt 9: Mark Malatesta Interview & Review
Mark Malatesta: It's just the way it works. I don't want to put anything in a query letter or sample chapters that gives the agent a reason to say no. You don't have to be perfect, but everything you send out should be as perfect as you can make it. Typos and bad grammar are red flags. The second I see those things in a query or sample chapters, I think, "Well, gee, if the person isn't professional enough to get that cleaned up, then what else is going to be wrong?"
Literary agents expect to make suggestions regarding the content of a book. They aren't usually going to teach authors spelling and grammar, or edit a manuscript line by line. There's too much competition. Some authors pay to have their manuscript professionally edited. Or they get a relative or friend who's an English major to edit the book. If you were an agent, you'd offer representation to authors with the best and cleanest books as well. As an author, you want to do whatever it takes to avoid getting a no.
Jim Brown: The mistakes still slip out. In my book, 24/7, my dad was so pleased he found a mistake. If anybody has the hardcover version, if you go to the middle of the book, there's a line that says, "She put her mouth over her hand," instead of "She put her hand over her mouth." That was after lots of proofing, including by the publisher!
Mark Malatesta: I'm sad to say standards are slipping. Everybody listening to this has seen it. I was reading Publishers Weekly the other day, that's the publishing trade magazine, the main one, and I found typos and grammar mistakes in there. Not what I was expecting. Great content though!
Jim Brown: Not what you'd expect.
Mark Malatesta: No, and I have to watch out, because I'm a concept person, not an English major. I don't pretend to be perfect that way. But I'm great at sniffing out big books. I'm judged severely by authors, as well. If an author is thinking of working with me, and they find a typo on my website or in my newsletter, they can have a field day. [Laugher] We all just need to do our best.
Jim Brown: My friends on social media know I can make a typo and misspell things like nobody's business.
Mark Malatesta: And it hasn't hurt you. [Laugher]
Jim Brown: So far, not yet. Just keep it correct where it really counts. Now, Celeste has a great question, Mark. She wants to know, "How does a person who's not a writer get an idea or a book written and then published?" And she says, "I'm meeting someone who has no knowledge of how to go about writing a real book, i.e. making chapters and such things."
Mark Malatesta: Oh, boy. Well, I'm never one to say something's impossible, but you're going to need one or two things in that case. First is a lot of time to get better, spend the time figuring it out the hard way, in the free way: going to libraries and looking at books and learning how to do all this stuff. Or you'll need to pay for help, which would allow you to speed up the learning curve. You could also have somebody do some of that for you and help you through it.
An author might have a million-dollar idea, but they still need to think it through and write the book. That's the hard part, and that's where most people fail. They just give up. How many chapters should the book be? How should it be organized? If it's nonfiction, you don't want to just dump content on a person like a professor. You want to think of it more like a coach or consultant, in that you want the person to have a desired outcome by the end. So, everything must be in the right order. People have to be able to comprehend it. You just can't dump information, but walk with them step by step, from A to B.
Pt 10: Mark Malatesta Review & Interview
Jim Brown: Mark, we have a few minutes left, so let me get more questions in. Vernon has two straightforward questions: "How does one get a literary agent?" and, "What does it cost to have an agent?"
Mark Malatesta: Great questions. How does one get a literary agent? I'll make that super easy, though I could do and a whole hour on that. All anybody listening has to do is go to my website: GetALiteraryAgent.com. There you can get free access to a library of both text and audio training to help you get a literary agent. You can post questions for me to answer as well, and access my online literary agent directory. And if you want to see if you're a fit for a 1-on-1 coaching or consulting call with me, you'll see information about that.
Regarding what agents charge, it's very simple. If you're trying to get a book published with a traditional publisher, you shouldn't have to pay anybody upfront money. Literary agents, legitimate ones, get 15% of whatever money they collect for you. That's it, clean and simple. Some agents collect minor expenses after that, and that's fine, but those expenses should never be up front. It should be after a sale. In that case, it would be like, "Hey, here's an invoice. I deducted my 15% and $200 for photocopies and phone calls and whatever." Not a trip to the Bahamas, but legitimate stuff. And it should never be more than a couple or few hundred bucks.
Jim Brown: That's really good to know, important. By the way, I would recommend everybody drop by your website. I enjoy the dickens out of it and that you have hit so many different topics. It's entertaining and informative.
Mark Malatesta: Thank you. I try to have fun with it, and you saying that reminds me of another tip. When writing your query letter, it's tempting to think, "Oh, man, this is business, and this is stressful, and it's serious. The query will decide my publishing fate." Try to have fun with it. If you have a sense of humor, be funny in your query.
Jim writes suspense fiction and opened his query posing a question that started with, "What would you do if...?" He created a suspenseful scenario out of his novel that hooked me. So, don't get too stiff when writing your query. Remember to go through multiple revisions, because the first couple times you might not be relaxed.
Jim Brown: Right, right. Here's a question from Dave. He wants to know if you have to specialize in one genre, style, or target audience to have a career, or is there room for another Terry Pratchett or Isaac Asimov with diverse books?
Mark Malatesta: Another great question. At first it's best to be focused. Get in the agent's head for a moment. Imagine getting a query that says, "I have a young adult novel, a cookbook, two books of poetry, and a self-help book." You might think that sounds great, but, to an agent, it would be harder to find a publisher for you and develop your career that way.
The agent would also likely think, "This person has a lot of ideas, and maybe they're good, but they might not be great at one thing, because they haven't focused enough in one area to really master it."
If you write in different genres, don't mention that at first. Wait until you, hopefully, get a publisher. Then try to get a book deal for a second book in the same category, before branching out and trying to get a different type of book published. By the way, you might need a different agent for a different type of book, if your agent doesn't represent that type of book.
Jim Brown: That's a very good tip. Well, Mark, we're running out of time, but I want everybody to know where they can get more information like this. I also want to remind everyone that you answer question like this, personally, on your website, which is very rare. Can you tell us again about your website?
Mark Malatesta: Yep. It's GetALiteraryAgent.com. There's a tab there on the navigation menu that says, "Ask a Book Agent." You can post a question there for me.
Jim Brown: Again, it's a terrific site.
Pt 11: Mark Malatesta Interview & Review
Mark Malatesta: Thank you, and right back at you. You're amazing, so if someone on this call hasn't been to your website yet, and gotten a copy of all of your books, I hope they get on that as well. Can I flip things on you, and get you to talk about your work and what you're doing.
Jim Brown: Since my ego is bigger than my house, no problem. JimBrownBooks.com, and you can get all my books there. There are links to everything.
Mark Malatesta: Seriously, you guys. if you want a great read, get Jim's books. It's not just me saying it. Who are some of the bestselling authors who've given you blurbs?
Jim Brown: We've had some great ones: Tess Gerritsen, Harlan Coben, John Saul. It goes on and on and on. As I start talking, I'll forget, and I am forgetting people right away that I should be remembering, but John Katzenbach gave me some great quotes. I'm actually having to pick up books and look on the back, Mark. You're not supposed to be interviewing me.
Catherine Neville, Douglas Preston, gave us a great blurb. Joe Weber as well. All of them were very, very kind. I recommend their books highly. Well. Mark, thank you so much for letting me grill you, and for you giving us all this terrific information. For everyone who wasn't able to have their questions answered, the should go to your website at GetALiteraryAgent.com and post them there.
Mark Malatesta: Thank you, Jim. This has been super fun, the hour flew by.
Jim Brown: And Mark, thank you again, so much. This is Mark Malatesta. He is lovely and talented. Voted, I forgot to say, Sexiest Man Alive, by his two cats.
Mark Malatesta: [Laughter] What is it they say, Jim? I have a radio voice, or what is it? A face for radio?
Jim Brown: I've heard that before. I've heard people tell me that in TV, "You've really got a face for radio."[Laughter] Yes. No, no, you're a good looking guy, but your wife, Ingrid is in a class all by herself.
Mark Malatesta: That's for sure.
Jim Brown: Well, Mark, I think we're pretty much out of time. Thank you again for doing this.
Mark Malatesta: My pleasure, and I'll catch up with you off the air here again soon. And thank you so much to everybody for listening. I hope what we talked about today inspires you to keep going, and get to the next level with your publishing goals. Join me at my website and I can help even more.
Jim Brown: Thank you. I really appreciate you, and everyone who joined us, taking the time. I look forward to seeing you all on social media.
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Mark Malatesta - Author Coach & Consultant
This review and interview of Mark Malatesta were provided by Jim Brown, TV anchor and author of the suspense novels 24/7 and Black Valley. Jim worked with Mark to get offers from multiple publishing houses, and signed a two-book deal with Ballantine Books, an imprint of Random House.
Mark Malatesta is a former literary agent who has helped 400+ authors get literary agents, including the Best Literary Agents at the Top Literary Agencies on his List of Literary Agents. Writers of all Book Genres (fiction, nonfiction, and children's books) have used Mark's Literary Agent Advice to get book deals. They've been on the New York Times bestseller list; had their books optioned for TV, stage, and feature film; won countless awards; and sold millions of books.
Mark is the founder of Literary Agent Undercover, a division of The Bestselling Author, which he establised in 2011. Mark is also the creator of the well-known Directory of Literary Agents, and this popular How to Get a Literary Agent Guide. In addition, Mark is the host of Ask a Literary Agent, and his articles have appeared in the Writer's Digest Guide to Literary Agents and the Publishers Weekly Book Publishing Almanac.
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Reviews of Mark Malatesta - Former Literary Agent
Here you can see Mark Malatesta reviews from authors like Jim Brown, who've worked with Mark to get top literary agents, and publishers such as Ballantine Books. You can also see reviews of Mark from publishing industry professionals. These reviews of former literary agent Mark Malatesta include his time as an author coach and consultant, literary agent, and Marketing & Licensing Manager for the well-known book/gift publisher Blue Mountain Arts.
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