During this interview and Mark Malatesta review, Amazon bestselling author Dr. Cristina LePort talks about her novels, Dissection and Change of Heart, published by Bancroft Press. During this interview, Cristina also shares her advice for authors about the best way to write, publish, and promote their books. And she talks about her experience working with former literary agent Mark Malatesta, who is now an author coach and consultant, and helped Cristina get a literary agent and publisher.
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Mark Malatesta Review by Cristina LePort
“I tried to get an agent for three years and got very little response, almost nothing, before I worked with Mark. Now Bob Diforio is my agent, and my first book became a bestseller in multiple categories. Having seen Mark’s advertisements pop up on different occasions, I figured maybe I should try one last thing before self-publishing. After Mark revised and rearranged my query, all of a sudden I got requests from literary agents to read my manuscript. If I hadn’t worked with Mark, I wouldn’t have gotten an agent.”
Dr. Cristina LePort
Author of the novels Dissection and Change of Heart
(Bancroft Press)
The review of Mark Malatesta above is an edited excerpt. Click here to see the complete Mark Malatesta review, and here to see more Mark Malatesta reviews.
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Dr. Cristina LePort Interview
During this 50-minute interview with Mark Malatesta, Amazon bestselling author Cristina LePort talks about her novels, Dissection and Change of Heart. During this interview, Cristina shares her advice for authors about how to write, publish, and promote a book. She also talks about her time working with former literary agent Mark Malatesta, who is now an author coach and consultant. Mark helped Cristina get an offer of representation from Bob Diforio.
Pt 1: Mark Malatesta Interview & Review
Mark Malatesta: Hi everyone, this is Mark Malatesta with Literary Agent Undercover, a division of TheBestsellingAuthor.com, helping authors of fiction, nonfiction, and children’s books to write, publish, and promote their work. For those of you who don’t know me, I’m the writer who went undercover and became a book agent, to find out how to get my own books published. A literary agent is someone who gets authors book deals with traditional publishers like Simon & Schuster, Harper Collins, and Penguin Random House.
Today I’m an author coach/consultant who’s helped hundreds of authors get offers from literary agents and/or traditional publishers. My writers have gotten 6-figure book deals and advances with major publishers; been on the New York Times bestseller list; and had their work picked up for TV, stage, and feature film with companies like Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks, Lionsgate, and HBO Max. They’ve also won countless awards and had their books licensed in more than 40 countries, resulting in millions of books sold. Now, let me introduce today’s very special guest.
Pt 2: Mark Malatesta Review & Interview
Mark Malatesta: Dr. Cristina LePort is a renowned cardiologist, also known for her medical thrillers that explore the high stakes of medical crises and moral conflict. In her first book, Dissection, a prominent cardiac surgeon at a prestigious DC hospital is caught in a plot to destabilize global diplomatic relations, involving cardiac assassinations. In Cristina’s second book, Change of Heart, a former detective and an FBI rookie, unravel a dark, transplant-related conspiracy masquerading as suicide in a gripping medical thriller set in New York City.
Lee Child, bestselling author and 2020 Booker Prize Judge, described Cristina’s first novel as high stakes with breathless suspense and real insider authenticity—a terrific debut. New York Times Bestselling Author Tess Gerritsen says Cristina’s books move at a frantic pace…with terrifying premises, startling twists, and riveting medical details.
In the US Kindle store, Dissection reached No.1 bestseller status in the Political Thriller and Suspense category and No. 2 in the Medical Thriller category. In Amazon Canada, Dissection reached No. 1 in Spy Thrillers and No. 2 in Medical Thrillers. On Amazon UK, it reached No. 2 in Political Thrillers and Suspense. And on Amazon Australia, it reached No. 6 in Medical Thrillers.
Born in Bologna, Italy, and now residing in Southern California, Cristina combines her medical expertise with narrative prowess. Her personal journey from cardiologist to novelist enriches her storytelling, and her novels are informative page-turners. They provoke thoughtful consideration of the moral complexities faced by medical professionals.
To learn more about Cristina, visit cristinaleport.com.
So welcome, Cristina!
Pt 3: Mark Malatesta Interview & Review
Cristina LePort: Hello, and thank you very much for having me.
Mark Malatesta: Oh, my pleasure. It’s so good to reconnect. My favorite part of the gig is interviewing the authors who’ve made it. So, I just told people a little bit about your first two books. But in addition to everyone listening wanting to get your advice for writers to be successful, some of them, I know, will also want to buy and read your novels. So will you tell us a little bit more about them?
Cristina LePort: Sure. My first book, Dissection, could be summarized in one sentence, “From heart attacks to WWIII,” or “almost WWIII.” The second book is in the background of heart transplants. That’s why the name is Change of Heart, which has a double meaning.
Mark Malatesta: You have good titles.
Cristina LePort: Thank you very much. The first book was inspired by a TV commercial about aspirin. There was a man who received a card, and the card said, “Your heart attack will arrive tomorrow.” Of course, they went on to say that if you took aspirin, it could prevent a heart attack. I looked at that, at a moment in my life where I had written a book and sent it to agents unsuccessfully. When I saw that [commercial], I said, “That’s my next book, and that’s the one that’s going to get published.” That’s how I got the idea. The book starts with people getting a card that says, “Your heart attack will arrive in an hour.”
Mark Malatesta: I don’t think I knew that. That’s funny.
Cristina LePort: So, that’s the beginning of the book, and then, of course, it escalates to not just one person, but several people, and then not just regular people, but people in the government, etc. I don’t want to give away the whole plot, but the stakes are as high as you can think.
Mark Malatesta: Right.
Cristina LePort: In the second book, I took a character from the first book, which I really liked, a minor character. It was a young woman who helped one of the protagonists solve the whole situation and save the world. This gruff FBI agent says, “You know, when you’ve finished college, if you’re interested, you can work for the FBI, just like you worked for the FBI tonight.”
Her name is Charlotte Bloom, and she becomes a cyberspecialist, because there is a hacking problem in the second book. I really had a great time doing that because I really loved the character, and a lot of my readers liked that character. I would get notes and emails saying, “Oh, I was ready to hire Bloom at the end of the book.” Well, I hired her for my second book.
Mark Malatesta: Do you think she could turn into the protagonist in a series?
Cristina LePort: Well, she is a protagonist of the second book in the series. Actually, the main protagonist of the series is private investigator Kirk Miner, and he’s in most of my books. Then I added the gruff FBI agent. She is also in a couple of books. She doesn’t have her own series, but the three characters, I’m keeping them because I really liked all three of them.
Pt 4: Mark Malatesta Review & Interview
Mark Malatesta: So, we’ve talked about two that are published now. How many have you written?
Cristina LePort: By now? I’m writing my sixth.
Mark Malatesta: Wow. Okay, yeah, you can tell in your answers that there’s more to it than just the two we talked about.
Cristina LePort: Yes.
Mark Malatesta: Now let’s get to the celebratory visualization thing. I love getting all my authors who make it to talk a little bit about the day they get the news they have an agent and/or a real publisher. Then we’ll go back a little bit after that, but can you just relive that, what that was like.
Cristina LePort: When you query hundreds of agents, you spend your time looking at your phone, but not wanting to look at your phone. You know you’re going to get rejection du jour. As I remember, I was standing in line for the bathroom at a conference. And you know what you do when you stand in line for the bathroom. You look at your phone. I had gotten very experienced in how you scan an email, very quickly through the BS they tell you to make you feel better, and then there is always that word, “but…”
You know, “Everything is great, thank you very much, we love this, we like it a lot, but…” In this email, there was no but. There was really an offer for representation. I had to hold onto a wall not to pass out. I was looking around to try to find somebody I knew, to tell them I finally got an agent. After all this time, I just got an agent. I was beside myself.
Mark Malatesta: A stranger will do, if there’s no one who you know around.
Cristina LePort: I know, right? I felt like that song, the Italian song, That’s Amore, that says, “When you walk in a dream, but you know you’re not dreaming, signore.” Well, that’s how I felt, getting that email finding out I got an agent.
Mark Malatesta: Did you do anything to celebrate? Some do, some don’t.
Cristina LePort: Oh, yes. We had dinner and all that, and drinking. A couple hours after I got the email, I talked to my agent. He’s a very good, experienced agent, Bob Diforio, and he’s been around a while. 40 or 50 years. What was the first thing he told me? He said, “Cristina, I’m not sure I can sell your book.” Do you think I heard that? I just got an agent, so that obviously went over my head.
I didn’t pay any attention to that. But he was very honest. He said, “In the past, it was easier to get a deal right away.” He wanted to set my expectations properly. Even after you get an agent, you’re not done. You have to still push it along, and it might be a little struggle, a further struggle, to get the publisher, right? But, if you really want it, and if you really work hard at it, you have a chance.
Pt 5: Mark Malatesta Interview & Review
Mark Malatesta: It’s funny, some agents, it really depends on their personality and their experience… In my experience, usually the more senior, established ones try to set expectations. It’s what I do in my coaching too, right? You don’t want people too high because if somebody’s realistic, it’s great if you get good news. But if somebody is delusional and they’re certain something’s going to happen, or that it’s going to happen a certain way and/or on certain timeline, then you’re just setting them up for disappointment. It’s a tricky industry.
Alright, let’s go back in time now, to the very beginning of your journey as an author, long before the book deal, long before we met. When did you get the first idea you might be or become a writer or author?
Cristina LePort: That’s interesting, because most authors would say, “Oh, I’ve always loved writing.” Well, I went to school in Italy until I finished medical school, then I came to the United States. When I was in school in Italy, we would have this nightmare for me every week. They would give a theme, a title, and then you would have an hour to write about it. I just hated it, so I never imagined I would become an author. But, of course, the problem was they gave me things to write about. I could care less about those, right?
It was like…how you spent your summer vacation. I’m sitting next to this girl who was going out with the guy I wanted to go out with. I knew how she spent her summer vacation. Nobody was interested in that. So, I actually didn’t even think about [writing] until after medical school, after I came to the United States, and I barely spoke English. I practiced internal medicine for 20 years, and I had a midlife crisis. I wanted to get into cardiology. I was almost bored. During that time, when I was trying to get into cardiology, which is another very difficult thing to do when you’re in your 40s, I started to explore other things.
Among those other things, I read this nonfiction book by the author Ayn Rand. I don’t know if you know her work. She’s the author of Atlas Shrugged.
Mark Malatesta: Yep, I’m familiar with her work.
Pt 6: Mark Malatesta Review & Interview
Cristina LePort: She wrote a nonfiction book, which is incredible. I highly recommend it for anybody who wants to write novels. It’s called The Art of Fiction. It’s a short little booklet. If you know everything about that booklet, you’re a very good author. I read that, and it occurred to me that if you write, you can create a new world, you can create characters you want to meet, and you can make anything happen.
You’re the boss.
I said, “Well, I’m going to give it a try.” But I knew nothing about writing. So I wrote something I thought was a novel, my very first book. The idea was good, and it’s going to be published next year, by the way. So, I wrote that, and gave it to my friend, who’s a published author. She told me everything that was wrong with it, and I knew I had to learn the technique of writing. I couldn’t just read a little book and then know how to do everything.
I hired a writing coach, and for three painful years, we went through that book many times. I would get things all [redlined] with notes in the margins, saying things like, “This is 100 pages and nothing has happened. You’ve got to be kidding me! What are you thinking?” After three years, I finally learned. You have to learn the technique, how to do the tags and dialog. You can’t just indiscriminately just change who’s talking, who’s thinking.
I knew nothing before, about any of that. So, I got my education in writing those two three years. After that, I loved it. I would sit down, and all of a sudden it was three or four hours later. I was in my world. I didn’t even know where the hours had gone. I realized I love it, how much I love it. That was about 20 years ago. At first it was just a hobby, but it’s now about 10 years that I’ve been doing this really seriously.
I was trying to get published and get an agent and all that. I looked into all that entails, and it came slowly. For me, it wasn’t something like I’d always wanted to be an author, but now I love it. I love it, and I’m retiring. I just retired from my medical practice last year, and I love being a full time author. I love being able to retire to something like this because I really like it.
Mark Malatesta: And, unlike the school projects, you can write about what you want to write about.
Cristina LePort: Right.
Pt 7: Mark Malatesta Interview & Review
Mark Malatesta: You told us earlier how you got the idea for the first book. How did you get the idea for the second book?
Cristina LePort: The second book, I wanted it to be about cardiology. I was exploring other things besides heart attacks, that happened in the first book. I was thinking, what about transplants? I got the idea and started thinking. Usually when I start getting an idea, it kind of goes around in my head for several weeks, sometimes months, where I can’t think of anything else.
Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night, because I have to really have the whole story. I cannot sit down and start writing unless I know the story. I have to know how it ends, and I have to know the climax. I don’t have to have a very detailed outline, but I need to know where it’s going. Otherwise, of course, you’re going to get writer’s block, when you don’t know where you’re going,
Mark Malatesta: I love that. A lot of authors might be surprised by that. You learned the hard way before the writing coach. You know, you can go 100 pages, and not maybe in the best direction. And when you edit that, maybe that 100 pages becomes 10. At some point, if you’re smart and experienced, you’re like, “Let me try to plan some of this in advance, so it’s more on point and I have less revisions.”
Cristina LePort: I knew the story then also, but I really didn’t have the idea of pacing. You gotta have something happening on the page. I gotta keep people on the edge of their seats. It might be interesting, but not for a thriller.
Mark Malatesta: Even if it’s not a thriller, even if it’s any genre, if it’s fiction, there has to be something important at stake in the story to drive us to the next page.
Cristina LePort: Exactly, definitely. You have to have some reason for the reader to put the work into it. That’s another very important thing: The reader should not be passive. That is very clear in that booklet by Ayn Rand, one of the most important things. The writer gets an idea, and the idea is to be concretized by action, by characters, by what’s happening. There is the old saying, “Show, don’t tell.”
You show in action, all these things, and the reader sees all these concrete things, and then, on his own, concludes that that’s the idea they represent. So, two halves of work: the writer has the idea, and gives you the concrete, and the reader takes the concrete that goes to the idea. It’s extremely important, that action. So when you start, you have to know where you’re going, because otherwise you’re not going to pick the right concrete. How are you going to pick the right concrete to write about, if you don’t know what ideas you want to put forward?
Pt 8: Mark Malatesta Review & Interview
Mark Malatesta: Right. Now, you mentioned how you started writing. You mentioned the writing coach. You mentioned the Ayn Rand book. Is there anything else, whether it was formal or informal, author education, whether it’s reading, workshops, classes, courses, anything you think helped you, that other people should consider?
Cristina LePort: Well, there are a lot of books and things you can read about writing. There are books about, for example, how to describe emotion. I don’t remember the exact title, but [one] actually lists all the emotions. What do you see when somebody is experiencing that emotion? What do you actually see from outside?
Mark Malatesta: That’s good.
Cristina LePort: There are a lot of books, some are better than others. That one book which I mentioned, is a jewel, very condensed, obviously. I was a little bit too old to participate in writers’ clubs and all that. I had to cut to the chase, because I was already in my 50s.
I didn’t have the time, and I also was working full-time as a doctor. But there are a lot of things out there that could be useful. It’s up to the person, to pick the best way to use their time. I thought the writing coach was very good, because she basically taught me the art of the trade.
Mark Malatesta: Yeah. It’s one thing to read about something in a book. It’s another thing to have somebody show you what you’re doing.
Cristina LePort: It’s also extremely important to read everything you can in your genre. Read books. If you like thrillers, you want to read as many different thriller authors as you can, to see all the different ways people do things. Right now, I’m reading a book to learn. I read to have fun, but also to learn. “Oh, that’s how you describe a room, in essentials, so you don’t get bored stiff and fall asleep while you’re reading.”
Mark Malatesta: Too many authors don’t do this, but it’s so much more valuable if, when you’re writing description, it’s from the point of view of a character. Then that writing has multiple layers. We’re not just learning the environment. We’re getting to know the character by how they perceive those things.
Cristina LePort: Exactly, and you have to pick essentials. Again, the famous, “Show, don’t tell.” It’s like different layers of show, don’t tell. You want to give the essentials, so the reader figures out the rest. You don’t tell the reader what to think about the character. You just show him how the character acts, in essentials, showing what this guy looks like. You don’t want to say he’s a proud person. You show the reader details.
Mark Malatesta: So they experience it.
Pt 9: Mark Malatesta Interview & Review
Cristina LePort: That’s right, and you have to read a lot in the genre you want to write. That’s extremely important, pay attention to the details. So when something actually strikes you as really well written, ask yourself, “Why is that?” Always ask yourself, “Why is this? Why? Why do I like this?”
Sometimes the story is almost nothing, but I can’t put it down. When I finish the book, I say, what was that? There was a story, but it was simple. It was not that. They say that all the stories have been written already right? There are only four or five stories in life, but it’s how you write it, how interesting your characters are.
Mark Malatesta: I like the emotion part. I think one of those books is The Emotional Craft of Fiction by Donald Maass. And like what you were saying, with the facial expressions. The brain wants, as a writer, to say, “Sally was sad,” because it’s easy. But what does a sad face look like. Or someone’s shy, don’t say that. Show them with their head down. Or they’re hot. No, they’re not hot, they’re wiping the sweat off their face, or something.
Cristina LePort: Exactly.
Mark Malatesta: And then there are books for every genre, even thrillers. You can find a few books on how to write a good thriller, right?
Cristina LePort: Yes, and you have to let the reader conclude what your idea was. If you are a good writer, you give them the exact essential concrete to conclude that.
Mark Malatesta: It’s funny. I’ve never thought about it this way, but in that sense, fiction and nonfiction writers are complete opposites. In fiction, you’re not trying to tell the reader anything. They need to figure it out. With nonfiction, it’s just tell them what they need to know.
Cristina LePort: That’s a very good point, actually. That’s a very, very good point.
Mark Malatesta: You won’t see many authors that do both really well, fiction and nonfiction, probably, partly because they’re different types of your brain working. Anyway, so you shared some advice, indirectly, on how to write a book. What other suggestions do you have, whether it be for fiction or any other genre?
Cristina LePort: First, I highly recommend everybody not sit down and write unless they have a story. Story is the most important thing. You have to have a story, and the story has to be a conflict of some sort with a lot of obstacles. Otherwise, nothing happens. Then, of course, there has to be the climax that resolves the obstacles. And all that has to be known. You go to conferences, writers conferences, [and some people say], “Oh, my characters tell me where to go. My characters tell me what’s going on. I don’t have the slightest idea. I just get up in the morning, sit down, and it starts one way and ends another.”
Mark Malatesta: [Laughter]
Pt 10: Mark Malatesta Review & Interview
Cristina LePort: Of course, sometimes you change. I change all the time. But you’ve got to have something in your head that’s consequential. Otherwise you’re lost to begin with, because you don’t know how you’re going to concretize… If you don’t have an idea, how are you going to be concrete? You’re going to pick things at random, right? You’re going to pick things just because you feel like it instead of thinking about it. That’s one bit of advice.
Mark Malatesta: Right.
Cristina LePort: I gave a talk, a seminar, at a conference, about writing and your subconscious. It was [based on] a lot of ideas I got from that book I mentioned from Ayn Rand. One of the most important things is you have to have the story. You don’t have to write it all down, as long as it’s in your head. That was received like it was coming from outer space. A lot of authors said, “Really?” It was news to them.
A lot of people, I guess, just sit down and start writing without knowing what they’re going to write about. They call it inspiration, but inspiration is something you can actually create yourself. You have to acquire a lot of material in your mind in to have inspiration. Inspiration is your subconscious feeding you what you need. For that to happen, you have to know where you’re going, so then your subconscious can feed you the right things. Inspiration is not something supernatural. Every time you walk around, at any moment, a writer should pay attention to everything, like what people look like when you’re looking on the street.
Mark Malatesta: Mm-hmm.
Cristina LePort: “Oh, that’s an interesting person. “Maybe you try to create a story with that person. Or, is that sad, is that happy? If you have time to spare, and you like it. You have to have like, a booklet in your mind, where you have a subject, and you put all these concretes in your subconscious, so you can retrieve them later as examples. If you’re watching TV and see a firefighter saving somebody, don’t put it in your mind as a firefighter saving somebody, because you’re never going to use it or find it.
If you say, “Well, that’s an example of courage,” the next time you want to write about courage, maybe your subconscious will feed you that. So, that is a very important exercise writers can do. Classify concrete, all day long. It becomes spontaneous after a while. You walk around like you’re an author, you look at people, you look at things, and you classify them in your mind under the right heading so you can find them.
Mark Malatesta: Under the right theme.
Cristina LePort: Yes, the right theme.
Pt 11: Mark Malatesta Interview & Review
Mark Malatesta: I like that, the firefighter thing, and theme. Too many writers, they’re just thinking about plot or external things characters are doing, but that’s never really what the story is about. It’s about the deeper theme underneath it.
Cristina LePort: Exactly. The concretes are only good as good as far as they concretize your idea, right? Otherwise, what are they there for? They have to have a reason. Anything has to have a reason to be in the book. It is a selection of things. It’s not random stuff. It’s not like reality. You look around, and all these random things are just there. But in the book or painting, it acquires a metaphysical meaning. There is a very cute example, in painting, that you can think about in writing.
Mark Malatesta: And how are those characters changing?
Cristina LePort: Think about a painter who paints a beautiful woman, then paints a pimple on one on her lips. Pimples come and go. In reality, they don’t mean anything. They go away. You see a woman on the street with a pimple, and it’s not a big deal. But if you put a pimple on the painting all of a sudden it has a metaphysical meaning, like, “Beauty is ephemeral.”
Mark Malatesta: Right.
Cristina LePort: It’s the same thing in books. Art is selective. When you select something, you elevate it to a metaphysical meaning, So, it’s very important. Everything you pick, all the concretes you pick, are extremely important.
Mark Malatesta: Now, I don’t know what year it was, and I don’t know which book, but at some point you got the idea in your head to go from writer to trying to become published. Did you think right away of getting one of the traditional publishers or self- publishing or vanity or hybrid presses, any of that? What were your thoughts on that, and did that change over time?
Cristina LePort: Yes, it was about 10-15 years ago, and I knew nothing about it. The only thing I knew was that there were publishing houses. I got one of those books with a list of agents and publishers, and I started sending stuff. That was my very first book. I sent to a lot of agents and got very few answers, maybe one or two requests for a sample. I was kind of depressed, but then I got the idea for the book that got published.
Mark Malatesta: Mm-hmm.
Pt 12: Mark Malatesta Review & Interview
Cristina LePort: For this book, I figured, “I’m not going to make the same mistake.” I got my coach but then needed an editor. That’s very important advice. Do not get your friends to edit your book, because your friends are going to tell you how nice it is.
You can have some beta readers… My husband reads my books first, tries to get rid of as many italics as he can, all the Italian stuff. He helps me a little bit with that, but I can’t stop there. You need a professional editor. When you don’t have an agent yet, your book has to be flawless. The most important thing is to have a good book to get an agent. That’s number one. And you might need help to get an agent, even if you have a good book. But if you don’t have a good book, no matter how much help you get, you’re not going to get published, because it’s not a good book. I’s hard enough with a good book.
Mark Malatesta: Right. I was going to say, even some good books don’t get published. So we at least want it to be good. What about marketing? Before this call, you and I were catching up. I asked you questions because I was impressed with some of the things you’ve been doing. So, what are some of your best tips for authors when it comes to marketing and promotion, things they might do while they’re writing, or once they know they have a publication date, or once the book is out, anything like that, that can help people?
Cristina LePort: Yeah, at least you have to be good, so you don’t have that obstacle. The book is actually decent. So, to do that, you have to have a professional editor, and that’s an investment like everything else, when you try to get published. That’s one of the investments you have to make. It’s good to have a professional editor.
There are certain things that are very important to be done months earlier, when you have a publication date. I know all this because I hired a publicist. The publisher may send things out, to distributers and all that, but it’s not going to be enough. A publicist is another one of those things that, if you’re smart, you’re going to invest in, at least for your first book. And there are a lot of things that need to be done in advance.
For example, there are a lot of people now, Instagrammers, who have a lot of followers. You send advance copies to them, and hopefully when the book comes out, they say something good, and thousands of their friends see it on Instagram. Then, of course, you have to get blurbs. Those have to be done way before you publish the book, because you want the blurb to be, maybe, on the cover. All those things, you have to do months before. It takes months to even find where to send your requests, because major authors [often] don’t have emails published somewhere. You have to send them sometimes to their publisher, and hopefully they’re open to blurbs.
And so, again, there’s a whole process, which you were very helpful in explaining when we started to work together. Those things have to be done way ahead. And then, of course, [social] media. We are kind of lucky we have that, but it’s a lot of work, Facebook, [etc.]., and you have to have all these followers. And you can’t just brag about your book every time you post. You need to give them a little blog about something they might be interested in, and then at the end you talk about your books.
Mark Malatesta: Right. When did you create your website?
Cristina LePort: After I got an agent, I did all this.
Pt 13: Mark Malatesta Interview & Review
Mark Malatesta: You didn’t need to before. Yes, that’s what I want people to understand.
Cristina LePort: It’s probably is a good idea to have something, but I didn’t have anything to put on the web. I hired somebody who helped me with the website, because I knew nothing about anything. I even had to hire people to help me to do Facebook and see how to post on Twitter. I’m sure a lot of people are smarter than I am. Young people know how to do those things already. There’s a certain technique. You’re gonna become a pain, if constantly just talk about your book. You have to be subtle about it.
Mark Malatesta: Yep. If you’re a nonfiction author, you almost always need to have a website, and be doing some things on social media. But for a new novelist, that’s not really an expectation, just a bonus, if you have it before you get the agent.
Cristina LePort: Right.
Mark Malatesta: Alright, so what are one or two things you remember from our work together, that, to you, were the most helpful or impactful?
Cristina LePort: When I hired you, it was my last resort. I had tried everything. I had the editor. I had everything. I had queried hundreds of agents on my own, which was very, very time consuming. Every time you have to look and see if they take your genre, if they’re still open, where to send what they want. It took forever, despite the fact that I thought my book was pretty good. I had an editor for this book who was the one who actually launched Stephen King and Grisham. Bill Thompson. That was my editor for Dissection, and he loved my book, so I knew it was pretty good. But despite all that, I had not gotten anywhere.
I got a few little things, but not major requests by anybody. So I saw your advertising and I said, “Well, I’m going to do this, because I’ll know I’ve done everything.” That’s when I hired you. I was curious to see how you would change things. One of the things that was the most helpful was how you changed my query. You didn’t add or take away anything. You just reshuffled the query and put in, first, things I had that you thought would catch attention much better than what I had before that. Sure enough, just by changing the position of some of the sentences in my query, all of a sudden, I got ten manuscript requests. I hadn’t gotten any before.
That’s how I got my agent.
Mark Malatesta: Right.
Pt 14: Mark Malatesta Review & Interview
Cristina LePort: The second thing was that list you gave me of all the agents, so I could resubmit to those agents with the new query. That was a very clean list. It was really easy to do because it was all by genre. It showed exactly if they were open or not and what they needed. That saved tremendous time, because I didn’t have to look it all up on Google. Those were the two central things.
The third thing was how you taught me to get blurbs, because it’s very hard. I had no idea. I didn’t know where to send my requests, or how to phrase the letters.
Mark Malatesta: Especially before you even have an agent. I know some people listening to this or reading the transcript… What we’re talking about is trying to get a really successful author to say they might read your book and give you a blurb before you even have an agent, not after you have a book deal.
Cristina LePort: Yes, a lot of times they don’t do that. They say, “When you get a publisher, come back.” Then you have that email that says, “I will consider giving a blurb.” But you have to get it in advance, because it takes forever even to get there.
Mark Malatesta: Do you remember, and I know they might not have, but do you remember if the agent or publisher…were they excited about that, knowing you had somebody well known already?
Cristina LePort: Yes, yes, because I had, for example, Lee Child, who had said, “When you get an agent or a publisher, let me know.” Then he came through. It’s important to have that when you submit [queries to literary agents]. Everything is important. Those ten requests I got with the changed query…a lot of those were agents that had not answered me before, and the book was the same. They just never got to read it.
Mark Malatesta: I’m so glad you remembered to say that. I forgot all about that.
Cristina LePort: Yeah. Bob Diforio was one of them, the agent I got. I never told him, but he actually basically rejected my two books that are getting published now.
Mark Malatesta: [Laughter] Those are my favorite stories, because they’re the ultimate proof that a different query for the same book can [give you] a second chance. You can’t query the same person five days later, and think they’re not going to notice, but after more time has gone by, if the query is different and better, you really can have a second chance.
Cristina LePort: Yes.
Pt 15: Mark Malatesta Interview & Review
Mark Malatesta: Alright, any other final thoughts you think might be helpful for writers to know, that I haven’t thought about and asked you, or is there anything else you want to share?
Cristina LePort: One has to be really passionate. So much effort is required to get there. You have to really like the process. You have to like writing. Even though it involves rejection, you have to like the process of trying to get your writing in front of people. To me, that’s really the most important thing. I spend all this work writing, and I want people to actually read it.
Then, in the process, you have to invest money you will hopefully get back. You might or might not. But unless you invest some money in the process, you’re not going to get there. You also have to believe in yourself and trust yourself, be really passionate and do very diligent work. If you do all that, there is a good chance, even though the chances are small, they’re small for all comers. But if you have a good book and work hard, then obviously the chances get a lot higher, because here I am, with four books coming out.
Mark Malatesta: Right.
Cristina LePort: But, again, it took a lot. If you’re passionate about it, then you’re not going to give up. You’re going to keep on trying until you exhausted all your possibilities. As you know, I’m very happy I found you in the end, because otherwise I probably would have tried to self-publish, which isn’t easy either. Self-publishing exposure is much smaller, with few exceptions, obviously, but it’s to a much smaller group of people than traditional publishing.
Mark Malatesta: Right, and I’m really glad you like the process of writing and doing all this. I’ll disagree with you a little bit, as there are plenty of unhappy writers. I can’t remember, Erma Bombeck, maybe, said the only part she liked about writing was when it was done. That’s sad. It’s much better if you can convince yourself you actually like the process.
Cristina LePort: I’ve got a good one for you. In the 50s, there was a woman writer who said the first thing you should do for a writer is shoot him while he’s still happy.
Mark Malatesta: [Laughter] You’re making me laugh, that’s hilarious.
Pt 16: Mark Malatesta Review & Interview
Cristina LePort: Usually, when I give talks, I start with that, but then I say, “I’m here, and this is my book, so obviously it’s possible.”
Mark Malatesta: Yes, and liking the process, that’s important. I know this from my coaching, the people who like it are more likely to stay with it longer. So liking the process is important for that reason, because the more time and effort, obviously, you put in into writing and trying to get it out into the world, you have a better shot. And life’s too short to do things that make us miserable.
Cristina LePort: That’s true for every job, right?
Mark Malatesta: Exactly.
Cristina LePort: You’re going to spend 40 years at a certain job, you better like it, right? You should have passion for what you do in all fields. Otherwise, you should change. Writing is one of the things that few people are going to get really rich and famous doing. To be realistic, there might be two thousand or a few thousand people to begin with that want to read what you wrote. That’s not a small thing. Then if you keep on writing, people are going to maybe get your second book and go back to the first one. It’s something that builds on itself.
Mark Malatesta: Then when you get the movie deal or the streaming series, you’re really off to the races.
Cristina LePort: That is obviously the one thing that helps very much to propel people to bestselling, but even the small triumphs… Like I can now call myself a bestselling author. I was a bestselling author for a while on Amazon Kindle, and that’s nothing to be ashamed of. It’s something to be proud of.
Mark Malatesta: And longer than a minute…
Cristina LePort: Oh, yes, it was there for a while. And then you can call yourself bestselling, which you feel good about because you earned it.
Mark Malatesta: Well, thank you again for doing this. I’m so happy to be able to do my part to help you promote. It’s fun to see the second book available, not just the first book anymore, and thank you for all the advice you brought for everybody.
Cristina LePort: You’re welcome, and again, thank you for all your help. It certainly wouldn’t have happened without your help. That I can say, sincerely.
Pt 17: Mark Malatesta Interview & Review
Mark Malatesta: Okay everyone, this is Mark Malatesta, founder of The Bestselling Author, with Dr. Cristina LePort, author of the novels Dissection and Change of Heart.
You can learn more about Cristina at cristinaleport.com, and get her books at https://amzn.to/3iyfJVO and https://rb.gy/3kb96u.
And, if you’re interested in a private 1-on-1 coaching call with me, to talk about the best way to write, publish, or promote your book, visit AuthorConsultation.com.
Lastly, if you’re listening to this interview—or reading the transcript—and you’re not yet a member of my online community, register now [it’s free] at TheBestsellingAuthor.com for instant access to more information (and inspiration) like this, to help you become the bestselling author you can be.
Remember…
Getting published isn’t luck, it’s a decision.
See you next time.
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Former Literary Agent Mark Malatesta
This interview and review of Mark Malatesta were provided by Cristina LePort, author of the novels Dissection and Change of Heart, published by Bancroft Press. Cristina worked with Mark, an author coach and consultant, to get requests for material from ten literary agents before signing with book agent Bob Diforio.
Mark Malatesta is a former literary agent and former AAR member who’s now helped 400+ authors of all Book Genres (fiction, nonfiction, and children’s books) get literary agents and/or traditional publishers. Mark is Founder & CEO of Literary Agent Undercover, a division of The Bestselling Author, through which he provides 1-on-Literary Agent Advice (coaching and consulting).
Mark’s writers have gotten offers of representation from the Best Literary Agents at the Top Literary Agencies; book deals with major publishers such as Harper Collins, Random House, and Thomas Nelson; and sold millions of books. They’ve been on the New York Times bestseller list; had their work optioned for TV, stage, and feature film; won countless awards; and had their work licensed in 40+ countries.
Mark is also the creator of the well-known Directory of Literary Agents, with a comprehensive List of Literary Agents seeking writers. In addition, Mark is the host of Ask a Literary Agent, and author of the popular How to Get a Literary Agent Guide. His articles have appeared in outlets such as the Writer’s Digest Guide to Literary Agents and the Publishers Weekly Book Publishing Almanac.
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Reviews of Former Literary Agent Mark Malatesta
Here you can see more Mark Malatesta reviews from authors like Cristina LePort who’ve worked with Mark to get well-known literary agents such as Bob Diforio, and traditional publishers. You can also see reviews of Mark Malatesta from publishing industry professionals. These reviews of 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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