Things to Do While You Climb the Mountain by Dr. Richard L. Mabry

Readers of this blog who are seeking representation by an agent or are struggling to impress an acquisition editor often feel as though they’re in a valley, with a mountain before them that looks like Everest. Small victories may make them think they’ve moved to a camp halfway to the summit. And Sir Edmund Hillary never experienced more joy at planting his flag atop Everest than is felt by the writer who has that longed-for contract safe in his/her hands.

 For most of us, it’s a long climb and there’s a lot of waiting involved. I’ve faced these challenges, and thought I’d share some lessons I learned during my own climb.

Abingdon, May 2015

Don’t be a one-trick pony. Agents and publishers don’t envision you as the author of just one book
. They’re interested in your career as a writer. It takes time to get a contract offer, and by the time my first one came along, I had already written a draft of my second book. By having it ready, with the skeleton of a third sketched out, I landed an additional two-book contract before my first book ever saw the light of day. Even while you’re editing that first book, work on the second. Try to stay one book ahead. Editors will love you for it.

Build a platform before you need it. We may not like the word—I prefer “name recognition”—but whatever you call it, writers need a platform. If you wait until you have a contract to build one, you’re already behind the curve. Blogs were important when I started, but now it appears that Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads are taking their place. Establish yourself in each of these places. Get your name before agents, editors, and potential readers now, not later.

Start marketing yourself. You may say, “I’m a writer.” You don’t know anything about marketing. Besides, doesn’t the publisher handle that? Perhaps that was once true, but in the modern era of publishing the author has to take an active role in marketing their books. How do you do this when you don’t have a book published? You begin by marketing yourself, not just to potential readers but to agents and editors as well.

In addition to your own blog and a presence on Twitter and Facebook, visit other blogs. Leave comments, but avoid making them self-serving and promotional. If an agent or editor sees your proposal and already has a mental image of you as someone who follows the blogs they do and makes intelligent comments, what can it hurt?

Cultivate the guardians of the books. Make the acquaintance of librarians and bookstore managers. Let them know who you are. Leave a card. Offer to do a signing after your book is published. Do this so that when that big day finally comes, they’ll know who the person behind the cover picture is.

When your book is published, give a signed copy to your local librarian. They are asked for recommendations all the time. Do the same for the bookstore managers you’ve already called on. Buy and offer stickers that say, “Local author.” Many bookstores and libraries love that designation.

Spread your net. At my first writer’s conference, I was in awe of the published writers on the faculty. But as I got to know them, I discovered they were neat people, and I formed a number of lasting friendships. Later, many of those authors provided blurbs and endorsements for my books. I didn’t set out with that goal and neither should you, but it turned out to be a wonderful benefit of networking with other writers.

Get to know agents and editors. I don’t mean you should stalk them, far from it, but take advantage of opportunities to interact with them. One of the editors I met at my first conference rejected my manuscript, but we seemed to hit it off. Now she’s my agent. In this business, you never know.

Keep going. And most important, keep writing! Sir Edmund Hillary didn’t turn back, didn’t give up, and he ended up at the top. I wish you the same kind of success in your climb.

Dr. Richard L. Mabry

Dr. Mabry is a retired physician whose writing career began with his non-fiction book, The Tender Scar. He now writes “medical suspense with heart.” Fatal Trauma is his eighth published novel of medical suspense. A past Vice-President of the American Christian Fiction Writers, he is also a member of the International Thriller Writers and Romance Writers of America. His medical thrillers have won the Selah Award of the Blue Ridge Mountain Christian Writers Conference, and been finalists in competitions including ACFW’s Carol Award, Romantic Times’ Inspirational Book of the Year, and the Inspirational Readers Choice Award. His work has received glowing endorsements from numerous authors and rave reviews from Library Journal and Publishers Weekly. In addition to writing novels, Dr. Mabry’s articles and meditations have appeared in The Christian Communicator, In Touch Magazine, and The Upper Room. Dr. Mabry has taught extensively, including the Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference, the Blue Ridge Mountain Christian Writers Conference, the American Christian Fiction Writers Conference, and numerous groups and venues throughout the Southwest.

Order Fatal Trauma today:

Connect with Richard Mabry:
Website: http://www.rmabry.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rmabrybooks
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RichardMabry

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3 Things That I No Longer Fear by Dr. Richard L. Mabry

It’s okay to be afraid. Some fears are healthy. For instance, I fear Black Bears and Grizzlies, and if I’m ever near one of them I plan to seek safe shelter ASAP. That’s a healthy fear. Then again, other fears aren’t rational—like those to which writers are subject. 

Along my road to writing, with eight published novels and a non-fiction book under my belt and more under contract, I have learned not to be afraid of some things. I’d like to share three of them with you, and hope that the writers in the audience will see my logic and join me in discarding these three fears out of the many that plague us. 

Abingdon, May 2015

The blank screen: People frequently ask me, “Where do you get your ideas for your books?” Ideas are all around if we start with the two magic words author Alton Gansky taught me years ago: “What if?” For example, while reading Robert Frost’s words about home being the place where they have to take you in, I thought, “What if a doctor fled to her hometown, only to find that someone there wanted to kill her?” This gave rise to my first novel, Code Blue. Other questions led me to write Medical Error (my step-son’s paranoia about identity theft), Diagnosis Death (charges of mercy killing brought against a colleague), and most recently Lethal Remedy (a retraction in a medical journal of fabricated drug research). So ideas are all around us. Writers need not fear the blank screen—only our unwillingness to fill it. 

Agents and editors: The current climate of publishing requires that a writer either self-publish (which is the subject for a different blog post) or acquire an agent to act as advocate with editors and publishers. The latter is tough, because we tend to hold agents and editors in high regard. We go out of our way in our dealings with them to put our best foot forward. But once I had an agent and a contract, I noticed these were real people, not demi-gods to be placed on a pedestal. And if I said something wrong, I wouldn’t be cast into utter darkness. I can truthfully say that my agent and my editors have become my friends. My advice to as-yet-unpublished writers: be respectful of these people, don’t be fearful. 

Reviews: After the publication of my first novel, I checked my Amazon rankings almost every hour. I set Google alerts (it’s free, folks) to notify me every time the book was mentioned on the Internet. I exulted in good reviews, descended into the depths of depression with the bad ones. I even pestered my publisher for sales figures, only to be told that the information wasn’t currently available. But eventually I got tired of it all, so I stopped worrying. A good friend once loaned me a tape about success, and one line stuck with me: “I cannot expect to be universally loved and respected.” So when I run across a bad review, whether on a bookseller’s site, a blog, or in social media, I shrug it off. And I try not to make too much of the good reviews as well. I write because I believe God has some messages He would like me to share. Beyond that, it’s out of my control. 

So there you have them, three things I’ve learned not to fear on my writing journey. How about you? Are there still things in your closet and under your bed that make you nervous? Don’t let them make you afraid. Meet them head-on. Or, better yet, incorporate them in your next story. That’s another way to deal with a blank screen. 

Dr. Richard Mabry

Dr. Mabry is a retired physician whose writing career began with his non-fiction book, The Tender Scar. He now writes “medical suspense with heart.” Fatal Trauma is his eighth published novel of medical suspense. A past Vice-President of the American Christian Fiction Writers, he is also a member of the International Thriller Writers and Romance Writers of America. His medical thrillers have won the Selah Award of the Blue Ridge Mountain Christian Writers Conference, and been finalists in competitions including ACFW’s Carol Award, Romantic Times’ Inspirational Book of the Year, and the Inspirational Readers Choice Award. His work has received glowing endorsements from numerous authors and rave reviews from Library Journal and Publishers Weekly. In addition to writing novels, Dr. Mabry’s articles and meditations have appeared in The Christian Communicator, In Touch Magazine, and The Upper Room. Dr. Mabry has taught extensively, including the Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference, the Blue Ridge Mountain Christian Writers Conference, the American Christian Fiction Writers Conference, and numerous groups and venues throughout the Southwest. 

Order Fatal Trauma today: 

Connect with Richard Mabry:
Website: http://www.rmabry.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rmabrybooks?fref=ts
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RichardMabry

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If At First. . .by Author Richard L. Mabry, M.D.

Outside, strobes atop the police cars spilled red and blue over the figures huddled on the lawn. 

From the front window, the lights of the Christmas tree cast multicolored reflections on the snow. 

Inside the house, red bows and green garlands adorned the mantel of the living room. That color scheme continued in the tattered green coat the man on the floor wore and the darkening red stain that spread from the knife handle protruding from his back.

Dr. Shannon Frasier stood transfixed in one corner, unable to tear her eyes away from the corpse. Her “almost-fiancé,” Dr. Mark Gilbert, was beside her, his arm resting lightly on her shoulder. 

This was no way to start the holiday season.

In case you’re wondering where you can find those lines, you can’t, unless you scan the hard drive of my computer. When I started writing my most recent novel of medical suspense, Critical Condition, I planned to set it during the Christmas season. But after writing the first chapter, I decided that wasn’t going to work. So I started over.

When I was writing another novel, Heart Failure, I scrapped 20,000 words after I saw I was headed in the wrong direction. That one was tough to write, but I kept at it and after a number of false starts, several new beginnings, and multiple revisions, I produced a novel I thought was good.

In the past I never gave any thought to how many times an author may have started over, how many drafts and revisions were involved, until the book in my hand was born. But that was before I started writing. Now I am acutely aware of all that. As author Alton Gansky told my group of neophyte writers: “Once you begin writing, you’ll never read a book the same way again.” And I’ve found that to be true.

To the writers reading this, I would remind you that there may come a time when, despite all the work you’ve put in on it, it’s necessary to scrap what you’ve written and start over. If that happens to you, don’t worry about it. After all, the finished product is what counts. 

In writing, as in so many other things in life, the old adage is true: If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

Richard Mabry is a retired physician, past Vice President of the

American Christian Fiction Writers, and author of “medical suspense with heart.” His novels have been a semifinalist for International Thriller Writers’ debut novel, finalists for the Carol Award and Romantic Times’ Reader’s Choice Award, and winner of the Selah Award.  His most recent novel, just released, is Critical Condition. You can follow Richard on his blog, on Twitter, and his Facebook fan page.

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