Author Interview ~ Mark Gilroy

M.K. Gilroy

Mark Gilroy has had a long, varied, and successful career in publishing, from his first paid creative assignment as a newspaper sports writer while in college, to serving as head of gift, specialty, and backlist publishing for Thomas Nelson, the world’s largest Christian publisher. Throughout his journey in the world of books he has worked with leading authors such as Max Lucado, Sarah Young, John Maxwell, Darlene Zschech, H. Jackson Brown, Donald Miller, Billy Graham, Newt Gingrich, Beth Moore, George Foreman, and many others. 

Gilroy and his wife Amy reside in Brentwood, Tennessee. Their six children are Lindsey, Merrick, Ashley, Caroline, Bo, and Zachary—the youngest has now headed off for college, so he and Amy are officially empty nesters. 

1) How long were you writing before your first publication? How many manuscripts had you written by that time? Have you published any of your early works since? Do you plan to? 

My start in writing fiction is quite a bit different than many authors. I had already published hundreds of articles and numerous books as a publisher and freelance writer. I got my start as a sports writer for a local newspaper while I was a junior in college. I’ve done many nonfiction books without my name on it. For example, the devotional, A Daybook of Grace, has been in Barnes & Noble for five years.

I think I enjoyed writing in the background and helping build projects. I think that’s what made me nervous about writing novels with my name on the cover. I couldn’t hide from the review process! 

2) Are you a morning person? A night owl? How do you arrange your schedule to allow the most efficient, productive time for writing? 

I’ve always been a morning person and used to be a night owl with about five-hours of sleep per night for most of my adult life. I thought you were supposed to need less sleep as you get older! Now I’m sleeping seven hours. I get up early, about six, to get a couple hours of writing in, before the phone starts ringing and emails start stacking up! 

3) When working on a manuscript, what do you do when you get stuck? 

Sometimes I promise myself a reward if I get a certain amount of writing done. That helps. Other times I head for the Y to workout or take a long bike ride. Occasionally, I just get away from the computer keyboard and write longhand – that always seems to help. 

4) Do you ever read your dialog aloud to see how it sounds? Have you ever performed an action you want one of your characters to carry out in order to help you visualize or describe it? Have you ever embarrassed yourself doing this? 

Dialog, I definitely speak out loud to test how it sounds. 

On action, I’ve been told my fight scenes are very realistic. That probably comes from having wrestled and putting on some boxing gloves with friends when I was a teen. I don’t get up and act the scenes out but I do visualize the mechanics and physics of Kristen Conner’s fight scenes very carefully. 

5) What aspect of being a writer is the most challenging for you? Why is this difficult, and what steps have you taken to overcome this hurdle? 

I’m probably typical in telling people I absolutely love to write – especially when I’m done! But two specific things that come up for me is first, my ideas come faster than my fingers type. If I don’t finish a scene, I don’t necessarily remember the idea as well later! Second, I have an uncanny ability to mess up the timetable on my storyline. My solution was to set up a Google calendar for each book to map scenes and events. 

August, 2015

6) Do you read your reviews? Have you ever replied to one? Do you find they influence your writing when you work on subsequent books? 

I read all my reader and professional reviews. I reply to all of them – but it’s always with a simple “thank you.”

Do they influence me? I’ve been blessed to get a ton of great reviews. I just looked at Amazon and Good Reads the other day and I have 135 five-stars and 77 four-stars on Cuts Like a Knife, my first book, alone. So my response to positive reviews is obviously encouragement. I do try to be very open minded to negative reviews. Sometimes I get some helps, other times it is just a matter of my genre or style not connecting with what a reader likes. My character is a wise-cracking introspective – not everyone’s cup of tea. In those cases, I don’t get upset, but realize I have a well-liked character that other people are waiting for. I buy into the philosophy that you can’t please everybody and shouldn’t try. That’s why the world of publishing is so huge. 

7) If you’re a plotter, have you ever tried pantsing it? If you’re a pantser, have you ever given plotting a try? Can you swing both ways, or are you a confirmed devotee of one of these methods? 

I plot two things – the basic murder and motivation for the murder is first. Second is a twist to keep readers guessing and really surprise them. Everything else is seat-of-the-pants. I just let her personality interact with the world around her! 

There are a few reoccurring elements that I know I will add to the story – Kristen Conner coaches her niece’s soccer team and is a workout warrior, she usually has a fight or two with her sister, and there is her love interest, so I know there will be certain kinds of scenes that will show up in the final product. 

8) Does your best writing flow? Or are you most satisfied with the work that you’ve labored over, sweating and groaning? 

I think overall my best writing flows. But then I have to edit and make sure elements of the story agree throughout the entire book. That is when I labor, sweat, and groan. Writing is “funner” than editing! But both are required. I have slowed down on writing the first draft somewhat so that the editing isn’t labor-by-design! My first three novels are all 100 thousand words and 400 pages – so anything I can do to keep from unnecessary editing is smart on my part. 

To learn more about Mark, visit him at:
Website: www.markgilroy.com
Facebook: www.facebook/markgilroy
Twitter: @markgilroy

Read More

The Publishing Industry: The Business Side of Writing by Author Dianna Benson

In 2012, I signed a nine-book contract with a traditional print publishing house; my first book, The Hidden Son, releases March 2013. 

I’m not an expectation person: meaning, I rarely have expectations. Instead, I tend to roll with it as life happens, something I had to learn as a child. However, with the publishing industry, I’ve found myself taken aback by the business side of the industry. I’m not referring to the process of landing an agent or a publishing contract (I’m well experienced there—after I completed five novels and submitted to agents for seven years, I finally signed with my agent in 2007); I mean the marketing process. When I started writing my first book back in 1993, the Internet was basically unknown, and didn’t become huge until after I landed an agent. The way a book was marketed ten plus years ago, even five years ago is no longer the case. Things are extremely different now. Authors need to have a huge online presence and spend a ton of time marketing.     

I have an enormous comfort zone. Things that others see as “a problem”, I either view it as nothing much at all or as a challenge to tackle and overcome so I can improve my soul. So…in those rare times when I’m out of my comfort zone, I’m uncharacteristically nervous and struggling to feel God in my midst, which is where I find myself with the business of writing nowadays. Even though I’m thrilled with my contract and couldn’t be happier, as a published author I’m experiencing life outside my comfort zone.

Even though I love writing, writing novels is difficult. Being published is even harder. Sales is something that haunts a fictional author. I don’t write for the money, I’m certainly not an EMT for the money, I don’t even like to spend money, and I don’t give a fig about fame, but in a writer’s mind their sales equates to if their book is good or not, thus if they’re a good writer or not.  Well…I know my sales will basically represent the amount and type of marketing I did (or didn’t do). I’m a diligent person (probably an overachiever) so I’ve worked hard with my publicist on marketing and setting up my spring book tour, events, etc. once my first book releases, and most of this marketing stuff isn’t real fun or comfortable to me.

I’m a writer, not a speaker, and I don’t like being the center of attention, so speaking engagements and media interviews are an emotional and mental roller coaster for me. Also, I’m not into the techno world of today (I have a five-year-old flip phone and don’t text). I could live in a jungle with the bare necessities (I grew up climbing mountains and camping on the side of a mountain with my dad—Think: My pillow was my backpack, but I loved it). So, spending so much time at my computer (beyond writing) on marketing isn’t my bag at all. Yeah, if you’re thinking I was born a hundred years too late, I already think that myself. But, that wasn’t God’s plan for me, so I simply focus on being who I am and doing what works for me.           

Just like every person is different, every writer is different. Marketing is different for every writer. What works for one writer, doesn’t work for another. I focus on what makes sense to me for my writing career with my online presence, and I do it; even though speaking and giving interviews is uncomfortable, I’m willing to deal with the turmoil it creates for me because every job has its negatives and positives. That’s just life.  

In addition to the nine books I’m contracted to publish, I have countless ideas for more books, and my writer brain cooks up new stuff daily. In addition, there isn’t another career I’m more suited for, I’d be better at, I’d like more. At the end of my writing day, even if the writing isn’t going well, I wish it could be ten o’clock that morning again so I can continue to write. I think that says it all. 

I encourage you, too, to run your writing career to fit who you are as a person and what works best for you as a writer. 

Come back Friday for a chance to win a copy of Dianna's new book!

Dianna Torscher Benson is a 2011 Genesis Winner, a 2011 Genesis double Semi-Finalist, a 2010 Daphne de Maurier Finalist, and a 2007 Golden Palm Finalist. In 2012, she signed a nine-book contract with Ellechor Publishing House. Her first book, The Hidden Son, releases March 2013. 

Read More

Gina Conroy's 3 Secrets to Getting Published

You’ve heard it before, there are no overnight successes. Well, there are a couple I know of, but thankfully we’ve remained friends to this day. For the rest of us publication takes three things. Sweat, tears, and perseverance. 

Sweat. It’s what got me from being an unpublished novice writer to a published author. We all start out green, thinking our prose are brilliant until our first critique. Then the scales fall from our eyes, and we see that we have a lot of learning to do. That’s when we roll up our sleeves and learn new terms like head hopping, info dumps, and backstory. All the things our WIP is filled with that we’re not supposed to do. But we’re excited, ready to learn, not afraid of the work before us. We buy a couple of craft books and start to learn the rules.

Rules? Yes, writers need to follow them if they want to be published. It’s the published writers, and those darn overnight successes, that get to break them! ;) Once we start to learn the rules it’s then the real writers are separated from the fantasy writers (and I’m not talking genre.) It’s then we start to sweat. It’s then a writer needs to ask the question, “Am I willing to put in the hard work it’s going to take to become a published author?” It’s a question I had to ask myself for the last seven years after every disappointment and rejection.

Tears. If you want to be a published writer, there will be many. Writers have heard over and over again that writing is not for the faint of heart, that you have to have thick skin, and when you’re knocked down over and over again (and you will be,) you have to get up again and again. And it’s true. I’ve been knocked down so many times I swore I’d never get up. But I always do because I’m that stubborn and determined to keep at it until I succeed. And with my second book coming out soon, some think I have succeeded. Not even close. I still deal with the “stuff” all writers experience, but I’ve learned a couple of tricks to deal with the tears. You might want to keep these posts handy for when you need them!

5 Rules to Avoid Disappointments

Rejection Doesn’t Make You a Loser

Your Black Moment: When Everything Falls Apart

Perseverance. This is what separates the writers from the wannabes. You’ve also heard that if it was easy everyone would be doing it. There are many who start on this writing journey only to fizzle out and quit too soon. What keeps me going is not knowing what God has planned and the fear of missing out because I gave up too soon. It’s not easy to persevere through sweat and tears, but when I keep my mind on the goal and my heart attuned to my calling, then quitting isn’t an option.

Writing isn’t easy, but it is attainable if you remember the three keys to getting published. You need to work hard, handle disappoints, and pick yourself up and start typing again. If there’s any other way to succeed in this crazy business, I’d sure like to know!

 

Gina Conroy used to think she knew where her life was headed, now she's learning to embrace the detours. She is the founder ofWriter...Interrupted, and tries to keep things in perspective, knowing God's timing is perfect, even if she doesn't agree with it! ;) Her first bookCherry Blossom Capers released from Barbour Publishing in January 2012 and Digging Up Death will be out late October.

Read More