We were lucky to catch up with Mark Stevens recently and have shared our conversation below.

Mark, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Have you signed with an agent or manager? Why or why not?

Yes, I’ve been very lucky to have worked with Josh Getzler (Hannigan-Getzler) for about nine years. We met thanks to a friend who introduced me to one of the agents who used to work with Josh’s firm. She was a fantastic literary agent (still is) who decided to switch her focus from crime fiction to young adult about six months after we started working together. At that point, Josh did not have to keep me on with his agency – but he did. I was thrilled. Josh has been extremely strategic and thoughtful about what projects to pitch to publishers and when.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Well, my professional career is in three big chunks. I spent nearly 20 years as a reporter and television news producer. Next I spent 15 years in school district communications in Colorado. And then I ran my own one-man-band public relations firm working with non-profit and education-related organizations. But behind all of that I also worked at writing fiction. I stared writing fiction in 1983, finally got published in 2007 and have enjoyed every aspect of the business. I have six novels out to date. Five are in the Allison Coil Mystery Series, featuring a female hunting guide in the Flat Tops Wilderness of Colorado. The sixth book is The Fireballer, which came out in 2023 and is about a rookie pitcher for The Baltimore Orioles who poses an existential threat for the game of baseball because he throws pitches so fast there is no time left to live. My seventh novel comes out in June (from Thomas & Mercer). It’s called No Lie Lasts Forever and is about a retired serial killer and a television reporter who has been temporarily suspended from her station. It’s a case of mutual redemption and also, I hope, a whole lot more.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I’m a big believer in patience. And the book coming out in June this year (No Lie Lasts Forever) is a good example of the fact that patience is a great thing to have in this business. I first wrote the novel over a three-year period beginning in about 2001. Yes, 24 years ago. I liked the idea. I believed in the characters. When I wrote the novel, I already had three good New York agents for three other projects and I had come close (with one of them) to finding a publisher. So when I started shopping around No Lie Lasts Forever, I didn’t get great response. I was a big discouraged (for a few months) with my prospects and kind of pulled that book back, returning to project #3 — which ended up becoming the beginning of my mystery series. “No Lie” hung around. I wrote five books in my mystery series. In turn, I had three larger and larger publishers as the series went along. But all three closed shop. I decided, in 2016, to go back out and seek and agent. Through a mutual connection (never underestimate the power of networks in the marketplace) I met a New York agent who read ‘No Lie’ and agreed to represent me. When she switched agencies, Josh Getzler picked me up (something he did not have to do). We began the initial process of marketing ‘No Lie’ when I called Josh one day with the idea for the book that became ‘The Fireballer.’ Josh liked the idea so much (I hadn’t written one word) that he said ‘No Lie’ would wait. I finished the baseball novel a couple years later and we went to market in February of 2020. Hello, pandemic. There were other more presssing issues in the world and the publishing industry went topsy-turvy and it didn’t sell for nearly two years and then finally was published in January of 2023. I was thrilled. But what about ‘No Lie’? The editor who bought ‘The Fireballer’ wanted to read another one of my novels but not crime fiction. So I wrote another novel set in the world of rock and roll, based on an idea I had had for a long time. Then that editor switched positions in her company. That editor’s replacement didn’t care for my rock and roll novel but she asked to see any crime fiction I had. Josh sent her ‘No Lie.’ She read it in one sitting and made an offer. That was in the spring of 2024. And that book will finally be published nearly a quarter-century after its first draft. Yeah, patience is good. You never know.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Networks! I spent the first 15 to 20 years writing alone. And querying agents alone. And trying to get better as a writer, yes, alone. Once I started joining writing organizations such as Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers or Mystery Writers of America, my writing got better and my understanding of the business changed. Every element of my writing career improved. Every writer needs friends. Every writer needs a network.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.writermarkstevens.com
• Instagram: mark54stevens
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/writermarkstevens
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/writermarkstevens/
• Twitter: @writerstevens
• Youtube: @writerstevens