Name: John
Benedict
Book Title:
Adrenaline
Genre: medical
thriller
Purchase on Amazon
Thank you for your time in answering
our questions about getting published. Let’s begin by having you explain
to us why you decided to become an author and pen this book?
John: The following true
story explains both: One
day it struck me—at 2:00 in the morning in the midst of another grueling
24-hour shift. I had just finished interviewing a nice lady with an appendix
about to burst—we’ll call her Linda. I had done my best not to yawn as I went
through the routine questions that an anesthesiologist is obliged to ask. She
appeared nervous, which soon gave way to tears. I did my best to comfort her,
took her hand, told her I would take good care of her. That I would watch over
her carefully in the operating room and see her through surgery. And be there
when she woke up in the recovery room. She appeared to calm down a bit. I
wrapped up my pre-op assessment and asked her to sign the anesthesia consent
form, while assuring her the risks would be minimal. She raised her eyebrows at
this and the fearful look returned. I wondered: What the hell does minimal
mean when you’re talking about life and death? More tears. She told me of
her two young daughters at home that desperately needed a mommy. I felt my own
throat tighten. I quickly buried my emotions, tried not to think about my wife
and three sons, and focused on the task at hand as we wheeled her litter back
down the hall to the OR.
After Linda, sans rotten appendix, was safely
tucked in the recovery room, operation a success, anesthetic uncomplicated, I
lay down in the call room to try to catch a couple of z’s. My mind wandered as
I lay there. Rarely, I thought, does a person willingly surrender control of
their mind and body to a virtual stranger. Yet, this is exactly what
happens when the person is a patient being wheeled in for surgery and the
stranger is their anesthesiologist, whom they have just met minutes beforehand.
Talk about an extraordinary amount of trust. This degree of trust made a
distinct impression on me that night, some twenty years ago.
Other thoughts followed soon thereafter. What
if the trust Linda had exhibited earlier was ill-conceived and her doctor was
actually bad? Not just incompetent or sleepy, but downright evil. Being an avid
reader of thrillers, I thought this chilling concept would make for a good
story. Too bad I wasn’t a writer. (Disclaimer time: I don’t want to scare
people here. All the docs I have known in my 30 years of medical practice are
highly competent professional people, who would never purposely hurt anyone.)
But I still couldn’t shake the evil concept; it kept gnawing at me until
eventually I had to put it down on paper—lack of writing experience be damned.
So Adrenaline was birthed, my first medical thriller novel that explores
this issue of absolute trust implicit in the anesthesiologist-patient
relationship—specifically, what happens when that trust is abused and replaced
by fear. Adrenaline was finally published twelve years after my
encounter with Linda.
Is this your first book?
John: Yes
With this particular book, how
did you publish – traditional, small press, Indie, etc. – and why did you
choose this method?
John: Adrenaline was first published in 2005 by the small press, Sterling
House, out of Pittsburgh. After Sterling
House went out of business and the rights of the book reverted to me, I
re-released Adrenaline in Dec 2013 as
a self-published version (trade paperback and for the first time, ebook)
through CreateSpace.
Can you tell us a little about
your publishing journey? The pros and
cons?
John: You must realize the
journey is long. Good agents and
interested editors are very hard to find.
I sent out literally hundreds of query letters to agents and even
managed to hook up with several poor agents.
This was primarily an exercise in frustration. Finally, I attended multiple writing
conferences and did manage to get signed by a reputable agent. I thought my
journey was near its end. However, I learned that even finding a decent agent
doesn’t guarantee selling the book to a mainstream publisher. My agent couldn’t
sell the book. Finally, I decided to go
the self-publishing route. This proved
to be the way to go for me. I chose
CreateSpace, which worked fine for me—there are several other good alternatives
out there. Be prepared to pay a small
amount to get your book published—it pays to price-shop. Once set up, you can sell your book as an
inexpensive ebook on Amazon (and elsewhere).
The internet is an extremely valuable sales platform and if your book is
half-decent, it can spread by word-of-mouth alone. Readers leave reviews and rate your book and
this can attract new readers. I’m
pleased to report that Adrenaline
sold very well as a Kindle ebook. In 2014, over 80,000 copies were downloaded
from Amazon pushing it to the #1 paid medical thriller. I also picked up over 400 reader reviews
(mostly 5-star). Armed with these sales
numbers and positive reader reviews, I was finally able to attract a mainstream
publisher for my third medical thriller, Fatal
Complications, due out in December 2015.
What lessons do you feel you
learned about your particular publishing journey and about the publishing
industry as a whole?
John: Nowadays, with the
widespread availability and low cost of ebooks, self-publishing no longer has
the stigma that it had even 10 years ago.
I believe it is a perfectly viable way to go. Write the best book you can (attend as many
writers’ conferences as you can) and then get it out there as a self-published
ebook. Try your best to promote it. After you
establish a good track record, then approach the agents and editors. With this approach, they’ll be much more
likely to actually listen to your proposal and may just offer you a publishing
deal.
Would you recommend this method
of publishing to other authors?
John: Yes, absolutely. Unless you can write a killer novel out of
the gate like Stephen King or have friends in the industry, it’s extremely hard
to get anyone to take notice of your stuff (let alone even read it). The gatekeepers are simply inundated with
manuscripts from wannabe novelists and they just don’t have the time to give
each its due.
What’s the best advice you can
give to aspiring authors?
John: The goal of getting published requires hard
work and perseverance. And you must
believe in yourself, even when no one else seems to. It’s also helpful to have thick skin when it
comes to handling lots of rejection letters.
Write because you enjoy the process, not because you think big success
(and money) is right around the corner.
Keep writing and good luck!
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