The Steve Laube Agency is committed to providing top quality guidance to authors and speakers. Our years of experience and success brings a unique service to our clients. We focus primarily in the Christian marketplace and have put together an outstanding gallery of authors and speakers whose books continue to make an impact throughout the world.
Our Service Philosophy
Content
To help the author develop and create the best book possible. Material that has both commercial appeal and long-term value.
Career
To help the author determine the next best step in their writing career. Giving counsel regarding the subtleties of the marketplace as well as the realities of the publishing community.
Contract
To help the author secure the best possible contract. One that partners with the best strategic publisher and one that is mutually beneficial for all parties involved.
Recent Posts
Judging a Book by Its Cover
We’ve heard the cliche “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” True. But you do “buy a book by its cover.” We all do. That colorful billboard attracts the eye, disseminates information, and sells the content. Even when the billboard is the size of a postage stamp on Amazon.com, BN.com, or iTunes, you make a judgment on the quality of the book based on its cover.
It is hard to find just the right image, texture, font, and copy to make a book cover work. Mix in the fact that everyone has different tastes, and you have a recipe for controversy. Back in my days at Bethany House, one person on the cover-design committee didn’t like the color orange; so the head designer tried to work around that to avoid getting work voted down in those meetings!
Today I’d like you to take a quiz on the following books and vote A, B, or C as to which cover design you like best. Try not to peek at the one in print before you vote. Think like a marketer and not only your personal taste. Think about the book itself and which image reflects the content in a way that you might buy it. These are actual cover designs I have seen for the same book in the past. I’m sorry, the thumbnails are small and cannot be clicked to enlarge. That is part of the point of this exercise; it teaches you to view a cover like one is viewed online. And when you finish voting, watch the embedded video below to see the extraordinary cover variations for a general-market novel published by Penguin Random House. (FYI, a couple of the images are a little more racy than I would like.) I cannot imagine the time and cost it took to create the final design.
I posted this quiz ten years ago on this blog, and over 50 readers voted. None got them all correct! Can you do better without looking them up? I will post the “correct” answers later in the day.
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Place your vote below!
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Fun Fridays – November 15, 2024
Palette cleanser with today’s video. Sheer Joy! Conquering the get-it-done pile! ShareTweet
We’re Engaged!
No, we’re not engaged in anticipation of a wedding. We’re engaged in your work as literary agents. When we respond to you with suggestions, we’ve read enough of your work to discern that we like your writing style and story and may eventually pursue representation. If we offer recommendations, please consider them. As a writer, you have a right not to take any of our suggestions. Let’s say you’ve sent a proposal for a nonfiction book on grief, and we suggest you write a novel about happiness. You can say, “No, I’m not going to write about happiness.” When you …
Point of View #4
Last time I talked about Deep Point of View. Now, let’s jump into some practical tips for application. Eliminate “Distance” Words Eliminate “distance” words like “saw,” “heard,” “felt,” “thought,” “wondered,” “noticed,” and so on. Is there ever a time you’d use those? Of course, but for now, let’s try not to use them. I call them “distance” words because they distance the reader from the character. Any time a reader is reminded that they’re being told a story is not a good thing. We don’t want them to think about that. So get rid of the “distance” words as much …
How to Be a Successful Author-Entrepreneur With Kara Swanson
Become an author entrepreneur by learning to leverage transferrable business skills to build a sustainable writing career.