Paper vs. Electronic Books. Let the battle continue!
Archives for May 2014
Why You Shouldn’t Be Depressed by Facebook
Lately I’ve been seeing articles about how some people find personal status updates on Facebook and other social media depressing. Apparently people put on their best “faces” so their lives seem better than yours. Most of these articles aren’t written from a Christian perspective, so they ignore the fact that most of us ask for prayer through social media. Truly, this is a …
Editing Etiquette
Writers and editors have a love-hate relationship. Okay, sometimes it can feel like a hate-hate relationship. Writers all know they need to be edited, but getting the manuscript back with those edits can be more painful than passing a kidney stone. And editors know they need to respect the author’s voice and style, but seriously? They want to use an em dash where? Generally speaking, though, we …
Actually, The World is Pretty Big
At one time or another, every one of us have remarked how small the world is, usually caused by meeting someone by chance and finding out that you both know a certain person, or went to school with the person, are both reading the same books, are fans of the same team, etc. But you might be surprised how a “small” view of the world can alter your entire perspective. I am not referring to a …
Happy 10th Anniversary!
by Steve Laube It is hard to believe that this weekend marks ten years since I made the decision to open The Steve Laube Agency in 2004. I can honestly say it has been a blessing to have the opportunity to serve the industry and our authors in this capacity. It is stunning to realize we have secured contracts for over 1,000 books. And the books that have been published have sold over 13,000,000 …
Fun Fridays – May 23, 2014
A great song about books! Lyrics: If You Love to Read There’s a story waiting to be told Waiting for all of us, whether we’re young or old The story is in there if you take a look Go ‘head and and open up, the pages of a book If you ask me, I will read with you Don’t underestimate the things that books can do There’s a story waiting to be told Waiting for all of us, …
How Do You Define Summer Reading?
Now that summer is nigh, I’m thinking about what I’d like to read over the next few months. I have not yet decided. But at least now I can choose for myself. At my college prep school, we were assigned summer reading. To enter eighth grade, we were assigned The Ox Bow Incident and Pride and Prejudice. This went for boys and girls. I’m so glad, because I never would have read The …
Look Up!
by Karen Ball A friend shared the video at the end of this blog with me in response to what I wrote here last week. I love the message, not just for me personally, but for anyone who seeks to touch people through their writing. Because really, how effective can we be in what we’re doing as writers if we don’t see and spend time with the people around us? We write about our “core audience” in our …
The Seminar Test: A Simple Way to Discover if You Have a Viable Idea
Today we are going to explore something I devised as a way to evaluate an opinion or approach to a particular issue. I came up with this method of determining message validity after years of hearing opinions expressed in media, business and even in the church. For lack of something more compelling, I title this method, The Seminar Test. The concept is simple. Take any strategy, opinion or approach …
It was a Quiet Week
by Steve Laube It was an quiet week in the agenting business. Periodically I like to peel back the curtain on what we do as literary agents because for many it remains a mystery or as a job that is unnecessary. I love my job. I am so very blessed to be able to do something I love and help so many people while doing it. Without further ado, here are a number of things that crossed my path this …