Blog

A One Year Anniversary Announcement

By Steve Laubeon May 21, 2012

by Steve Laube

A year ago we welcomed Tamela Hancock Murray and Karen Ball to our agency. I couldn’t be more pleased.

These two ladies are amazing people. They both work very hard to serve their clients with passion and excellence. I am blessed to have them as part of our team.

Next week will be the eighth anniversary of the founding of The Steve Laube Agency. We have had some wonderful success and represented some amazing authors and books in those years. I pray that we continue to help change the world word by word.

Fun Fridays – May 8, 2012 -The Chaos of English Pronunciation

By Steve Laubeon May 18, 2012

Fun Friday - May 18, 2012

Quoted in its entirety from The Better Spelling Society (read their article the history of this piece). My favorite is the last stanza that reads "which rhymes with enough? Though, through, bough, cough, hough, sough, tough??"
The Chaos - by Gerard Nolst Trenité
This version is essentially the author's own final text, as also published by New River Project in 1993. A …

Category: Fun Fridays, GrammarTag: Grammar, spelling

The Keys to a Great Book Proposal

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon May 17, 2012

"I think book proposals are one of the most difficult things to write, second only to obituaries."

When I received this email from one of my authors, Sherry Gore, (and yes, I have permission to quote her), I could relate. I've never written obituaries, even though writing one's own is a popular goal-setting exercise. But I have written and read many book proposals so I know they aren't easy to …

Category: Book Proposal Basics, Book Proposals, Branding, Get Published, Marketing, TamelaTag: book proposals, Get Published, Marketing

In the Beginning…First Lines of a Book

By Karen Ballon May 16, 2012

I don’t know about you, but I love great first lines. First lines that intrigue or challenge, that captivate and spark strong emotion or curiosity. Some writers spend hours, even days crafting that perfect first line to draw readers into the book. For others, the line is just…there.

A group of author friends loves to play the first-line game, where we share the first line from our WIPs. I like …

Category: Craft, Creativity, Karen, Writing CraftTag: Craft, first lines

News You Can Use – May 15, 2012

By Steve Laubeon May 15, 2012

J.A. Konrath Responds - [Warning: There is some coarse language in the post.] Konrath's response to my blog post from yesterday.

Vetting a Freelance Editor - Victoria Strauss writes an incredible article on how to pick the best independent editor for your project.

Icons that Make No Sense to the New Generation of Readers - A tremendous article about words that could "date" your writing if …

Category: Get PublishedTag: Editing, Rights Reversion, Twitter

Goodbye to Traditional Publishing?

By Steve Laubeon May 14, 2012

by Steve Laube

Recently Ann Voss Peterson wrote of her decision to never sign another contract with Harlequin. One major statistic from the article is that she sold 170,000 copies of a book but earned only $20,000.

Multiple clients sent me Peterson’s “Harlequin Fail” article and wanted my opinion. My first thought is that this was typical “the publisher is ripping me off” fodder. But …

Category: Book Business, Contracts, Defense of Traditional Publishing, E-Books, Steve, TrendsTag: Contracts, royalties, Traditional Publishing

Word Trivia

By Steve Laubeon May 11, 2012

Word Trivia

“Stewardesses" and "reverberated" are the two longest (and commonly used) words (12 letters each) that can be typed with only the left hand.

"lollipop" is the longest word typed with your right hand.

The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is uncopyrightable.

No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, or …

Category: Fun Fridays, HumorTag: Fun, Humor, Trivia

Writing to Market: Bad Advice?

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon May 10, 2012

Throughout my career I've seen various responses to the advice that declares "Write to market!" In other words "write what sells" because that is what is most important for a writer. Is this good advice or bad advice?

It is both.

Here is when it's bad advice: When you're made to feel you have to write a certain type of book just to break into the market, any market.

If you think, for …

Category: Book Business, Get Published, Marketing, Tamela, Writing CraftTag: Marketing, passion, Rejection

The Value of SHOWmanship in Fiction

By Karen Ballon May 9, 2012

Recently, I’ve heard a few editors comment that they don’t worry about showing things in fiction, that they think editors and writers get too caught up showing when it’s really not all that important. Telling is okay. It’s just as strong and effective as showing.

I beg to differ.

Consider this from Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, a stellar book by Renni Browne and Dave …

Category: Craft, Karen, Writing CraftTag: Craft, show don't tell

News You Can Use – May 8, 2012

By Steve Laubeon May 8, 2012

Traditional Advertising is Truly Dead - Not sure I agree with the over the top headline, but the article does make some excellent points. A quote from the article:
"The equation used to be: money x media = business.
The new equation is: time x media = business.
In other words, every company is a media company."
Microsoft has invested in Barnes & Noble's Nook - But before everyone gets …

Category: Marketing, News You Can UseTag: fiction, Marketing, Twitter