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The Steve Laube Agency

Helping to Change the World Word by Word

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Home » Archives for Dan Balow » Page 30

Dan Balow

Starting Your Own Writer’s Conference

By Dan Balowon June 9, 2015
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No, you don’t need to start your own writer’s conference, but the headline sounded attention-grabbing to me.

Every writer needs to intentionally put themselves in a position to learn and be challenged in a variety of areas. The formal environment for that is the professional writer’s conference. Click here for a list, but you need something more consistent and ongoing as well.

Not everyone lives in an area surrounded by publishing companies or a large number of writers or can attend more than one writer’s conference per year. So what I suggest is something applicable for anywhere you live.

Because authors are expected to be marketers, speakers, bloggers, social media gurus and reader customer service representatives, they should regularly get together with people who can help grow their intuition and expand their understanding in a wide variety of areas.

I am not talking about a manuscript review group or even something publishing-specific.

Once every few weeks, get together with a “challenge group”. (I just made that up so don’t look for any deep meaning in it) Again, not a manuscript review group, but a vision-building group with 3-5 people from diverse backgrounds. Think of friends who might be:

Someone who manages a website for a company

Someone who works in a retail store

Someone who is really good with Facebook

Someone who writes copy for an ad agency

Someone who works in customer service

Someone who has a great website

Someone who sells a lot of stuff on Ebay

Someone with 50,000 real Twitter followers

Someone with 50 Twitter followers

Someone who knows everything about Apple products

Someone who knows nothing about Apple products

Someone who loves eBooks

A youth leader (they love coffee)

Etc.

For years I have gotten together with the same three guys for breakfast, once a month. Each time we meet, we end up discussing something of common interest, even though we are not in the same type of work.

If you had a group that consisted of three friends other than yourself, let’s say, a youth director at a church, a web developer for a car dealer and someone involved in customer service with a company, you might end up talking about getting and keeping meaningful communication and engagement with people, from youth to adults. Each of you could point to a specific facet of the issue and learn something. You each would have a unique perspective.

The purpose of the group is to identify principles that are universal. The very best groups are when each member is open to the same kind of visionary, always- learning approach to life. One week, you might get more out of it than the web developer. Another time, the youth director learns something from the Apple geek.

This group is not about you, but about the group. The common bond being mutual education and illumination.

One time you might come away with new ideas how to interaction with people who are having problems and get an idea for your novel.

Another time you might hear about what youth are struggling with, which might inform the direction of your next book.

In the movie “The Karate Kid,” you’ll remember how a young teen wanted the sensei to teach him karate, but ended up painting the fence, sanding the floor and polishing his car. He felt like it was all a worthless waste of time until discovering that the same motions of painting, sanding and polishing replicated perfectly the various karate moves. When the real karate lessons started, the moves were second-nature.

The same principles apply for writers regularly having breakfast with a few friends.

 

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Category: Conferences, The Writing LifeTag: Challenge Group, The Writing Life, writers conferences

Wanted: Authors (Apply Within)

By Dan Balowon June 2, 2015
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A book proposal sent to an agent is like applying for a job as an author. Comparing how applying for a job and pitching an agent for your book proposal are similar is my task today. I think some authors believe that pitching an agent is a mysterious process involving passwords, magical keys or some sort of ceremonial sacrificial offering. It couldn’t be further from the truth. Sometimes a …

Read moreWanted: Authors (Apply Within)
Category: Book Proposals, Get PublishedTag: book proposals, Get Published

The Great Slot Mystery

By Dan Balowon May 26, 2015
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Every traditional publishing company has a personality or focus that defines them and their product. Usually that personality or focus is determined by past success. They also know how many books they can effectively publish during a year. Combining focus and capacity, you have the beginnings of a publishing strategy. No publisher (or for that matter any company) will succeed for long unless they …

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Category: Book Business, The Publishing LifeTag: Categories, publishing, The Publishing Life

Why I Would Make A Terrible Graduation Speaker

By Dan Balowon May 12, 2015
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I have never been asked to speak to a graduating class at any level of school. In the remote possibility someone does ask, I offer this blog post proving that I would be the worst speaker ever. I don’t have a problem speaking to a group, tailoring a message to the group and making a point. The big issue would be the topics I cover. Most graduation speeches I have heard are an exercise in …

Read moreWhy I Would Make A Terrible Graduation Speaker
Category: Book Business, The Publishing LifeTag: The Publishing Life

Worshipping Words

By Dan Balowon May 5, 2015
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Yesterday was a strange and eerie anniversary.  Six hundred years ago, on May 4, 1415 the body of Bible translator and Christian dissident John Wycliffe was exhumed from his grave in England, burned and his ashes were thrown into the river. And if that wasn’t weird enough, this was done over thirty years after his death. It sounds like something from a Dirty Harry movie. “You think this is …

Read moreWorshipping Words
Category: Communication, Craft, CreativityTag: Communication, words

Time Travel?

By Dan Balowon April 28, 2015
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Most people find it astounding how long it takes for things to happen in traditional publishing. Even after spending months or even years writing, an author waits for weeks or months to hear from an agent, who if they agree to work together, wait weeks and months for publishers to make a decision and then finally a book is scheduled to be published a year or more in the future.  Sometimes two …

Read moreTime Travel?
Category: Book Proposals, Career, Get Published, The Publishing LifeTag: publishing, The Publishing Life, Time

It’s a Flat World After All

By Dan Balowon April 21, 2015
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As a preface to this post, let it be known that I really enjoy hitting my thumb with a hammer, pushing forks into electric toasters and tripping over things in my bare feet in the dark. It is that very masochistic tendency that prompted me to write this blog. _____ A favorite book for me in the last decade was Tom Friedman’s The World Is Flat, published in 2005. It simply made me think differently …

Read moreIt’s a Flat World After All
Category: Book Business, Economics, Marketing, The Publishing LifeTag: Economics, The Publishing Life

The Lincoln Lessons

By Dan Balowon April 14, 2015
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I couldn’t let this day pass without mentioning Abraham Lincoln. It was 150 years ago today that the U.S. President was shot in the head by John Wilkes Booth while attending a performance of “Our American Cousin” at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, DC. He died the next morning on April 15, but today marks the beginning of his death. A lot of books (some estimate as many as 15,000) have been …

Read moreThe Lincoln Lessons
Category: CareerTag: Career, Lincoln

To Those Who Went Before Us…Thanks A Lot

By Dan Balowon April 7, 2015
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Any author who experiences disappointment is bound to ask the question, “What am I doing wrong?” Using Rick Warren’s first line of The Purpose Driven Life, “It’s not about you,” might just be one explanation of why it is so hard to get published and succeed at it. Whether you have already been published or are an aspiring author, the greatest threat to your present or future writing career could …

Read moreTo Those Who Went Before Us…Thanks A Lot
Category: Book Business, Career, Rejection, The Publishing LifeTag: Rejection, The Publishing Life

Frankly My Dear, I Ate Some Spam

By Dan Balowon March 24, 2015
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There are a number of things that cause my blood to boil. Radio or TV ads with ten seconds of legalese read at triple speed at the end Coffee mugs in church services Cell phone ringing during a meeting and the person answers it Cell phone ringing in a church service and the person answers it. All political advertising Bicyclists who never obey a single traffic law, ever. Leaky home plumbing. …

Read moreFrankly My Dear, I Ate Some Spam
Category: Book Business, Creativity, TrendsTag: Creativity, Trends
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