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Helping to Change the World Word by Word

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Home » Archives for Steve Laube » Page 32

Steve Laube

Two Mistakes Made in Some Book Proposals

By Steve Laubeon May 2, 2022
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Putting together a great book proposal takes a lot of work. I suggest writers look at it as if it were a job application, and it is. You are trying to get someone to pay you to write your book via a stellar “job application” or book proposal.

But every once in a while, we get something that is not going to work, for obvious reasons. Here are two mistakes:

Divine Attribution

Also known as the claim, “God told me to write this.” We once received a proposal with a line that claimed, “I literally hear from GOD,JESUS, AND THE HOLY SPIRIT.” (Capitalization and punctuation left intact.) One of the most widely read posts from our blog is titled “God Gave Me This Blog Post.” Please read the post, and please avoid this mistake in the future.

I also see authors write or hear authors say, “I know you don’t like it when we say it, but I really felt inspired by God while writing this.” Trust me, I understand. In fact, I believe you and don’t deny the validity of inspiration. But try not to make it sound like your book idea or sample writing is extra special because of it.

Résumé Puffing

With all the talk about platform and the need to have a major social-media presence or visibility, we are starting to see more writers attempting to inflate the value of their résumé in order to attract an agent or a publisher. This doesn’t mean you don’t or can’t list the various activities, awards, or social-media analytics; it simply means don’t exaggerate or lie.

I once saw a proposal where the author claimed to have won a Nobel Prize. I googled the name and the prize and found that the author had been on a large research team that was granted the prize. But the way it was written sounded like the author was the sole recipient. The claim was not inaccurate, but it felt like it. The author was right to be proud of being on such an extraordinary team, but the author should have described it as a team award.

When someone claims “best-selling author” status, I try to take the claim at face value. But if we are not familiar with your work, we will investigate the claim. If it cannot be verified or it comes to light that what has been described is only receiving a “#1 on Amazon” label in an obscure category, I’m not as inclined to be impressed. My annual Christian Writers Market Guide is often #1 on Amazon in the new release category of “Christian Encyclopedias.” Think about it. How many “new releases” in that category come out every week? Not many. So having that label in an obscure category may look nice, but I would certainly not claim to be a best-selling author because of it.

Awards are a little trickier. Here on our site, we have a section for author’s awards. (See the drop-down menu in the Authors section above.) We have tried to focus on those awards that are fairly national or have a strong measure of gravitas attached to their name that will be significant to a major publisher. It isn’t an exact science.

One author claimed to have been nominated for a major book award. Since I had been a consultant for that award, I knew the truth. The author’s publisher had “entered” the book in the contest. It was one of twenty books entered into that category. This author’s book was not a finalist nor was it “nominated” for anything. It had been entered, nothing more. I had to assume that the author was unaware of the difference, but it left the wrong taste when reading the proposal.

The hardest thing is listing social-media numbers. The fear is that what you have isn’t enough. But then what is enough? A mistake of late has been calculating “reach” and not actual numbers. One author claimed to have a “reach” of one million people. But what the author had done is calculate the social-media size of every person who followed them–added everyone’s “audience”–and then claimed their personal social media had a “reach” of 1,000,000. In reality, their actual number was less than 10,000.

“Reach” is a technique used in the media. See this linked article, where they correctly claim, “During an average week in June 2021, radio reached 88.1 percent of all American men aged between 35 and 64 years of age. All adults of this age group were the most exposed to radio, regardless of gender.” It doesn’t say any of that 88% were listening, only that they were “reached.”

Be careful about overstating your platform. We know the tricks.

The Real Secret

The secret to a successful book proposal? Write a GREAT book with a GREAT idea.

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Category: Book Proposals, Get Published, PlatformTag: book proposals, Get Published, Platform

Fun Fridays – April 29, 2022

By Steve Laubeon April 29, 2022
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Take a familiar song and mess up the words and you get today’s satirical video. Complete silly fun for a Fun Friday! (If you cannot see the embedded video in your newsletter email, please click the headline and go directly to our site to view it.)

Read moreFun Fridays – April 29, 2022
Category: Fun Fridays

I Is for Indemnification

By Steve Laubeon April 25, 2022
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Publishing is not without risks. Plagiarism, fraud, and libel by an author are real possibilities. Thus within a book contract is a legal clause called indemnification, inserted to protect the publisher from an author’s antics. The indemnification clause, in essence, says that if someone sues your publisher because of your book, claiming something like libel (defamation) or plagiarism etc., …

Read moreI Is for Indemnification
Category: Book Business, Contracts, Copyright, Legal Issues, Publishing A-ZTag: Contracts, indemnification, lawsuit, warranty

Fun Fridays – April 22, 2022

By Steve Laubeon April 22, 2022
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Counting to seven has never been harder. Here’s the challenge. This drummer is playing to a beat with seven counts in each measure. Your challenge is to clap correctly on the downbeat of each new measure. Don’t lose concentration, or you’ll lose the game! The musical score is provided on the bottom of the screen. It doesn’t help. Sometimes your creativity taps to the beat …

Read moreFun Fridays – April 22, 2022
Category: Fun Fridays

A 40+ Day Musical Experience

By Steve Laubeon April 18, 2022
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I’ve been making an annual musical journey during the pre-Easter Lenten season. I wrote about a couple of those before (here and here). I thought it might be fun to reveal this year’s version. Since mid-February, the only music I’ve listened to in the car or while on a plane has been the collected works of Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741). While most of us are familiar with his …

Read moreA 40+ Day Musical Experience
Category: Inspiration, Personal

He Is Risen!

By Steve Laubeon April 17, 2022
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He is risen indeed! “Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we …

Read moreHe Is Risen!
Category: Personal, TheologyTag: Easter

Cover Bands Don’t Change the World

By Steve Laubeon April 11, 2022
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by Steve Laube

I had been reading and thinking about creativity when I came across the title of today’s post as a chapter by that name in a book called The Accidental Creative: How to be Brilliant at a Moment’s Notice by Todd Henry (2011). It stopped me in my tracks. I knew he was right. A cover band plays other people’s music. Often it is a new interpretation of a familiar song and sometimes …

Read moreCover Bands Don’t Change the World
Category: Art, Craft, Creativity, Writing CraftTag: Creativity, Writing Craft

Fun Fridays – April 8, 2022

By Steve Laubeon April 8, 2022
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This video gives a whole new meaning to the phrase “two steps forward, three steps back.” If you think your writing career is going backwards, maybe that’s a good thing? (If you cannot see the embedded video in your newsletter email, please click the headline and go directly to our site to view it.)

Read moreFun Fridays – April 8, 2022
Category: Fun Fridays

Fun Fridays – April 1, 2020

By Steve Laubeon April 1, 2022
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Happy April Fools Day! Today’s video is a vivid picture of an author trying to break into traditional publishing. A great line at the 2:12 mark. (If you cannot see the embedded video in your newsletter email, please click the headline and go directly to our site to view it.)

Read moreFun Fridays – April 1, 2020
Category: Fun Fridays

Today Is a Good Day to (re)Read

By Steve Laubeon March 28, 2022
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by Steve Laube

What was the favorite book you read, cover to cover, in the last year or so? Why is it your favorite? (It can be fiction or non-fiction. Faith-based or not.) Feel free to tell us in the comments about yours.

Read it Again

Now that you’ve identified the book. Read it again. As Vladimir Nabakov wrote:

“Curiously enough, one cannot read a book: one can only reread it. A …

Read moreToday Is a Good Day to (re)Read
Category: Art, Craft, Reading, Writing CraftTag: Reading, Writing Craft
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