Helping to Change the World…Word by Word
The Steve Laube Agency
Helping to Change the World Word by Word
Isn’t this is EXACTLY how you feel when a great book is over?
At least he is consistent! (see the frame at the 1:19 mark)
What was the last book you read that made you wish it had not ended?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIEeakeXvMM
Authors have many reasons for writing a particular book. Sometimes those reasons feel so natural you don’t stop to think about them. However, in this market, it’s important to distinguish yourself from other authors and submissions. For nonfiction, you want to show you are an authority on your topic, or that an authority is willing to endorse you. Examples: You are a Christian psychologist using …
I love hearing about surprise best-sellers. Those books that no one thought would sell, that the pros in publishing turned down, and that then went on to become bestsellers. Even classics. Anyone who has been in publishing for a considerable time has his or her story. The book we turned down. The one that went on to take the best-seller list by storm. Some surprise hits were published to fill an …
Each year in the U.S. more titles are published indie/self-pub than by all traditional publishers combined. Some authors publish only indie or traditional, but some entrepreneurial folks are known as “hybrid” and use whatever model works best for the situation at the moment. Many clients of the Steve Laube Agency are hybrid authors and it works just fine. There are some things you do for an indie …
Travel back in time to 1947 and watch this documentary on how books are made. Fascinating. But remember it still starts with you, the author!
My favorite childhood favorite is Barbie Goes to a Party by Jean Bethell, illustrated by Claudine Nankivel. The story details how Barbie spends an afternoon consulting her mother and girlfriends, and how her mother and she advise Barbie’s friend Midge, about what to wear to a party. In the end, everyone wears the same outfit, as per Barbie’s suggestion. So they are all the best dressed …
Awhile ago, I was reviewing a proverbial stack of nonfiction and fiction proposals. As I read them, I noticed something. And I saw that something again just recently as I read over proposals during a series of 15-minute meetings with conferees at a writers’ conference. What was that something? In their proposals, more and more writers are comparing their work to icons in publishing. As in: “My …
Kyle Idelman’s AHA: The God Moment That Changes Everything (David C. Cook, 2014) is my inspiration today. If ever I write a book, it will be DUH: The Things That Never Change (Big Publisher, 20??) Today, I will reveal those things that are absolute truth that everyone should know. If you don’t, I have no advice for you. DUH would not be a self-help book because it doesn’t suggest a solution to any …
Sing along! And don’t hate me for putting this tune in your head today…
In keeping with last week’s blog on personal reading, I’m thinking about how, over the years, my reasons for reading a book have changed. When I was a teenager, I would read a book to find out what might happen if I married: 1.) a rich man 2.) a poor man 3.) an executive 4.) an artist 5.) a pirate (not really but it’s hard to avoid them in books, though they’re scarce in …
