Helping to Change the World…Word by Word
The Steve Laube Agency
Helping to Change the World Word by Word
The PianoGuys have done it again. Mashing classical Bach and classic Pop music together.
And it works!
The original Jackson Five singing “I Want You Back” in 1971. (Yes that was 44 years ago.)
Enjoy another piano and cello duet by Bach. The real deal this time:
Today, let’s try a fun exercise to ramp up your book description in your proposal, which may in turn help your publisher’s marketing team ramp up your book sales! Bland: When a man gives a woman a large ring, she is torn about telling him about her past. What she doesn’t know is that he has a secret, too. Note that this example doesn’t hint at the book’s setting or …
Every day, the world is becoming more and more urbanized. In the U.S. while several cities are struggling economically and actually have declining populations, many others are healthy and expanding at an alarming rate. Worldwide, the dramatic population growth areas are around cities. Countries are investing in urban infrastructure, and urging (sometimes requiring) citizens to move to them. If a …
Don’t miss out on seeing your clock tomorrow morning… This moment will not happen again for one hundred years. For all you geeks out there….Happy Pi Day tomorrow. (Click here for the one million digits of Pi)
If you ask an agent the least favorite part of her job, she’ll usually say it’s sending out rejection letters. As an aspiring writer years ago, I saw more rejection letters than I care to recall. Still, I can’t remember one that wasn’t nice. Some were even helpful. Back then, you had to kill trees and use at least one postage stamp, or run up a long distance phone bill …
In our discussions of late on reviews and authors’ reactions to reviews, I thought it would be helpful to take a look at the elements of a good review. And when I say “good,” I mean helpful. For the readers. Because that’s what reviews are about. Helping readers decide if this is a book for them. So here are some things, based on book reviews out there, for reviewers to keep in mind. A good …
Anything that has been around for almost 70 years with a billion copies in print should be used as material for blog posts once in a while. The kid’s magazine Highlights was first published in mid-1946 and was an integral part of the Boomer generation right up to kids currently in first grade in 2015. One of the features in Highlights from the very beginning was a cartoon of Goofus and Gallant, …
Try this Honda Speed Reading Test. (Then try the one below it and you will be reading at 500 words per minute.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8VlX4Ekk80 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MJcWEeft10
I am blessed to work with many talented authors with great ideas. Recently one of my clients, Renee Andrews, submitted a wonderful chart outlining her characters’ conflicts. You may have seen similar charts before, but I especially like the way Renee laid hers out: [Character Name] INTERNAL EXTERNAL Goal — What? Motivation — Why? Conflict — Why not? Renee is a very successful author at the …
American culture sends mixed messages. On one hand it tells us that we can be “anything we want to be,” but then if we don’t rise to the top of whatever we pursue it tells us we are failures or at best we should be disappointed in ourselves. There are winners and losers and we are either one or the other. But that is simply not true. A great mayor of small town is not a failure when he/she does …
