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The Steve Laube Agency

Helping to Change the World…Word by Word

The Steve Laube Agency

The Steve Laube Agency

Helping to Change the World Word by Word

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But My Book is Unique!

By Dan Balowon January 20, 2015
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Excerpt from author cover letter: (not real)

“Dear (Agent or Publisher),

The enclosed book proposal contains never-before-seen information to help the most important of all human relationships. It identifies six different kinds of languages of love, combines the findings of extensive studies from all cultures and is endorsed by every important person living within one hundred miles of my home. It contains a stirring story how I went to heaven and met the Apostle Paul in person. He agreed to write a foreword, which I expect to receive any day. Throughout the 15 years it has taken me to research and write this 350,000-word manuscript, I have sweat actual blood. I am convinced this is a best seller for the ages.”

Agent and/or Publisher: (thinking)

“Oh, another marriage book.”

You pour yourself into writing something and after carefully pointing out the uniqueness of your work to an agent or publisher, the pigeon-holing and rejection begins:

Memoir – they don’t do memoirs.

Marriage – too much competition.

Science Fiction – nope.

Poetry – oh my, no.

Bible study – already have some.

For men – men don’t read.

Parenting – too many.

Theology – not enough letters after your name.

Devotionals – can’t sell them.

Children’s Story – isn’t that cute, no.

So let’s take a deep breath here and try to figure this out. You see your work as never before explored territory, but an agent or publisher doesn’t see it that way.

Why?

Imagine standing near a grove of trees. Each one is different. A few pine, others are magnolia, ash, maple, and oak. Each one is different from the other. The very makeup of each tree, from the height, to the hardness of their wood to the shape of their branches, texture of their bark and leaves are different one from another. Underground, their respective root systems have distinct characteristics.

You live on the ground and see the trees clearly. And because you can see the trees so clearly, you can’t see the forest. (Insert common metaphor here)

The agent or publisher on the other hand lives at 30,000 feet. (The lack of oxygen at that level would explain a lot what goes on in agenting and publishing) Sellers of books might live a little lower, but not much. At this altitude, the beautiful grove of trees where you can see every nuance and unique feature is merely a green outcropping on the vast landscape below.

If publishers were in charge of forests, there would be neat groupings of oak trees over here, maples in a cluster over there and willow trees would have their own imprint.

Publishing is generally the art and business of doing new things that are like things done before.

For authors trying to be creative and distinguish themselves from everyone else, it can be very frustrating because just about every person or company that touches your work after it leaves your computer serves in one or more of the following roles:

  1. Curator
  2. Categorizer
  3. Commender

The curator is that job of a quick subjective decision that decides if it fits with that agent or publisher. The categorizing determines what the book is like, or similar to, so we know how to think about it from a business perspective. Once determined to fit and where it fits the agent and/or publisher will be become an advocate for it and commend it to others.

As an agent, I function as all three at one time or another.

This might seem rather silly, but the phrase that strikes fear in agents and publishers is, “This book is unlike anything you have ever read.”

While your intention is to communicate the highly creative nature of your work, unintentionally you have said, “This book is immune to any attempt to categorize it, at best making your job more difficult or worse, very frustrating.”

Increasing the pain for a publisher is not a good start to a successful writing career!

Being easily categorized is a good thing. Don’t fight it.

A final note related to all this, whether you publish traditionally or indie, your book will need to be given a written description. That description will need to include certain key words to describe your book. And whether you like it or not, some of those words need to be the same old words as everyone else uses to describe their novel, marriage book, devotional or whatever.

Intentionally avoiding those key words in an attempt to be creative and different will leave your online search results lacking. And with the majority of books now being sold direct to consumers online, this is more important today than ever before.  Product descriptions are to be written with great care. Take your time. It might be the most important thing you do for your book.

Traditional publishers have people doing this, but it never hurts for the author to know a bit about it as well. Collaboration is a good thing.

There are online resources that can help you. Click here for Amazon’s take on it.

Remember, if people can’t find you, they can’t buy you.

 

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Category: Book Proposals, Creativity, Get Published, Writing CraftTag: book proposals, Get Published

Watching History

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon January 15, 2015
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Over the holidays, my husband and I viewed an epic series about the life of St. Teresa de Jesus, filmed in Spanish, though English subtitles were provided. For eight hours, we were taken back to the 1500s in Spain. As a writer of historical novels, I’ve researched many eras. However, being immersed in an era for such a length of time brought to life many facts: 1.) Even in the best of …

Read moreWatching History
Category: Genre, Writing CraftTag: Genre, Historical, Research

Finding Your Readers’ Hot Topic

By Karen Ballon January 14, 2015
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One of the fun things about being an agent is that I get to work with all kinds of books, fiction and nonfiction. I love words, and I’m excited about working with others who love them. I’m passionate about working with books that I believe will have a real impact, both in the here and now and in the eternal sense. Books that encourage, strengthen, and challenge people, and books that share deep, …

Read moreFinding Your Readers’ Hot Topic
Category: Career, Get PublishedTag: Get Published, Topics

Fun Fridays – January 9, 2015

By Steve Laubeon January 9, 2015
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Three cheers for these students from Mount Desert Island High School! We too are “All about those books.”

Read moreFun Fridays – January 9, 2015
Category: Fun Fridays

Tamela’s Year – 2014

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon January 8, 2015
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Once again, the Lord has blessed me with much more than I deserve. My family and I are healthy and happy and He continues to provide abundantly. I am grateful to you, my readers, and so to help you, I offer my perspective on the business: Heartsong At the start of 2014, I happily represented a robust list of Heartsong authors. As we all know, the line is poised to shut down this year. I appreciate …

Read moreTamela’s Year – 2014
Category: AgencyTag: 2014, Agency

Start the New Year Right

By Karen Ballon January 7, 2015
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I must have started this blog fifteen times. I’d write a word or a line, then delete it. All because I’m trying to think of something new and clever to say about the fact that we’re facing a new year. But you know what? There isn’t really anything new to say. Sure, publishing has changed, and will continue to change. Yes, books are being published and will continue to be published. How that …

Read moreStart the New Year Right
Category: Art, Career, The Writing Life, Writing CraftTag: story, The Writing Life

Bestsellers Thirty Years Ago

By Dan Balowon January 6, 2015
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We hop back into our “way-back machine” for our twice yearly trip to the past and see what books were selling before I started losing my hair and life was comparatively simple. January 6, 1985…thirty years ago today, here are the New York Times bestseller lists: Fiction The Talisman, by Stephen King and Peter Straub. (Viking) The Sicilian, by Mario Puzo. (Linden Press/ Simon & Schuster) Love …

Read moreBestsellers Thirty Years Ago
Category: Book Business, The Publishing LifeTag: Bestsellers

2014 – A Year in Review

By Steve Laubeon January 5, 2015
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Another year has passed. Another year full of thrills, chills, and bills. Like in past years (2013, 2012, 2011, 2009) I’d like to take a look at what has transpired and put things in perspective. The Agency Another stellar year for our agency. We finished with nearly 100 new contracts which include over 150 future books. It is exciting to note that eleven of those contracts were for debut …

Read more2014 – A Year in Review
Category: AgencyTag: 2014, Agency

Fun Fridays – December 26, 2014

By Steve Laubeon December 26, 2014
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An appropriate and beautiful song for the day after Christmas!

Read moreFun Fridays – December 26, 2014
Category: Fun Fridays

The Christmas Truce

By Dan Balowon December 23, 2014
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This is a tough world to figure out. Depending on your worldview, people are either inherently good with the bad habit to do bad things or they are inherently evil who once in a while do something good and wonderful. Because of the belief in original sin, Christians generally adhere to the latter view. One hundred years ago today, something wonderful happened, but was quickly swallowed up by evil. …

Read moreThe Christmas Truce
Category: Book Business, The Publishing LifeTag: Christmas, The Publishing Life
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