Blog

Let’s Be Creative and Have Fun with Book Titles!

By Karen Ballon November 5, 2014

Steve Laube shared this hilarious thought from quirkbooks.com in our agency phone call last week:

What if your favorite books were Halloween Candy? Such as…

Mounds of the Baskervilles

Oliver Twix

Almond Joy Luck Club

The Fault in our Starburst

So with Halloween just past, and all the candy now on sale, I thought it would be fun to come up with our own titles using Halloween candy. So here are the guidelines:

Use well-known book titles, general market and Christian market
Replace some word in the title with an appropriate candy name

Here are my contributions:

The Five Dove Languages

Of Ice Cubes and Men

War and Reeses Pieces

Your turn!

Healthy Brain Food

By Dan Balowon November 4, 2014

In this social media-saturated world where everyone seems to have an opinion about everything, it is very important to quickly determine those voices you pay attention to and those you tune out. When it comes to the book publishing business, I narrow down who I pay attention to simply because I am convinced my head would explode if I listened to everyone. Probably because the end-product of book …

Category: Book Business, Career, Marketing, News You Can Use, The Publishing Life, TrendsTag: Publishing News, Sources, The Publishing Life

Fun Fridays – October 31, 2014

By Steve Laubeon October 31, 2014

This hilarious video is the perfect illustration of the writer’s life! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0efg6w-X5ow Thanks to Trissina Kear (our daughter) for the tip!

Category: Fun Fridays

HELP! I’m a Mid-List Author

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon October 30, 2014

In the current publishing environment, many mid-list authors have taken hits. Some mid-list authors can and do keep writing, enjoy healthy sales, and have great careers while rarely hitting a bestseller list. This is a great and rewarding path. However, in recent times, market changes and the closing of fiction lines in particular have left some mid-list authors without a home. Or perhaps simply …

Category: Book Business, Career, Get PublishedTag: Career, Mid-List Authors

Returning Lemonade to the Lemons

By Dan Balowon October 28, 2014

In my opinion, there are too many suggestions to improve things. Ten keys to success, five days to improving something, 12 steps to overcoming something, transform something by the end of the week, etc. An entirely neglected approach to life is how to make it go sour. Messing it up needs equal time and attention. Not enough is written about it and not enough time is spent discussing it. Until now. …

Category: Book Business, Career, Editing, Get PublishedTag: Career, Entitlement

Fun Fridays – October 24, 2014

By Steve Laubeon October 24, 2014

An epic exploration of airline safety, via Middle Earth!

Category: Fun Fridays

HELP! I’m a Debut Author

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon October 23, 2014

When considering traditional publishing, new authors may think it’s harder than ever to go from unpublished (or “pre-published” as the popular euphemism goes) to published. However, that’s not the case. The truth is, it has ALWAYS been difficult to become a traditionally published author. When my first book was published in the 1990s, my uncle, a high school history teacher …

Category: Career, Get PublishedTag: Career, Debut author, get publishied

2014 Bestseller List – Exciting New Developments!

By Dan Balowon October 21, 2014

A little over a year ago I explored the issue of best-seller lists for Christian books (“The Mystery of the Bestseller List”). However, in the last thirteen months, much has changed. The New York Times is adding some new niche-lists to their collection, which will affect Christian titles. A company involved in gathering book sales data sold their research group to another company who …

Category: Book Business, TrendsTag: bestseller list, Trends

Fun Fridays – October 17, 2014

By Steve Laubeon October 17, 2014

Funny how certain plots seem familiar to each other. Today’s video reveals the secret!

Category: Fun Fridays