Blog

News You Can Use – June 26, 2012

By Steve Laubeon June 26, 2012

What Successful People do Before Breakfast – Reading this made me want to take a nap.

Free Tools for the Frugal Writer – Bob Evenhouse provides some good advice.

The Noisier it is, the Better You Work? – An argument to head to a coffee shop to do your work.

Do You Own Your Kid’s Domain Name? – Good advice in today’s world. I am glad I had the foresight to grab my name as a domain in the mid-90s.

Learn about Amazon’s Algorithm – Put on your thinking cap and read this with interest!

The Book Industry Wants (Needs) Better Medadata – A key component to today’s marketing efforts.

Fun Fridays – June 22, 2012

By Steve Laubeon June 22, 2012

Someone had to be first!

Category: Fun Fridays

Will You Vouch for Me?

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon June 21, 2012

As part of my continuing series on proposals, today I'll talk about endorsements. This element can cause anxiety, so I hope this post will ease your mind.

When to Ask for Endorsement

Some writers tell me, "I'll get back to you on that list as soon as I talk to the authors." Or even, "I'll let you know as soon as the authors read my manuscript and get back to me." In reality, neither time is …

Category: Book Proposals, Get Published, Tamela, Writing CraftTag: Endorsements, Get Published, Proposals, Writing Craft

A Bit of Blogs, Just for You!

By Karen Ballon June 20, 2012

I’ve recently discovered a couple of new blogs that I really like, so I thought I’d share them with you.

The first is by Jeff Goins, at http://goinswriter.com. I like his perspective on writing, not just the craft, but the work of it. And he has a sense of humor, too. That’s always nice.

The second is The Creative Penn, by Joanna Penn. I love the diversity of topics she addresses, and her …

Category: Agency, Communication, Get Published, Karen, Marketing, Writing CraftTag: blogs on writing, recommended blogs

News You Can Use – June 19, 2012

By Steve Laubeon June 19, 2012

IVP Takes a Book Out-of-Print Because of Errors – This is an impressive (and expensive) response by a publisher. A review by Carl Trueman detailed numerous factual errors, typos, and mistakes for an academic volume on the Reformation. IVP correctly responded by removing the book from circulation and will fix the errors and re-release the book this Summer. And will replace, for free, any …

Category: News You Can Use, Steve

Inside a Publishing Company

By Steve Laubeon June 18, 2012

by Steve Laube

I just returned from three days at the Write! Canada writers conference outside Toronto. During my time there I presented a six session lecture series on the Complete Publishing Process: From Idea to Print.

When the entire process is compressed into a short series like that it becomes evident how many people are involved in the publishing of a book at any given publishing …

Category: Book Business, Defense of Traditional Publishing, Marketing, Steve, The Publishing LifeTag: publishing, Publishing A-Z

My Book is Like…

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon June 14, 2012

When I posted about writing great book proposals, I noticed a trend toward anxiety about the market comparison section. This is understandable since authors need to strike a balance between, "I am the next C.S. Lewis," and "You don't want to read this, do you?"

Aspiring to be like...

Most of the time, newer authors don't think about comparing their work to the work of others in the proposal. …

Category: Book Proposals, Craft, Get Published, Tamela, Writing CraftTag: book proposals, comparison, competition

Do You Have Perfect Pitch?

By Karen Ballon June 13, 2012

Thanks so much for all the ideas for my mini-conferences. I’ll put those together soon.

Speaking of conferences, while I was at a writer’s retreat awhile back, I was struck, as I always am when in the company of writers, by the power of the right word used in the right way. On the first day of the conference, I had group meetings with the writers. This is where a group of writers come in, sit …

Category: Book Proposals, Conferences, Get Published, Karen, PitchingTag: Conferences, Pitching, Proposals, Query Letters

News You Can Use – June 12, 2012

By Steve Laubeon June 12, 2012

Content Abundance - What Do We Do About It? - A question every author, every marketer, and every publisher is asking. When there are one million titles on Amazon and you click a key word search, how do you find what you want?

11 Tumblr Tips for Power Users - Remember to type tumblr (without the "e") if you visit their site.

The History of Air Conditioning - I'm sorry I had to include this. …

Category: News You Can Use, Steve

Fun Fridays – June 8, 2012

By Steve Laubeon June 8, 2012

Editorial "negotiation."

Category: Fun FridaysTag: Humor