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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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Home » Book Business » Page 12

Book Business

Common Sense Publishing

By Dan Balowon May 22, 2018
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I will often use humor as a defense mechanism. It helps maintain my sanity, to some extent.

However, I’ve noticed a number of times what might be considered a weak attempt at humor is actually true. I guess the common statement about most humor having a kernel of truth in it, might be accurate after all.

I’ll frequently respond to someone questioning why something is happening by stating, “Oh, you are using common sense to explain it. That’s your first mistake!”

I think most people who don’t know a lot about a certain field of endeavor, make a big mistake when they apply common sense instead of actual knowledge when evaluating something.

Applying common sense to anything you don’t know much about can often lead to incorrect and frustrating conclusions.

Common sense would lead one to think everyone should get along when working together to accomplish a worthwhile goal or task, but you would have to admit, this is rarely the case. Take churches as an example. They are far from perfect.

In book publishing, common sense rarely works to explain anything.

“Why does it take so long for my book proposal to get a response from an agent or publisher?”

Oh, I get it, you are attempting to use common sense and you are jumping to a conclusion that no one cares about you and people in publishing are dysfunctional. Certainly, anyone can review a proposal in less than hour. It’s common sense.

The truth is, the person reviewing your proposal has twenty proposals to review, each requiring 15-20 minutes of time and they might have an hour to spend reviewing proposals a few days each week, meaning the pile goes down by 10-15 proposals each week, but another twenty-five arrived during that same period.

Oh, and by the way, two writers’ conferences and the flu season caused two weeks to pass without looking at any new proposals.  The proposal pile is now a miniature replica of the leaning tower in Pisa.

“Can’t publishers or agents hire people to review proposals faster?

Do you want your book reviewed by a professional, experienced publishing person with the ability to make a decision to take next steps or do you want to be rejected by the intern or entry-level editor just starting out in publishing?

 “Why does it take so long for a book to be published by a traditional publisher?”

The person applying common sense would think since you can self-publish in two weeks, a big publisher should be able to be a lot quicker.

The truth is, publishers have a limited number of books they can effectively publish and most of the larger sales channels require complete information (including final covers) about six months or more ahead of time.

Christmas titles for this year were settled last year.

Common sense is a dangerous thing, and I regularly identify it as the problem when interacting with people about publishing issues. Using it will often get in the way of understanding.

“Why does a book cost so much? I know for a fact it costs less than a dollar to print a paperback book, so why does the publisher charge $15.99?

Because no one makes $15.99 on a $15.99 book. The bookseller makes from 45-60% of the amount and pays the rest to the publisher or distributor. The publisher takes their 40-55% of the total and pays for everything, with profit margins in the 5-10% range in a good year. Many years are less. And few booksellers sell at full price anyway, so everyone makes less.

And by the way, those increases in healthcare insurance you’ve seen? That money comes from somewhere or people lose their jobs.

Any time you evaluate something you don’t know much about using common sense, it will most likely lead you to inaccurate conclusions. This would be true when you look at everything from the cost of eggs in a grocery store to how tax dollars are spent and certainly most things in book publishing.

Common sense is not all it is cracked up to be.

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Category: Book Business, EconomicsTag: Book Business, Common Sense

Publishers and Theology

By Dan Balowon May 15, 2018
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One of the more complex aspects of publishing Christian-themed books is the publisher theological position or “grid” which covers whatever products they seek to publish. Just like all churches are not alike, Christian publishers are definitely not alike. Some may have groups or “imprints” focusing on a specific theological perspective, but for sure, theology is an issue in their decision-making …

Read morePublishers and Theology
Category: Book Business, Publishing History, TheologyTag: Book Business, Theology

Your Part in Your Agent Relationship

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon April 26, 2018
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Some writers want to work with an agent, but even after securing representation, don’t always take full advantage of the help an agent can offer. Agents appreciate authors not wanting to be high maintenance. However, it’s better to keep us in the loop than to leave us out. The expression, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” applies to so many situations that can occur! Manage …

Read moreYour Part in Your Agent Relationship
Category: Agency, Agents, Book Business, Career, The Writing LifeTag: Agents, Career, Contracts

Change, We’ve Seen You Before

By Dan Balowon April 24, 2018
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Change always seems to occur faster than you think but often slower than you think. Most things in society or life are at the same time dramatically different than they were a few years ago, but eerily similar to fifty years ago. If you are an observer or participant in the book publishing world, you can completely ignore certain trends and not be harmed at all. In fact, when you ignore the …

Read moreChange, We’ve Seen You Before
Category: Book Business, TrendsTag: Book Business, ebooks, Trends

The Bottom Line – Get It Done, Well

By Dan Balowon April 10, 2018
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Writing books is a performance business. At the end of the day, week or whatever time period applies, an author produces something on a schedule. I know many people write without any firm deadline as they are just starting out writing for illumination and enjoyment, but honestly, I can’t imagine working without a deadline and not self-imposing one. I’ll intentionally place myself in a position …

Read moreThe Bottom Line – Get It Done, Well
Category: Book Business, Career, Platform, The Writing LifeTag: Book Business, Career, Deadlines, The Writing Life

Don’t Sweat the Big Stuff?

By Dan Balowon March 27, 2018
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Author Richard Carlson and his 1996 book Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff encouraged a generation to put priorities in order and prevent someone from missing the forest for the trees. I am afraid many aspiring authors are doing just the opposite by not worrying about the big stuff either. Everything we write in this agency blog does not carry the same level of importance to everyone, but very often, …

Read moreDon’t Sweat the Big Stuff?
Category: Book Business, Career, Legal Issues, Money, The Publishing Life, The Writing Life, TrendsTag: Book Business, Career

It’s Not What You Know; It’s Who You Know

By Bob Hostetleron March 7, 2018
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It is usually said by someone who is not progressing as quickly as they would like in their career. It applies to writing for publication as much—or more so—as in other endeavors. You’ve heard it often: “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” It may sound cynical. It may be discouraging. You may not want to believe it. But it’s true. To some, of course, that means everyone else gets the …

Read moreIt’s Not What You Know; It’s Who You Know
Category: Book Business, Career, ConferencesTag: Book Business, Career, The Writing Life

Penalty Flag: Illegal Use of an Exception

By Dan Balowon February 20, 2018
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Maybe using the word “illegal” is a bit over the top, but at least it grabbed your attention! Because book publishing can be such a subjective or borderline mysterious field of endeavor, many authors respond to the uncertainty by hanging their hopes for success on something which could best be described as an exception to whatever rules seem to exist.  If indeed there are any rules in book …

Read morePenalty Flag: Illegal Use of an Exception
Category: Agents, Book Business, Book ProposalsTag: book proposals, The Publishing Life, The Writing Life

Three Significant Announcements Regarding E-books and Audiobooks

By Steve Laubeon January 29, 2018
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Last week there were three significant announcements from Apple, Google, and Walmart of interest to all authors. First the three bits of news and then a few observations. Apple Apple announced that their iBooks app is being renamed to simply Books. Accompanying it will be a complete redesign of the reading app, their store, and the addition of an audiobook tab to make it easier for users to access …

Read moreThree Significant Announcements Regarding E-books and Audiobooks
Category: Book Business, Book Sales, E-Books, Economics, News You Can Use, The Publishing Life, TrendsTag: Audio Books, Book Sales, ebooks, Technology

Three Things I’ve Learned as an Agent

By Bob Hostetleron January 10, 2018
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Just over six months ago, I became a literary agent with the Steve Laube Agency. Hoo boy. It has been some ride.  Lots o’ fun, lots o’ work, and lots o’ learning. So I thought I’d take a few minutes (it’s all I have before the boss calls and starts yelling at me again) to reflect on what I’ve learned in that short period of time. It’s not an easy task, considering I already knew pretty much …

Read moreThree Things I’ve Learned as an Agent
Category: Agency, Agents, Book Business, Indie, Self-Publishing, The Publishing Life, The Writing LifeTag: Agency, Agents
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