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Home » Book Proposals » Page 19

Book Proposals

The Damaged Author

By Dan Balowon May 16, 2017
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Anyone can easily identify a person who has been damaged by life and in need of help.

The same is true with damaged authors.

If you are in this category, writing about your experiences and the lessons learned can be both cathartic and spiritually fruitful, but taking a damaged-life perspective into the professional world of book publishing will rarely work for anyone.

If you know someone who is discouraged, angry, bitter and living a tortured life, you should think twice about suggesting they publish a book for commercial purposes. Write it, yes. Publish it to the world, no.

Think of it this way, would you suggest to someone who us struggling with how others see them, to venture into a work where criticism and judging are part of the daily experience?

It would be like suggesting someone with an eating disorder enter an eating contest.

Bad idea.

About fifteen years ago when attending a national Christian conference, a woman approached and handed me a proposal for her book. I had never met her before that moment.

Her book proposal was a difficult tale of unspeakable abuse from her childhood by male relatives, even her father. Hers was the kind of past resulting from the presence of sin and evil in the world.

While God was most certainly in the process of dealing with and redeeming her past, when I suggested it wasn’t something I could recommend to a publisher, she quickly went into “damaged” mode, angrily suggesting I turned it down because all men were alike and I was probably abusing my own children.

I told her it was an unfair and unjust accusation against me and she quickly apologized with tears.

She was a damaged author. Many, many things needed to happen before she was ready to be exposed to the rigors of commercial publishing. Maybe the story needed to be written, reminding the writer of a life-process with God working throughout, but it probably needed to stay unpublished for a while. Maybe forever.

While agents and publishers send rejection notices every day because we cannot work with everyone, we can easily forget we are often rejecting damaged people, which can be wrenching.

Every time I press “send” on my email to an author I’ve decided not to consider working with, I think of the damaged authors who have responded in the past with angry replies borne out of the carnage of their earlier lives.

Today, my message is for authors who are damaged or authors who know someone who has been beaten up by life and the evil in it.

If you are an author working through the damage from your past, keep praying, look to Scripture, seek Godly counsel and community. God has you in the palm of his hand, the same hand, which dug the oceans, pushed up the mountains and threw the stars across the universe. They are strong hands and they won’t let you go. Keep writing. To some, writing thoughts and experiences about God’s work in your life is like etching in wet cement, which once dry and hard becomes part of the foundation on which you stand victorious over sin in this life.

If you know a damaged author, pray for them, pray with them, provide them encouragement and every spiritual fruit, which is part of your growing Christian life.

But probably best to recommend they avoid jumping right into commercial publishing for a while, even self-publishing.

Once God has given some victory over the damage, a book written with God’s strength and courage could be used to change lives.

For everything there is a season.

 

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Category: Book Proposals, Encouragement, Faith, Get Published, PitchingTag: Encouragement, Get Published

Ignored? Could be an Error or a Philosophy

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon May 11, 2017
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This post is inspired by a question posed by Cindy (Thank you!) on a recent entry regarding rejection. (Click here to find the original entry) Despite following all the guidelines, this author never received a response from an agent and wondered why. The reasons may be quite simple: Office Error My office tries not to ignore emails, although we certainly aren’t mistake-proof. If we ignored you, …

Read moreIgnored? Could be an Error or a Philosophy
Category: Agents, Book Proposals

At What Point Would an Agent be Interested in an Indie Author?

By Steve Laubeon April 10, 2017
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I am an indie author. I’ve written several novels, some of which have sold well and all of which have *at least* 4.7 stars. Is there a point at which an agent would want to talk to someone like me? When/why might I consider getting an agent? Thanks to Heather for the question! A number of factors play a role in answering this question. (Are you getting tired of my “it depends” answer to all your …

Read moreAt What Point Would an Agent be Interested in an Indie Author?
Category: Agents, Book Proposals, Indie, Pitching, Self-Publishing, The Publishing Life, The Writing LifeTag: Agents, Indie

Where Do You Find New Clients?

By Steve Laubeon April 3, 2017
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“As an agent, what percentage of your new clients come from meetings at conferences vs. general email or postal proposals? Can you address the importance of conferences?” Thanks to Scott for the question. It is a good one. Another way to frame it is “Where do you find new clients? Blind submissions or conferences?” The answer, as always, is “It depends.” Meeting someone at a conference is a …

Read moreWhere Do You Find New Clients?
Category: Book Proposals, Christian Writers Institute, Conferences, ConventionsTag: Agency, book proposals, Christian Writers Institute, writers conferences

Frustrated by Rejection or No Response? Try This

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon March 30, 2017
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Last week I wrote about authors who send agents submissions despite the fact those agents clearly state that they don’t represent those categories. When this happens, I sense one of three things from the author: exuberance, ignorance, or frustration. Exuberance An author who’s been successful for decades still can be exuberant about her work. That’s not what I mean here. In this case, the author …

Read moreFrustrated by Rejection or No Response? Try This
Category: Book Proposals, Pitch, Pitching, PlatformTag: Agents, book proposals, Frustration, Pitching

When Proposing a Series of Novels

By Steve Laubeon March 27, 2017
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“Are today’s publishers more interested in an individual novel or a trilogy? Also, when submitting a proposal for the completed first novel in a planned trilogy, is it better to focus on the first novel or give an overview of the complete trilogy? Is there an upper limit to how many books should be in a series?” These are some excellent questions submitted by both Peter and …

Read moreWhen Proposing a Series of Novels
Category: Book Proposals, Genre, Get Published, PitchingTag: book proposals, Series, Stand Alones

Do You Really Want to Change Our Minds?

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon March 23, 2017
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Agents know how difficult it is to break in to publishing, to keep your stride as a midlist author, and to stay on top once you’re there. We realize where you’re coming from when you send us something we say we don’t represent, thinking it’s so wonderful we might change our minds. Maybe it is that wonderful. Maybe we might change our minds. But is that what you really want? Let’s look at two …

Read moreDo You Really Want to Change Our Minds?
Category: Agents, Book ProposalsTag: Agents, book proposals

The Ambitious Author

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon March 16, 2017
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Recently my office received an unsolicited submission from an author unfamiliar to us. Of course, this is not unusual. But here is a list of what is unusual: The submission was openly cc’ed to 185 agents. The author sent writing samples for 28 books. The author said she wants to write across all genres. At least one entry offered graphic detail of a sexual encounter. The author stated her age as …

Read moreThe Ambitious Author
Category: Agents, Book ProposalsTag: book proposals, Queries

WHAT Were They Thinking??

By Karen Ballon March 8, 2017
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You know, one of the things I’ve learned since becoming an agent is that people have an odd sense of what’s appropriate. Happily, quite a lot of what I receive is well prepared and enjoyable to read. But I’d have to say that anywhere from a fourth to even, on a bad week, a third, of what comes in falls squarely in the “I don’t THINK so” camp. So here, just to help you avoid such things, are some …

Read moreWHAT Were They Thinking??
Category: Book Proposals, Humor, PitchingTag: book proposals, Pitching

Is Your Writing Controlled by Fate?

By Dan Balowon February 21, 2017
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I was going to title this blog post something along the lines of “Calvinist vs. Arminian Authors,” or “Predestination vs. Free Will in Publishing,” but these titles inferred an entirely different angle than I intended. Every author believes their book, if published and promoted enough has the potential to sell well. No author writes a book feeling deeply it will sell 349 copies. Someone messed up …

Read moreIs Your Writing Controlled by Fate?
Category: Book Business, Book Proposals, MarketingTag: Book Business, book proposals
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