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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 » Career

Career

Book Proposals I’d Love to See (What Tamela Hancock Murray Is Looking For)

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon January 14, 2026
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(Updated 1/14/2026)

I’m thankful to the Lord that I’m a literary agent working for Him in Christian publishing. I’m grateful to the readers of this blog for being part of our writing community. As for approaching me with your work, let’s see if our passions match:

Christian Romantic Suspense and Suspense

Readers of Christian romantic suspense and suspense are a large and devoted fan base. I’m privileged to represent many significant authors in this space. I would like to see category novels and longer stories. The suspense author creates a realistic situation involving immediate, life-threatening danger that doesn’t diminish until the perpetrator is apprehended. Authors must know proper law enforcement procedures, weapons, and how criminals think and operate. The plot needs to be logical. The motive must be strong enough to justify the crime. The reader is waiting to see the reason for the crime, so a weak motive will diminish the reader’s enjoyment. But a twisty conclusion will encourage readers to become lifelong fans! Romantic suspense novelists should follow the above guidelines, but stories must feature a compelling and natural romance. The couple is in imminent danger. The romantic protagonists are appealing both inside and out, emphasizing personality and integrity over physical appearance.

Historical and Contemporary Christian Romance Novels

Christian romance readers love their authors and books. I’m honored to be an agent entrusted by many prominent authors to represent their work. I would like to see category romance novels, as well as longer novels. This author creates a fresh take on traditional plots for uplifting, inspiring stories. The author is an expert in the chosen setting, attitudes, and mores of the time. For example, to ensure accuracy, authors of Amish fiction should have a close connection with the particular community they’re portraying in their novels. When considering historical novels, choose an era you’re passionate about enough to spend numberless hours researching. Hone the discipline to include historical elements the reader needs to know and will enjoy while keeping nonessential factoids off the page. As with all Christian romance novels, the star couple is attractive inside and out, emphasizing sincere charm, temperament, and integrity over physical attributes.

Other Christian Fiction

I seek a tale well told that deserves a place in CBA. While novels not within a genre may have fewer guidelines, traditional publishers seek a word-count range. For example, a standalone 30,000-word novella and a 250,000-word novel from an unproven author are each likely to secure rejections from traditional publishers. Unfortunately, I must decline many submissions because of length.

Nonfiction

The importance of platform here is magnified a thousandfold in comparison with fiction. I need to see an author already connecting with a sizable number of potential readers. ​Nonfiction readers seek insight, help, knowledge, and encouragement. An author must show authority in the chosen topic when delivering a book to these readers. Dynamic writing is essential, even when the topic is intense. I love books that beg me to read them even when the subject doesn’t apply to me. Now that’s a well-written and engaging book.

Read Before Writing

Writers eager to be published must know the competition, so read what’s already available, preferably published within the last couple of years. Take notes to keep from repeating the same settings or ideas in fiction. The nonfiction author should make sure an author with an international platform has yet to publish a similar book. Visit publishers’ websites to discover their books. Some publishers offer submissions guidelines.

Hearing From Me

We aren’t perfect in our response speed. Please follow up if you don’t hear from us. Every submission we receive is reviewed. We attempt to respond to every offer. You can send proposals to ewilson@stevelaube.com. (Please visit the guidelines for specifics.) I look forward to hearing from you!

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Category: Agency, Book Business, Book Proposals, Career, Craft, Creativity, Romance, Trends, Writing CraftTag: Agency, book proposals

Don’t Write What You Know

By Bob Hostetleron November 5, 2025
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It may be the most common writing advice of all time: “Write what you know.” It’s often misunderstood or misapplied; but it means, basically, draw from your own experience, emotion, environment, and passions to produce the most authentic creative work possible … for you. That’s not bad advice, as far as it goes. But it’s not “gospel.” After all, Nobel honoree Kazuo Ishiguro, author of The …

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Category: Career, Common Questoins, Writing Craft

Inspiration or Perspiration?

By Steve Laubeon November 3, 2025
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Thomas Edison was to have said, “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.” Apparently, he made 1,000 failed attempts to invent the light bulb. After accomplishing it, he was asked about all the previous failures. Edison replied, “I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.” The exercise of writing can be somewhat similar. If you wait …

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Category: Career, Craft, Creativity, Editing, The Writing LifeTag: perseverance, The Writing Life

Tossed by the Ocean of Emotion

By Steve Laubeon September 15, 2025
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It is hard to be a writer or to work in the publishing industry. Everyone defines success differently, and we strive to meet those expectations at every turn. Often we let “success” define us, especially when a writer is told, “You are only as good as the sales of your last book.” Or an agent is told, “You are only worth the value of your last contract.” Henri Nouwen, in his book The Return of the …

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Category: Career, Get Published, Rejection, The Writing LifeTag: Career, Get Published, Rejection

Mistakes Writers Make in Their Queries

By Steve Laubeon September 8, 2025
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I’m feeling a bit snarky today. The collection of unsolicited proposals, queries, and manuscripts is an unending source of delight and frustration. Delight when an amazing idea from an amazing writer arrives like a special holiday gift. Unfortunately, that doesn’t happen as often as I would like. Instead, there is a litany of things authors do time and again. If writers would treat their …

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Category: Book Proposals, Career

The Mission of Older Christian Writers

By Dan Balowon July 10, 2025
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Few things are more critical than knowing one’s purpose in life. For unbelievers, finding their purpose is a daily struggle, constantly blowing them about from here to there, anxiously searching for anything that makes sense of life. But for a disciple of Jesus Christ, this is easy, as we are called to be his ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:20). The role has broad implications, but it is an important …

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Category: Career, The Writing Life, Theology

The Gerbil Wheel of the Writing Life

By Steve Laubeon June 30, 2025
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A writer spends hours, months, and even years in isolation practicing their art. But it can feel like the gerbil in the cage running on its wheel. They go forward a few steps and back a few steps. They might even get turned upside down only to fall, often without anyone to notice. While there is length to the journey, it doesn’t always seem to be going anywhere. Eventually, their craft …

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Category: Art, Career, The Writing LifeTag: Art, Craft, The Writing Life

Newsflash: Most Writers Don’t Make a Lot of Money

By Steve Laubeon June 16, 2025
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A couple years ago the Author’s Guild released a survey revealing that very few writers earn a liveable wage based on their income from writing. In fact, most earn less than the poverty line. Publishers Weekly reported the findings this way: “The survey, which drew responses from 5,699 published authors, found that in 2022, their median gross pretax income from their books was $2,000. When …

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Category: Career, Economics, MoneyTag: Career, Money, Writers

“You Are What You Do” – A Very Dangerous Myth

By Steve Laubeon May 5, 2025
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Typically, we define work as something we “do.” Work can then be defined as the activity you do as a profession and for which you are paid. But if you are a writer, the latter half of that formula isn’t always a guaranteed proposition! Thus, for the writer, we are left with a definition of work as being what you do. But that can be a dangerous thing because we tend to let what we …

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Category: Career, Personal, TheologyTag: Career, Success

Foreign Intelligence

By Dan Balowon March 27, 2025
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In 2017, I wrote about The Challenge for American Christian Authors. I asserted that great care needs to be taken when American authors want their message to be understood by anyone outside of the US Christian subculture. Today, I am reversing that position and looking at what writers from other countries might have to say to the North American believer. Two things brought this to mind: First, I …

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Category: Book Business, Career, Theology
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