• Skip to main content
  • Skip to after header navigation
  • Skip to site footer

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

  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Frequently Asked Questions
    • Interview with Steve Laube
    • Statement of Faith
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
  • Guidelines
  • Authors
    • Who We Represent
    • Awards and Recognition
  • Resources
    • Recommended Reading
    • Christian Writers Market Guide Online
    • Christian Writers Institute
    • Writers Conferences
    • Freelance Editorial Services
    • Copyright Resources
    • Research Tools
    • Selling What You Write
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Twitter
  • FaceBook
  • RSS Feed
  • Get Published
  • Book Proposals
  • Book Business
  • Writing Craft
    • Conferences
    • Copyright
    • Craft
    • Creativity
    • Grammar
  • Fun Fridays
Home » Career » Page 22

Career

Deadlines: Pre-Emptive Strike

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon January 28, 2016
Share
Tweet
17

Last week I wrote about a process on how to manage deadlines. Despite our best efforts, events may put us awry. To avoid this, eliminate overconfidence.

When you see a contract and the advance – one you may desperately need, you may be tempted to say, “You know what? I really don’t need to go to the beach this year. I’ll write all summer instead.” Or, “Sure, I can write 3,000 words a day, seven days a week. I’m up for it.”

If you find yourself talking yourself into an unrealistic writing schedule, stop. Talk to your agent or another trusted person and be sure you can comfortably meet your deadlines before making too many promises.

Underestimating Time

Even if you’ve been able to meet a ridiculous schedule in the past, can you keep this up? Have you accounted for the unexpected time gobbler – usually illness or surgery for yourself or a family member – that can happen to us all? Or what if your family insists that even if you don’t want to take a beach vacation this year, they do. Do you want to sit in the hotel room typing away while they swim and sun?

Underestimating Quality

If you’ve been swamped unexpectedly and are racing to meet a deadline, sometimes revisions are neglected. Do you really want to be the author whose editor says, “Wow? Did this author give me a rough draft?” The less heavy lifting an editor has to do, the better for your career. That’s not to say that awesome, experienced authors aren’t ever heavily edited. But I remember my own first error-filled drafts in all their glory. Don’t shame yourself by turning in an early draft. You must turn in quality work each time, at every stage of your career. Allow yourself time to revise.

What to do

If you are looking at a new contract and don’t think you can meet all the proposed deadlines, ask your agent how much the new deadline can be extended. Most of the time, editors can accommodate. But if the deadline cannot be extended so you can meet your existing deadlines, you may have to walk away from the contract. As terrible as this seems, it’s much less terrible than causing a major problem for yourself, your agent, your editor, and the publisher. And if you do walk away, be grateful you have such a happy problem!

Your turn:

How do you cope when you have too many deadlines?

How do you avoid getting into a big crunch?

What additional tips can you offer us?

 

Leave a Comment
Category: Career, CraftTag: Career, Deadlines

Can You Handle the Edit?

By Karen Ballon January 27, 2016
Share
Tweet
40

There’s a lot about being a freelance editor that’s fun. But some things that just…aren’t. Like telling a writer that his manuscript isn’t ready to be edited. This happens most often before an editor agrees to do an edit, when they read the sample of the manuscript. There are times, though, when those first pages are pretty good, so the editor takes the project on. And then, when he’s deep in the …

Read moreCan You Handle the Edit?
Category: Career, Editing, Writing CraftTag: Editing, Writing Craft

Tossed by the Ocean of Emotion

By Steve Laubeon January 25, 2016
Share
Tweet
23

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 …

Read moreTossed by the Ocean of Emotion
Category: Art, Career, Get Published, RejectionTag: Career, Get Published, Rejection

Meet Deadlines with Simple Math

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon January 21, 2016
Share
Tweet
20

During your publishing journey you may have the delightful problem of too many deadlines. You may have to ask yourself if you can accept another contract because you’re so busy. I’ve advised many clients about this over the years, taking them from panic to peace. Simple math can help. Determine time Look at all your contracts and how much time you have to write the books. Calculate how many days …

Read moreMeet Deadlines with Simple Math
Category: Career, CraftTag: Career, Deadlines

Fiction: Don’t Order Flowers Yet – An Evaluation of 2015

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon January 7, 2016
Share
Tweet
13

An Evaluation of 2015: Ours is a tough industry. A lot of writers are rejected. Over and over. The journey to publication seems harder than ever. Available slots in a publisher’s list are fewer and harder to secure. It’s more difficult than ever to make books profitable. Competition is tougher. Only the top authors seem to be making money. What year am I talking about? I think it is 1998. Or was …

Read moreFiction: Don’t Order Flowers Yet – An Evaluation of 2015
Category: Agency, Book Business, Career, TrendsTag: Book Business, fiction, Trends

I Hate the Church (?)

By Karen Ballon January 6, 2016
Share
Tweet
107

Wow. Another year ended, another new year begun. As I considered what to say about 2015, something struck me: I heard more hard words from believers in 2015 than ever before. No, not “hard words” as in hard things the Lord told people to say. Just hard words. Words spiked with negativity, frustration, even a tinge of hatred. I’m a PK. A preacher’s kid. What’s more, I’m a PGK—a preacher’s grandkid. …

Read moreI Hate the Church (?)
Category: Career, TheologyTag: Career, Theology

Tomorrow Starts Now

By Dan Balowon January 5, 2016
Share
Tweet
14

1956 was an interesting year (other than the year of my birth).  There were wars and rumors of wars, great music, movies, books, political campaigning, controversy involving Islamic control of various nations and trouble in the Middle East. Sound familiar? Woody Guthrie’s song “This Land is Your Land” was popular, Norman Vincent Peale’s book on The Power of Positive Thinking was still hot and …

Read moreTomorrow Starts Now
Category: Career, TheologyTag: Career, God's Will, Theology

2015 – A Year in Review

By Steve Laubeon January 4, 2016
Share
Tweet
10

I like to take a look at the past year as an exercise in measuring success and failure – all while counting God’s blessings. (If you’d like to look at previous annual reports they can be found here: 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2009.) The Agency Thrives The agency continues to thrive in the midst of some tough economic challenges. It was exciting to secure contracts for over 130 forthcoming …

Read more2015 – A Year in Review
Category: Agency, Book Business, Career, Communication, EconomicsTag: 2015, Agency, Year in Review

Practice Makes…More Practice

By Dan Balowon December 15, 2015
Share
Tweet
16

Before musicians perform, they practice, and then practice some more. The best musicians might practice eight hours a day, every day, for many years. Then maybe, just maybe they get paid to perform, which rarely makes up for the thousands of hours they practiced for free. Before an artist paints or sculpts or creates anything, they practice and practice some more and throw away many of the things …

Read morePractice Makes…More Practice
Category: Career, Craft, Writing CraftTag: Craft, Practice, Writing Craft

A Job I Believe In

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon December 3, 2015
Share
Tweet
22

Do you believe in your job? I mean, really believe in it? Recently I went to an event where I hadn’t planned to talk at all about being a literary agent. But I found myself talking about books all the same. Granted, I didn’t talk about being a literary agent in the same way I’d talk about it with writers; no one at the event was a writer so they weren’t interested in having a novel published. In …

Read moreA Job I Believe In
Category: Book Business, Career, PersonalTag: Career
  • Previous
  • Page 1
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Page 20
  • Page 21
  • Page 22
  • Page 23
  • Page 24
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Page 37
  • Next
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Frequently Asked Questions
    • Interview with Steve Laube
    • Statement of Faith
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
  • Guidelines
  • Authors
    • Who We Represent
    • Awards and Recognition
  • Resources
    • Recommended Reading
    • Christian Writers Market Guide Online
    • Christian Writers Institute
    • Writers Conferences
    • Freelance Editorial Services
    • Copyright Resources
    • Research Tools
    • Selling What You Write
  • Blog
  • Contact

Copyright © 2025 · The Steve Laube Agency · All Rights Reserved · Website by Stormhill Media