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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 » Page 23

Career

Yippee Kay Yay Publishing

By Dan Balowon October 13, 2015
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There are so many metaphors we can use to describe what goes on in book publishing. Baseball, medicine, astronomy, physics, factory assembly lines, beavers gnawing on trees, hamsters on treadmills and many more each contain appropriate examples of various aspects of writing and publishing a book.

I believe one of the strongest metaphors is that of target shooting.

Ready. Aim. Fire.

Three simple words that can be used to explain everything from what an author does to how a publishing company operates.

Get Ready. Now Aim. Fire.

Take them out of order and you will not be an effective target shooter, or author, publisher, agent or anything.  Each of the three parts require some attention or else the next step is wasted.

Ready – education, training, practice, practice and more practice. Maintain your equipment. Feed your intuition with knowledge. Important to keep learning and growing.

Aim – If you don’t aim or have nothing to aim at, you definitely won’t hit a target, at least on purpose. You also cannot aim at two things at once. Speeding bullets do not ricochet in a controlled manner. It hits where it is aimed. Knowing what you want to accomplish focuses the training and practice. Knowing your author message platform, what you want to say or do is critical.  Knowing your audience is paramount.

Fire – A lot of emphasis on this today. “Just do it.” “Ship it.” Send it. Let someone see it.  Ask forgiveness rather than permission. Make the decision and live with it. Minimum Viable Product.

Maybe you can hit a bulls-eye by shooting at random targets with a dirty gun, but you will waste a lot of bullets and probably hurt someone.

Okay, now I am going to push this metaphor to its breaking point.

There are two kinds of writers and publishers of books. The marksman and the gunslinger.

Authors and smaller publishers primarily need to be marksmen because their resources are more limited.

Authors…it is just you. Each year has 365 days (or 366 every four years if you want to be a stickler) each with 24 hours. Time is limited.

Being a gunslinger is a lot more fun. Creatively, you write this and that, over here and then over there, try this and then that. This is just fine if you want to satisfy your creative desires and enjoy yourself by writing whatever you want.

Oh, you want to be a successful author?

Then you need to become a marksman. And an author-marksman prepares, practices and aims before they shoot. Not as spectacular as the wild west rodeo show with spinning six-guns, but focus usually wins over fanfare in publishing.

Smaller publishers need to be marksmen, with a clear purpose and goal (targets) simply because they need to be good stewards of limited resources.

Larger publishers still can’t be reckless, but they can be a little more like gunslingers than smaller publishers. Trying something new and different has a little more potential for the bigger publisher.

Publishing books is not a science, rather a mix of art and science, so this entire marksman vs. gunslinger comparison doesn’t mean that clear targets are discovered through some sort of computer program or scientific analysis of the word combinations in a manuscript.

But for authors, work needs to be a healthy combination of preparation, focus and a deadline (either self or publisher-imposed) so you know when it is time to fire.

Or  hit “send”, which seems a lot less violent.

 

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Category: Book Business, Book Business, Book Proposals, Career, Marketing, The Publishing LifeTag: Book Business, The Publishing Life

Arguments to Abandon on Facebook

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon October 8, 2015
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The expression “choose your battles” is a good one, especially in this time when authors must use social media to engage with potential readers. In fact, at a recent author gathering, one mentioned to me that she abandoned Facebook because she was tired of negative comments. I can understand that. Life is stressful enough without reading political screeds and pointless debates during …

Read moreArguments to Abandon on Facebook
Category: Career, Communication, Platform, Social MediaTag: Facebook, Social Media

Actually, It Is Whether You Win or Lose

By Dan Balowon September 29, 2015
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If you set out to discover how people feel about the issue of competition, you will find yourself walking knee-deep in philosophical, psychological, neo-political and even religious opinion. You will find it a rather polarizing issue. On one extreme are people who feel like competition is bad because there are winners and losers and no one should ever be made to feel like a loser. Ever. On the …

Read moreActually, It Is Whether You Win or Lose
Category: CareerTag: Career, competition

“Close your eyes dear, I have a surprise for you.”

By Dan Balowon September 22, 2015
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One hundred years ago this week, Cecil Chubb of Great Britain decided to give his wife a really great gift. He bought her a bunch of big rocks at auction for £6,600 (equal to US$10,500 in 1915 and about US$250,000 today). Mrs. Chubb was certainly surprised with the thoughtful gift. But the rocks just weren’t her cup of tea. You see Mr. Chubb bought Stonehenge for his wife. Yes, that Stonehenge. …

Read more“Close your eyes dear, I have a surprise for you.”
Category: Book Business, Book Review, Career, Craft, The Publishing Life, TrendsTag: classics, The Publishing Life

Reviews: The Spread I Like to See

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon September 17, 2015
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No, it’s not what Daddy calls, “middle-age spread” but the spread of starred ratings on sites such as Amazon. When I see a book reviewed, believe it or not, I don’t like to see ten five-star reviews and then nothing else. An author might ask, “Why not? Doesn’t that mean everyone loved the book?” Yes. All of your friends and family loved your book. I’m not saying those five-star ratings aren’t …

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Category: CareerTag: Career, reviews

Write from the Deep Places

By Karen Ballon September 16, 2015
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Far down, under the ground many of us walk on day in and day out, are roads and buildings and the remnants of long-ago lives and loves. Underground cities, they’re called. I’ve visited the one in Seattle. Peered down through the dark and dust and imagined people, horses, carriages…life. Under our feet. In the deep. I’ve been to other deep places, too, but these weren’t quick visits. Nor were they …

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Category: Book Business, Career, Communication, Craft, Creativity, Editing, Get Published, Inspiration, Marketing, Money, Platform, The Writing Life, Theology, Trends, Writing CraftTag: Encouragement, Inspiration, The Writing Life

Switching or Grinding Gears?

By Dan Balowon September 8, 2015
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Each year in the U.S. more titles are published indie/self-pub than by all traditional publishers combined. Some authors publish only indie or traditional, but some entrepreneurial folks are known as “hybrid” and use whatever model works best for the situation at the moment. Many clients of the Steve Laube Agency are hybrid authors and it works just fine. There are some things you do for an indie …

Read moreSwitching or Grinding Gears?
Category: Book Business, Career, E-Books, Economics, Editing, Marketing, The Publishing LifeTag: Hybrid Authors, Indie Publishing, The Publishing Life, Traditional Publishing

Patience Please

By Dan Balowon August 25, 2015
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This could be Part Two to last week’s post, but I didn’t intend it that way. It just happened. Have you noticed how many things in our lives are overly dramatic? A generation or two ago when “news” was delivered a half-hour here and there and TV, radio and newspapers dominated, dramatic stories were covered and some of them were “manufactured” stories for ratings or circulation purposes. But in …

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Category: Book Business, Career, Platform, The Publishing Life, TrendsTag: Drama, Patience, The Publishing Life

Book Sales Continue to Rise

By Steve Laubeon August 24, 2015
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Despite the rumors concerning of the demise of Christian books, bookstores, and especially Christian fiction  there is news that tells a different story. There were a couple statistics released this past week that show signs of encouragement! General market sales: According to the U.S. Census Bureau. Bookstore sales hit $698 million in the month of June 2015 compared to $672 million last June. …

Read moreBook Sales Continue to Rise
Category: Book Business, Book Sales, Career, Economics, TrendsTag: Book Sales

Are You Writing Out of Order?

By Dan Balowon August 18, 2015
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Generally speaking, if you want to write a book, sitting down at a computer, opening a Word document and starting to write it is not the first thing you should do. Certainly, every writer should write and keep writing. In the same vein, every runner should run, every person interested in being a chef should prepare food and so on. But writing a book is not the first thing you should do if you …

Read moreAre You Writing Out of Order?
Category: Book Proposals, Career, Get Published, Platform, Writing CraftTag: Craft, Get Published, Platform
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