Steve

News You Can Use – July 3, 2012

By Steve Laubeon July 3, 2012

What Retailers Know that Publishers Need to Know – Mike Shatzkin analyzes the importance of data in what is truly the “Science of Bookselling.”

Your Hotel Bible is now a Kindle – This is a new one. Kindles in the nightstand in your hotel room with the Bible pre-loaded. Fascinating.

Using Evernote for Screenwriting – Brilliant adaptation of the Evernote software by Héctor Cabello Reyes.

The Incredible Resilience of Books – Peter Onos wrote a great article that the naysayers quickly skewered. Which side of the debate do you land on?

Thou Shalt Not Steal Shaun Groves Music – The artist makes a statement “If everyone stops paying for music, then music will stop being made.” Do you agree? Does it apply to books as well?

Solve Mysterious Bible Passages like Sherlock Holmes – Eric McKiddie writes a very clever article. Well done!

Be Your Agent’s Dream Client – Agent Greg Johnson tells it straight. (from the ACFW blog)

Bacon for Calvinists! (Thank you Kevin DeYoung)- see below:

A Little Less Shade, A Little More Light

By Steve Laubeon July 2, 2012

by Steve Laube

There could not be a better argument for the need for good Christian romantic fiction than the recent sales phenomenon of the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy. In case you aren't aware, this trilogy has sold ten million copies in the last three months. Ten million copies. The content of these novels should be x-rated and yet sit atop every bestseller list in the country. The …

Category: Craft, Creativity, Genre, Get Published, Romance, Steve, Writing CraftTag: Christian, Creativity, Genre, Romance

Fun Fridays – June 29, 2012

By Steve Laubeon June 29, 2012

Over 1,000 heat records set this week across the U.S. It can be kind of hot in Phoenix this time of year (112 degrees today), but this weather forecast for Baltimore takes the prize for hottest day EVER!

Category: Fun Fridays, SteveTag: Humor

News You Can Use – June 26, 2012

By Steve Laubeon June 26, 2012

What Successful People do Before Breakfast - Reading this made me want to take a nap.

Free Tools for the Frugal Writer - Bob Evenhouse provides some good advice.

The Noisier it is, the Better You Work? - An argument to head to a coffee shop to do your work.

Do You Own Your Kid's Domain Name? - Good advice in today's world. I am glad I had the foresight to grab my name as a domain in the …

Category: Get Published, News You Can Use, Steve

News You Can Use – June 19, 2012

By Steve Laubeon June 19, 2012

IVP Takes a Book Out-of-Print Because of Errors – This is an impressive (and expensive) response by a publisher. A review by Carl Trueman detailed numerous factual errors, typos, and mistakes for an academic volume on the Reformation. IVP correctly responded by removing the book from circulation and will fix the errors and re-release the book this Summer. And will replace, for free, any …

Category: News You Can Use, Steve

Inside a Publishing Company

By Steve Laubeon June 18, 2012

by Steve Laube

I just returned from three days at the Write! Canada writers conference outside Toronto. During my time there I presented a six session lecture series on the Complete Publishing Process: From Idea to Print.

When the entire process is compressed into a short series like that it becomes evident how many people are involved in the publishing of a book at any given publishing …

Category: Book Business, Defense of Traditional Publishing, Marketing, Steve, The Publishing LifeTag: publishing, Publishing A-Z

News You Can Use – June 12, 2012

By Steve Laubeon June 12, 2012

Content Abundance - What Do We Do About It? - A question every author, every marketer, and every publisher is asking. When there are one million titles on Amazon and you click a key word search, how do you find what you want?

11 Tumblr Tips for Power Users - Remember to type tumblr (without the "e") if you visit their site.

The History of Air Conditioning - I'm sorry I had to include this. …

Category: News You Can Use, Steve

News You Can Use – June 5, 2012

By Steve Laubeon June 5, 2012

Six Tough Truths About Self-Publishing (That the Advocates Never Seem to Talk About) - Rob Hart writes an insightful and cautionary tale.

22 Rules of Story Telling According to Pixar - This is an excellent article for every novelist to read.

10 Great Science Fiction Novels for People Who Don't Read Sci-Fi - I have to say that I agree with only four of their choices. Such is the nature of …

Category: News You Can Use, SteveTag: Amazon, Craft, science fiction, Self-Publishing, speed reading, story, word count

News You Can Use – May 29, 2012

By Steve Laubeon May 29, 2012

Self-Publishing: Under 10% Earn a Living - An article out of Australia makes a bold claim. I would claim, however, that only 10% of traditionally published writers earn a living too. Of course that depends on your definition of "a living."

100 Best First Lines from Novels - In honor of the last two weeks where we talked about "first lines" I found this article from the American Book Review that …

Category: Craft, Grammar, Marketing, News You Can Use, SteveTag: commas, copyediting, Editing, Grammar, podcasting, Self-Publishing

Goodbye to Traditional Publishing?

By Steve Laubeon May 14, 2012

by Steve Laube

Recently Ann Voss Peterson wrote of her decision to never sign another contract with Harlequin. One major statistic from the article is that she sold 170,000 copies of a book but earned only $20,000.

Multiple clients sent me Peterson’s “Harlequin Fail” article and wanted my opinion. My first thought is that this was typical “the publisher is ripping me off” fodder. But …

Category: Book Business, Contracts, Defense of Traditional Publishing, E-Books, Steve, TrendsTag: Contracts, royalties, Traditional Publishing