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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 » Steve » Page 2

Steve

The Dreaded Blank Page

By Steve Laubeon July 19, 2021
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A clean slate. An empty canvas. A fresh start. A new beginning.
Or a potential nightmare of guilt, failure, and shame.

Thus begins the process of each writing project. This blog post began with a blank page. I wondered why I ever agreed over a decade ago to write a blog. I procrastinated with enough excuses to be described as legion. I told myself that no one cares what I think on any subject. I knew I didn’t have anything new to write that would be of significance.

Once my episode of complaining is done, I begin to write. Sometimes I open with a blank screen and my fingers play a chaotic tune as if sight-reading music. Other posts start in a moleskin notebook written by hand. The pages are littered with half-started ideas and incomplete thoughts. And this post is no exception. Today’s is the fourth one that received some scratches.

The blank page is the universal place where every writer begins. And in that moment and in that place all things are equal.

A place where the artist begins creating verba ex nihilo.*

A place of immeasurable potential and endless possibilities.

A place on which a treasure map is drawn, leading a reader to riches unimagined.

A place where worlds are spun into existence.

A place of trauma revisited, of healing experienced, of restoration bestowed.

A place of creation, inspiration, and wonder.

Remember this as you fill today’s blank page:

The world will be a little different tomorrow
because of what you write today.

*words out of nothing

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Category: Craft, Creativity, Steve, Writing CraftTag: blank page, Writing Craft

To Comma or Not to Comma?

By Steve Laubeon June 28, 2021
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I came across this entry in Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss. The book is a classic on punctuation. (Although based on British English usage, it is still a great book.) On his deathbed in April 1991, Graham Green corrected and signed a typed document which restricts access to his papers at Georgetown University. Or does it? The document, before correction, stated: “I, Graham Greene, …

Read moreTo Comma or Not to Comma?
Category: Book Business, Contracts, Grammar, Language, SteveTag: commas, Grammar, Language, punctuation

The Story We Bring to the Story

By Steve Laubeon June 7, 2021
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by Steve Laube

With all the discussion about the craft of fiction and the need to write a great story there is one thing missing in the equation. The one thing that is the secret to great fiction. And it is the one thing the writer cannot control.

That one thing is the story the reader brings with them to their reading experience. As a reader I have the life I have lived, the people I’ve …

Read moreThe Story We Bring to the Story
Category: Art, Craft, Creativity, Steve, Writing CraftTag: Craft, Reader, story

What if You Get a Book Deal on Your Own and Then Want an Agent?

By Steve Laubeon October 12, 2020
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One of our readers asked this via the green “Ask us a question” button.
What happens if you get a book contract before you have an agent? What if, by some miracle, an editor sees your work and wants to publish it? (1) would having a publisher interested in my work make an agent much more likely to represent me, and (2) would it be appropriate to try to find an agent at that point (when a …

Read moreWhat if You Get a Book Deal on Your Own and Then Want an Agent?
Category: Agents, Book Business, Conferences, Contracts, Get Published, SteveTag: Agent, Conferences, Contracts, negotiations, publishers

Writers Expect Good News

By Steve Laubeon December 3, 2018
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Writers expect good news...any day now. Is it the curse of eternal optimism?There is this hope within each writer that it will be their manuscript that is chosen for publication. And the money will rain on them like a spring shower.

Despite the odds.

Despite the competition.

Despite the cynical, horrible, no-good, very-bad agents who review them.

Expectations

Are these expectations …

Read moreWriters Expect Good News
Category: Encouragement, Get Published, SteveTag: Book Business, Encouragement, Writing Craft

The Wild Pitch

By Steve Laubeon June 11, 2018
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In honor of the upcoming baseball season I thought it would be fun to explore the art of pitching.

A couple years ago I was watching a Major League baseball game and the pitcher unleashed a horrific throw that sailed about eight feet behind the batter. It floated to the backstop without a bounce and everyone in the stadium wonder what had just happened. It looked like the pitcher lost his grip …

Read moreThe Wild Pitch
Category: Book Proposals, Get Published, Pitching, SteveTag: Get Published, Pitching, Proposals, Query Letters

Rumor Control

By Steve Laubeon October 30, 2017
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I was talking with an editor this week who asked me, "How are things going? I hear that your agency is barely making ends meet and that you've had to take on other type of work to survive."

I must admit that I was so startled by this rumor that words nearly failed me.

"Where did you hear that?" I exclaimed.

"Oh it was at a recent writers conference and folks were talking, and your name …

Read moreRumor Control
Category: Agency, Communication, SteveTag: Gossip, rumors

Marketing vs. Publicity

By Steve Laubeon September 18, 2017
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by Steve Laube

Recent I have run into a common misunderstanding. Some writers use the words "marketing" and "publicity" (or P.R. "public relations") as synonyms when actually one is a subset of the other.

There are marketing departments that have a publicity division or a marketing department that outsources their publicity. The two go hand in hand and should compliment each other.

The …

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Category: Book Business, Marketing, SteveTag: Book Business, Marketing, Publicity

Writers Learn to Wait

By Steve Laubeon December 5, 2016
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Good publishing takes time. Time to write well. Time to edit well. Time to find the right agent. Time to find the right publisher. Time to edit again and re-write. Time to design well. Time to market well. While there can be a lot of activity it still feels like “time” is another word for “wait.” No one likes to wait for anything. Our instant society (everything from …

Read moreWriters Learn to Wait
Category: Book Business, Contracts, Get Published, Indie, Marketing, Steve, The Publishing Life, The Writing LifeTag: Agents, Book Business, Contracts, Editors, Get Published, Marketing, Traditional Publishing

Fun Fridays – June 27, 2014

By Steve Laubeon June 27, 2014
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Having just survived the 2014 International Christian Retail Show in Atlanta this video is somewhat illustrative of what happens when they hand out free stuff….

Read moreFun Fridays – June 27, 2014
Category: Fun Fridays, Steve
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