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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 8

Steve

Back to School for You

By Steve Laubeon August 19, 2013
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by Steve Laube

Back to school message above open book graphic on white background with vignette

I’m of the generation that remembers the day after Labor Day being the first day of school. But no more. All through August kids of all ages have been headed back to the classroom. When our daughters were in Marching Band they had rehearsals on the field twice a day, starting two weeks before school began…which put their practices into the month of July…in Phoenix….where it was 114 degrees yesterday.

But while you may be past having to go to school you should still have a learning mindset. We all need to be open to new ideas and expand our understanding of the world around us. For writers, agents, and editors it may mean going to a writers conference or it could mean some self-study by reading something about this industry. Let me suggest a few books that could do the trick.

The Publishing Industry

9781451691894_custom-5501b860e04b087a58bd3c783af0df3ae2be438b-s6-c30Hot House: The Art of Survival and the Survival of Art in America’s Most Celebrated Publishing House, Farrar Straus & Giroux by Boris Kachka. While the subtitle is long it is descriptive. What you have here is the history of a publishing house whose roster of authors include such luminaries as Isaac Bashevis Singer, Flannery O’Connor, and Aleksandr Sozhenitsyn. Over the years their authors won 25 Nobel Prizes. The book exposes the inside story of what happened inside this major New York publishing firm. It includes such detail as the blow-by-blow events which surrounded Jonathan Franzen when he spurned Oprah’s interest in his novel The Corrections. At times profane (warning!) it provides depth to your own understanding of how the industry works.

The E-Book Revolution

6af6f689630e547568e853c5aab42479Burning the Page: The Ebook Revolution and the Future of Reading by Jason Merkoski. Written by one of the digital pioneers who invented the Kindle while working at Amazon, this book is designed to chip away at your preconceived notions. At times it may infuriate you but ultimately it will cause you to think. Intentionally the ebook edition of the book was available months before the paper edition was available. Let us know your thoughts on this after you’ve read it!

The Craft of Writing

to-show-and-to-tellThe obvious area to read is in the craft of writing. This Fall consider reading To Show and To Tell: The Craft of Literary Nonfiction by Phillip Lopate. Patirica Hampl’s endorsement says it so well I’ll let her words speak: “At last — a reliable guide to the signature genre of the age. Impossible now to imagine a nonfiction course that does not include To Show and To Tell in its syllabus. This is the rule book. But it’s much more than a ‘craft book’ for writers. It’s a delight in itself, a fascinating exploration for readers, for anyone wondering why personally voiced nonfiction is so popular. The range is impressive, and the voice here is immediate, fresh, witty, winningly honest. An indispensable book.”

Marketing Your Book

downloadYour First 1,000 Copies: The Step-by-Step Guide to Marketing Your Book by Tim Grahl. This little book, only 140 pages with lots of white space, is perfect for your brainstorming. Simple, practical, down-to-earth it is guaranteed to give you at least one or two things you can start doing for you book today.

 

I think I just heard the bell ring. See you after class?

 

 

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Category: Book Business, Book Review, Career, Craft, Get Published, Marketing, Reading, SteveTag: Book Review, Reading, School

Fun Fridays – August 16, 2013

By Steve Laubeon August 16, 2013
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An Irish language version of the song "Cups." What fun!

Never forget, our art can become International.

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Category: Fun Fridays, Steve

Fun Fridays – July 26, 2013

By Steve Laubeon July 26, 2013
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Collective Nouns
Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to add to this list I found on the Internet for two things. A _______of Editors and A________of Agents.

Put your answers in the comments and have fun!

1. Business of Ferrets

2. Labor of Moles

3. Mustering of Storks

4. Shrewdness of Apes

5. Gam of Whales

Read moreFun Fridays – July 26, 2013
Category: Fun Fridays, Steve

Fun Fridays – July 19, 2013

By Steve Laubeon July 19, 2013
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This is a fun cover of a popular song. The unfortunate thing is that the chorus is one of those that sticks in your head...all day. But to make it worse the lyrics of the chorus could be the anthem song for either publishers or bookstores. Listen yourself to see if you agree (you can skip the part where the arranger begins talking at the end):

Read moreFun Fridays – July 19, 2013
Category: Book Business, Creativity, Fun Fridays, Get Published, Steve

News You Can Use – July 16, 2013

By Steve Laubeon July 16, 2013
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Yesterday I posted on the issue of “Foreign Rights.” Talk about a clunker of a topic! One quarter of the normal readership thought it worthwhile to click through and read. Fascinating analytics. So let me ask those who read this “News” section, what topics would you like to see addressed in the future?

JK Rowling Snookered a Lot of Editors – She submitted her latest novel under a pen name. This …

Read moreNews You Can Use – July 16, 2013
Category: News You Can Use, Steve

Fun Fridays – July 12, 2013

By Steve Laubeon July 12, 2013
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Watch this 4 minute video and then save it. You may need to show it to someone in 20 years who is unsure.

"How to Read a Book" - a delightful reminder of why we work so hard to do what we do in this business.

This video is the work of Hilary Commer, and she made it for her Intro to Visual Media class at Abilene Christian University.

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Read moreFun Fridays – July 12, 2013
Category: Fun Fridays, Steve

News You Can Use – July 9, 2013

By Steve Laubeon July 9, 2013
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Does Your Title Pass the "Radio Test" - This means, if your book title or web site address is read out loud on the radio, will the listener know how to spell it when they go to find it? For example, my last name is spelled Laube and pronounced Lobby. That does not pass the "radio test." So I now own stevelobby.com and point it to www.stevelaube.com just in case someone misspells my name.

The …

Read moreNews You Can Use – July 9, 2013
Category: News You Can Use, Steve

Summerside Press Shuts Down

By Steve Laubeon July 8, 2013
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by Steve Laube

“Another one bites the dust.” This past week Guideposts announced they were discontinuing all new acquisitions of titles for both their Summerside Press (fiction) and  Guideposts Books (non-fiction) trade lines. To have a complete picture of what this means we first have to understand that there are FIVE different book publishing programs under Guideposts. Two of them are …

Read moreSummerside Press Shuts Down
Category: Book Business, Get Published, Steve, TrendsTag: Book Business, Summerside Press, Trends

Fun Fridays – July 5, 2013

By Steve Laubeon July 5, 2013
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What begins as a fun take on Star Wars is ultimately a very clever book trailer.
Enjoy!

Read moreFun Fridays – July 5, 2013
Category: Fun Fridays, SteveTag: Shakespeare, Star Wars

News You Can Use – July 2, 2013

By Steve Laubeon July 2, 2013
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Penguin and Random House have officially merged into one entity known as Penguin Random House - Not, as I had thought, "Random Penguin" or "Penguin House." Here’s the scary stats. They employ 10,000 people worldwide (that is where the earnings from your books go) and will publish 15,000 new books each year. That is nearly two books per hour, all year long. That is a big publisher.

Judge Rules …

Read moreNews You Can Use – July 2, 2013
Category: News You Can Use, Steve
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