by Steve Laube
With today being New Year’s eve we have a chance to evaluate and celebrate the events of this past year.
Our agency was extremely busy this year closing on 118 new book contracts covering nearly 200 new books. That meant we averaged a new contract every two business days. Amazing. What makes this exciting is that, despite dour predictions, publishers are still acquiring great content. We are privileged to work with some of the best writers in the industry.
In the fourth quarter we saw the official merger of Thomas Nelson and Zondervan under the Harper Collins Christian Publishing Division. It is still new to everyone and flexibility will be the key going forward as changes will be inevitable over time.
The general market was shaken by the proposed merger of two of the “Big Six” with Penguin to combine with Random House. 2013 will see that event play out once it gets approved.
Heartsong Presents made a seamless transition into the Harlequin universe and carved out its own Christian romance niche alongside their Love Inspired cohorts.
Tamela, Karen, and I wrote nearly 240 blog posts and had over 217,000 visitors to our web site. We hope that our efforts have helped each of you along this journey inside the labyrinth called Publishing.
I spoke at four writer’s events around the country plus one in Canada and also attended my 31th consecutive ICRS convention in July.
On a personal note my father passed away in September at the age of 91. Having the extended family gather from multiple states made for some special times as we celebrated his life. An online memorial can be found at this link (http://bit.ly/QCg6tc). Included there is a full obituary and a “more photos” section. I found myself affected much more deeply than I expected and at the most unexpected times. We love you Dad.
We also lost our family cat, Pawlie, after sixteen years. “She died as she had lived, in absolute love and infinite devotion.” (adapted from The Littlest Angel by Charles Tazewell)
For those of you who have experienced a loss of some kind may God grant you a full measure of peace.
Here is wishing you all a happy new year!
