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Helping to Change the World…Word by Word

The Steve Laube Agency

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Helping to Change the World Word by Word

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Home » Writing Craft » Page 33

Writing Craft

Book Reading in a Social Media World

By Dan Balowon June 5, 2018
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At some point every writer confronts the trend of readers who would rather consume 140 characters in social media than 140 pages of words.

Social media and smart phones change everything in our world and their impact on book reading and writing is substantial.

At the same time social media and smart phones have made people closer and more accessible than ever before, they also allow others to retreat into a virtual world of posting and texting which requires little actual personal contact.

I won’t quote all the research and try to decipher the full social, political and even spiritual impact of short-form communication, since you can read about all this on your own.

Instead, I want to make a rather simple point today with the desire to create more hope than despair for authors.

All short form electronic communication is simply a new kind of media. In the last 100 years, society navigated from books, newspapers and print magazines to films, radio, television, internet and now social media and smart phones. Each time a new media appeared, the previously existing media didn’t disappear, they simply adapted to the new world of multiple choices.

It is no different today. All of the above media still exist, but certainly not the same as they were in the past. They all are forced to adapt every day to new realities.

How do books adapt to the current multiple choice, personalized and customized media?

They adapt by placing more pressure on authors (and publishers) to create better books, with purpose, capturing and maintaining attention through excellent writing, which sparks the imagination or spurs a reader to action.

Powerful messages presented in a whimsical and interesting manner.

Stories which transport the reader to another place and time through imaginative writing.

Content the reader really wants to read.

The way to compete in a cluttered world is through creativity. And honestly, it has always been this way.

Choose any form of media and you will find the same development arc. A new kind of media is initially used simply because it is new, then it is used for a time because it provides a way to consume content like no other.

Eventually, another media type shows up and requires all the same things of those which came before and the cycle begins again.

Magazines were going to destroy books. Television was going to destroy radio. The internet was going to destroy television.

But all media has a place, just a different place than it held a generation earlier.

Books are the oldest of current media and needed to navigate the appearance and growth of other print and electronic media, multiple times before.

Every time a threat appears to a form of media, the best response is to rely on the creativity of those who create the content on that media. It’s almost never a “dollars and cents” solution.

Certain categories of books seem doomed to extinction, until a creative author comes up with a concept which grows the entire category. For books, it’s always great writing which readers want, which causes the resurgence.

In the Christian publishing space, it is a little more complicated with the actual Creator inspiring the creativity, but the general concept is the same…media is transformed by creativity.

So, what would a response be to the apparent growing addiction to shorter reading material?

I am not convinced it is to simply write shorter.

Using the “race to the bottom” principle from marketing guru Seth Godin, which he uses in context of lowest price as a sole-motivator for selling something, trying to compete with Twitter by making books shorter and shorter seems like the same kind of competition which no one will win.

Instead, the response for authors is to write with great imagination, creativity, or even whimsy. Fiction readers want to be transported. Non-fiction readers want to be informed and inspired. All readers want their imaginations stretched.

So, authors, it’s up to you. No pressure.

 

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Category: Craft, Creativity, Writing CraftTag: Creativity, Media, Writing Craft

Five Ways Getting an Agent is Like Dating

By Bob Hostetleron May 30, 2018
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At a recent writers’ conference, I enjoyed my first “speed dating” experience. Maybe I should clarify. “Yes, you should,” says my wife. These were “speed dating for writers” sessions, in which writers sat down for rapid-fire five-minute appointments with editors, agents, and authors (many conferences provide writers with the opportunity to sign up for fifteen-minute appointments, which pass …

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Category: Agents, Conferences, Get Published, PitchingTag: Agents, Get Published, Pitching

A Title Wave

By Bob Hostetleron May 23, 2018
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Some writers find it hard to title their work; others have as much (or more) fun creating titles as they do writing articles, stories, or books. So, just for fun, I asked some of my colleagues and clients: “What title of a nonexistent, imaginary, unwritten, or unpublished work do you love? Or would you love to read if it were available?” For example, some of my “dream” titles are: No Grit, No …

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Category: Book Proposals, Creativity, PitchTag: Book Titles, Creativity

Why I Read to the End

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon May 17, 2018
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I am the world’s worst about abandoning novels I read for leisure. I’ll give a book a fair chance, but as soon as I find I don’t like it, I have no compunction about tossing it aside to pursue a different story. And believe me, as a literary agent, I have many books to consider. In any room we spend time in at home, several books stay within reach. Authors must earn my time and effort. So how does …

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Category: Reading, Writing CraftTag: Reading, The Writing Life, Writing Craft

Finding Time to Write

By Bob Hostetleron May 16, 2018
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How do you find time to write? You don’t. Non-writers try to find time to write; writers make time to write. A couple lifetimes ago, after having been a pastor for seven years, I took a desk job—the first time in my adult life when my job wasn’t 24/7. But it was also the first time when I had a boss on site, and set office hours. I had written and published a few articles every year during my …

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Category: Social Media, Technology, The Writing Life, Writing CraftTag: The Writing Life, Time

Your Commitment to Your Reader

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon May 10, 2018
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When you’re working to get your book published, you feel you have lots of people to please. First, you have to be satisfied with your book. Then, you need to find an agent to partner with you to present your work to editors, who are her customers. Then the editor must sell your work to the editorial committee. Then it goes to the publishing committee. So along the way, you’ve had lots of people to …

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Category: Career, Editing, Inspiration, Writing CraftTag: Book Business, Career, readers, The Writing Life

Forgotten Words We Ought to Revive

By Bob Hostetleron May 9, 2018
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A few weeks ago I asked my friends on social media if they had a favorite word that no one seems to use anymore—and the response was fast and furious (I should make a dozen or so movies about it, right?). While there were far too many replies to list them all, here is a list of some of my favorites (and the person(s) who mentioned each), followed by the one word that got the most mentions and …

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Category: Creativity, LanguageTag: Creativity, Language, words

Your Role in a Conference Workshop

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon April 19, 2018
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Have you ever attended a conference workshop that really seemed like a snooze? It happens to the best of participants and the best of instructors. While the hope is every class will have chemistry, sometimes there just isn’t any. But you can help! I’ve talked at conferences and paused with, “Does anyone have any questions?” But I met with crickets. Well, actually, singing insects would have been a …

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Category: ConferencesTag: Conferences, Workshops

Never Assume Biblical Literacy

By Steve Laubeon April 16, 2018
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It wasn’t long ago that a reference to a Biblical character or a Bible verse would be widely understood without explanation. That is no longer true. Researcher George Gallup said “We revere the Bible, but we don’t read it.” This was recently illustrated in our local newspaper in an article about a football player named Shadrach. “It is a name his mom found in the Old Testament, the Babylonian god …

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Category: Book Proposals, Craft, Trends, Writing CraftTag: Bible, Biblical Knowledge, book proposals, Writing Craft

Two Kinds of Writers in the World

By Bob Hostetleron April 11, 2018
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I often tell developing writers at conferences that there are two kinds of writers in the world: the “hobbyist” and the “professional.” Yes, it’s an oversimplification. It’s shorthand. But I think it gets the point across. Both the hobbyist and the professional may be good writers, even great. Both may often work hard. Both are valuable and worthy of admiration. Both may publish. But there is a …

Read moreTwo Kinds of Writers in the World
Category: Editing, Get Published, The Writing Life, Writing CraftTag: Career, Get Published, The Writing Life, Writers
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