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The Steve Laube Agency

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The Steve Laube Agency

The Steve Laube Agency

Helping to Change the World Word by Word

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Home » The Publishing Life

The Publishing Life

Two Ways to Think About Your Book

By Dan Balowon July 24, 2018
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Two of the many complexities within book publishing are how often the book buyer and the book reader are different people and how books may sell only in limited locations.

Some people read only what someone else buys for them. Some books sell primarily in one city at one retail location.

Adults will always be the ones to buy a book for a small child. (A child might latch onto a certain book while in a store, but the adult has the money!)

Additionally, an ongoing joke in Christian publishing circles is if you want to promote a book for men, target the women in their life with the marketing.

This is challenging because we always consider the reader-audience as the one to be targeted for promotion, but in some cases, marketing needs to be aimed at someone else entirely.

Another complicating factor is for some books, the primary sales channel might be an unconventional place, such as an institution (church or ministry), a company or an event/festival of some kind…or the author.

Some books sell almost entirely online, and I am not referring to self-published books or digital-only publications.

Most books dealing with difficult personal issues are not sold in bookstores, any other walk-in retail, or carried in public libraries. Online sales create opportunities for books on subjects a reader might not want to be caught holding in a retail checkout lane.

You know for certain the one time you go to a bookstore and pick up a copy of Is This Rash Contagious? by Dr. Homer O’Pathick, the cash register will be staffed by a neighbor and there will be a price check.

“I have a price check on the rash-book for Mrs. Smith who lives across the street from me and attends Community Christian Church!”

For this reason, the internet and plain brown corrugated shipping boxes were invented.

All joking aside, publishers find the more focused, specific or sensitive the subject of a book, the fewer sales channels are involved in getting books to readers.

Titles on abuse, sensitive health issues, or deep spiritual struggles are not the type of books appearing on displays at retail outlets. The buyers would rather their neighbors not know they are buying it.

Of course, everyone wants to have a best life now, a purpose-driven life, and to hear Jesus calling, so it’s obvious stores will carry those types of books.

In a sense, books which are self-published or published with digital-only publishers, utilizing only online sellers (and the author) have it easier than traditional publishers, who must consider a wider variety of sales channels when they decide everything from retail price, packaging, and of course, how the topic of the book affects each of those issues.

Sometimes a traditional publisher might decline a proposal because they see the sales for a book coming only from one specific channel and question whether those sales alone justify publishing.

An implication of this is why Christian books have a difficult time appearing on prominent best-seller lists like the New York Times or USA Today. They each survey certain sales channels for their sales data and come up with a list. Books sold by authors, churches, ministries, Christian bookstores, or most Christian online sellers are not included in the largest best-seller reporting data.

But all these factors pale in comparison to the challenge that many books are not bought by the people reading them.

You may write a book for middle-school “tweens” about an important subject they need to read, but you will market the book to parents, educators, or church youth workers.

Marketing targets and sales channels are factors every publisher will consider when evaluating an opportunity to publish a book. If the buyer-audience and the sales channels are too difficult to reach, they won’t risk doing the book.

Just another complicating factor for authors as they interact with publishing and think about the place their book holds in the world.

 

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Category: Book Business, Marketing, Reading, The Publishing Life, The Writing LifeTag: Book Business, Marketing, The Publishing Life

Real Reasons Some Books are Rejected

By Dan Balowon May 8, 2018
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Most authors and aspiring authors are open to direction and crave constructive comments to help them advance their craft and career. Hopefully, you have had a chance to be part of a good critique group which provided assistance in a manner you found energizing and helpful. When a book is rejected by a publisher or agent, sometimes the reasons behind the rejection are not what you might classify as …

Read moreReal Reasons Some Books are Rejected
Category: Book Proposals, Get Published, RejectionTag: book proposals, Rejection, The Publishing Life

Exciting Developments In Book Publishing

By Dan Balowon May 1, 2018
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As changes in the marketplace require publishers, authors, and agents adapt continually, a number of entirely new initiatives and companies are springing into action to serve various parts of an ever-evolving industry. Here are some of the most interesting new things to keep on your radar: Elf-Publishing – as books become shorter, it’s natural for the elf-publishing industry to take root. …

Read moreExciting Developments In Book Publishing
Category: Humor, The Publishing LifeTag: Humor, The Publishing Life, Trends

Writers as Students of History

By Dan Balowon February 27, 2018
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Anyone reading my posts on this agency blog will get a sense of my opinion and perspective on the publishing life. Of the fifty or so blog posts I write each year, many connect something in publishing to a historical event or attempt to draw some sort of application or conclusion from the books which were selling at some point in the past. To be honest, I don’t know how anyone can understand …

Read moreWriters as Students of History
Category: Historical, Publishing History, The Publishing LifeTag: History, The Publishing Life

7 Good Reasons to Self-Publish

By Bob Hostetleron February 21, 2018
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I have mentioned before on this site (here and, most recently, here) that aspiring writers often shoot their publishing futures in the foot, so to speak, by self-publishing a book (or books). I won’t repeat myself again (see what I did there?). Instead, I will talk briefly about the good reasons to self-publish. There are many bad reasons to do so, of course (because no agents or editors seem to …

Read more7 Good Reasons to Self-Publish
Category: Indie, Self-Publishing, The Publishing Life, The Writing LifeTag: Indie, Self-Publishing, The Publishing Life

Penalty Flag: Illegal Use of an Exception

By Dan Balowon February 20, 2018
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Maybe using the word “illegal” is a bit over the top, but at least it grabbed your attention! Because book publishing can be such a subjective or borderline mysterious field of endeavor, many authors respond to the uncertainty by hanging their hopes for success on something which could best be described as an exception to whatever rules seem to exist.  If indeed there are any rules in book …

Read morePenalty Flag: Illegal Use of an Exception
Category: Agents, Book Business, Book ProposalsTag: book proposals, The Publishing Life, The Writing Life

Losing Track of Time

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon February 15, 2018
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When I first started sending books and articles to editors in hopes of being selected for publication, the passage of time possessed few markers. For example, the mail arrived once a day. There was no trail like this on the touchtone wall phone: Wednesday, 10 AM: Your Amazon order was received. Wednesday, 8 PM: Your Amazon order was shipped. Thursday, 11 AM: Your Amazon package is scheduled for …

Read moreLosing Track of Time
Category: The Publishing Life, The Writing LifeTag: The Publishing Life, The Writing Life, Trends

Marketing to Younger Readers

By Dan Balowon February 6, 2018
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A challenge for book promoters is trying to market to a narrow group of people and discovering they are not easily distinguished one from another.  People are born every day and there is no definable space between demographic markets. Generational identifiers are not scientific, but arbitrary for marketing convenience sake. In case you don’t know all the terms: Traditionalists – Born up to 1945 …

Read moreMarketing to Younger Readers
Category: Marketing, The Publishing Life, The Writing Life, TrendsTag: Marketing, readers, The Publishing Life

Our Rapidly Changing Culture

By Steve Laubeon November 13, 2017
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Every year Beloit College creates a "Mindset List" which reflects the culture that the incoming Freshman class have grown up experiencing. It helps their faculty know how to relate to these incoming students. Click here for this year's Mindset List.

I download this list every year and read it with increasing wonder at the speed of our cultural changes.

The college graduating class of 2014 …

Read moreOur Rapidly Changing Culture
Category: Publishing A-Z, The Publishing Life, Trends, Writing CraftTag: Book Business, The Publishing Life, Trends, Writing Craft

Deadlines Born – Deadlines Made

By Steve Laubeon August 21, 2017
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Deadlines. The bane of every writer’s existence. “A necessary evil.” “My nemesis.” I talked to an author who changed the internal time clock on his computer just so he could have three extra hours, claiming he was writing on the West coast (USA) instead of where his office was (East coast USA). Writing Without a Deadline (Deadlines Born) Not everyone, however, is …

Read moreDeadlines Born – Deadlines Made
Category: Get Published, The Writing LifeTag: Deadlines, The Publishing Life, The Writing Life
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