Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, for through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.

(Ephesians 3:20; 2:18; Hebrews 4:16; James 1:5–6; Hebrews 11:6; 1 John 5:14–15)

RUMINATE

“We don’t drift into spiritual life; we do not drift into disciplined prayer. We do not grow in prayer unless we plan to pray. That means we must self-consciously set aside time to do nothing but pray. What we actually do reflects our highest priorities. That means that we can proclaim our commitment to prayer until the cows come home, but unless we actually pray, our actions disown our words.” —D. A. Carson

“In prayer we do not ‘prevail on’ God, but rather prevail on ourselves to submit to God. True, the language of ‘prevailing on God’ is often used in regard to prayer, but it is an accommodation to human weakness.” —John Stott

From Day Nineteen, Spiritual Exercises, Sacred Margins: On the Spiritual Life of a Writer.

The post Monday Moments – November 2, 2026 appeared first on The Steve Laube Agency.

Today’s video is a great picture of what it looks like!

[If you cannot see the video in your newsletter, please click through to the site to view it.]

The post Fun Fridays – October 30, 2026 appeared first on The Steve Laube Agency.

The characters are moving. Talking. Discovering things. Maybe somebody is even running for her life. But the scene feels rushed. Or heavy. Or weirdly distant.

So, what’s the problem? Well, often it simply boils down to balance. Let’s look at that.

Most scenes contain some combination of three things:

Action. Emotion. Information.

The trick is knowing which one should lead and how much of the scene the others need.

Action Without Emotion Is Just Movement

Suppose your heroine is being chased through a parking garage.

She runs. Someone shoots at her. She ducks behind a car. She races for the stairwell.

Technically, that’s pretty exciting stuff, right?

But if we don’t know what the experience means to her, we’re watching it from a distance. So how do we make that personal?

*Maybe she recognizes the shooter. *Maybe she’s terrified because her (age-appropriate) daughter is waiting in the car downstairs. *Maybe she promised herself she would never run again.

A few well-placed thoughts or reactions give the action weight. Now, don’t misunderstand me. You don’t want three paragraphs of introspection while bullets are flying, but you do want the reader inside the character so the reader feels like he or she is the one experiencing all of the excitement.

Emotion Without Action Can Stall the Story

The opposite can happen too.

Your character thinks. Remembers. Processes. Worries. Then thinks some more.

Um … okay. Kinda boring, right? Emotion matters. Especially when something significant has happened.

But eventually the character needs to do something because of what she feels.

*She confronts someone. *Leaves. *Lies. *Makes the call. *Deletes the message. *Makes a break for the car so she can get to her child.

Emotion becomes story when it affects behavior.

Information Needs Conflict

This is where scenes can really bog down if you’re not careful. Sometimes you have information the reader needs. It can be backstory, a clue, an explanation. Maybe details about an investigation.

So …

… two characters sit down and talk about it.

And talk about it.

And talk about it.

The information may be necessary, but that doesn’t mean the scene has to feel like a briefing.

Give the conversation another purpose. *Maybe one character is hiding something. *Maybe the person asking questions doesn’t trust the answers. *Maybe the information reveals something neither character expected.

Information works best when receiving it changes something.

Decide What the Scene Is Really About

Not every scene needs equal amounts of action, emotion, and information. This is where balance comes in.

A chase scene will lean heavily toward action.

A reconciliation may lean toward emotion.

An investigative scene may carry more information.

That’s fine.

The question is: What is this scene really about? Once you know that, let that element lead, then use the other two elements to support it. If the scene is about danger, emotion helps us care about the outcome. If it’s about heartbreak, action keeps the character from simply thinking on the page. If it’s about discovering a clue, conflict keeps the information from becoming an information dump.

There is no perfect formula, of course, but you don’t need one. You need movement, meaning, and purpose. So when a scene feels off, take another look. Is everyone moving but nobody feeling? Is everyone feeling but nobody acting? Is everyone explaining but nothing changing?

Sometimes the scene is “fine,” it just needs a little “more.” And sometimes that fix is figuring out which element the scene needs—and giving everything else just enough room to do its job.

The post Make Every Scene Matter (Part 4): How to Balance Action, Emotion, and Information appeared first on The Steve Laube Agency.

Are today’s publishers more interested in an individual novel or a trilogy? Also, when submitting a proposal for the completed first novel in a planned trilogy, is it better to focus on the first novel or give an overview of the complete trilogy? Is there an upper limit to how many books should be in a series?

Stand Alone Versus Series

There is no firm “rule” about this. There are too many variables to be definitive. The only thing to remember is that committing to a multibook proposal by a publisher is a long commitment. So if you are a debut novelist and the publisher is a little skittish but still wants to publish you, they may offer only a one-book deal.

Are you writing a series or a serial set of books? This is an important difference. Must they be read in order? For example, Sharon Hinck’s Sword of Lyric is a multibook fantasy epic. Each story builds on the previous one. These kinds of books are often numbered on the cover somewhere to indicate their serial nature.

Or can each book stand on its own? I’m thinking of Deborah Raney’s Chicory Inn books. Her series is five books all set in the same town but each stands on its own. They are designed to be read in any order. The setting is the connection for the “series,” not the course of events. There are other “series” where it is the character that is the connection. The main character, for example, is the continuity between books. (Can you think of examples of this?)

Many authors strive to make each story complete in and of itself even when writing a serial. In other words, the novel doesn’t have a hanging ending, with a “to be continued in my next book which comes out a year from now!”

The question is: “Is there more interest” in one or the other? The right answer is: “It depends.” Each proposal stands on its own merit.

How Many Books Can Be in a Series?

The norm is three. Why? Because it is hard for a publisher to commit to more than that. Especially when sales for a series tend to be fewer as each book is released. Book one may do okay, but book two traditionally sells less and book three less than that.

There are exceptions, of course, but generally the commitment by a publisher is for three books when evaluating a series. (But to contradict myself, our agency has contracted two-book series (serial), three-book trilogies (serial), and a four-book series of stand-alone “connected” books.)

Another exception is when a series takes off and each subsequent book sells more than the previous one. This is what publishers hope for. When it happens, greater things can happen.

The Left Behind series was originally a trilogy. But sales demand was so great the trilogy eventually became 13 books before it ended, published between 1995 and 2007.

A debut author will rarely get more than a three-book commitment. So don’t pitch a four- or five- book series to an agent (or ten, which recently happened!). You’ll receive the above lecture.

How Do I Pitch a Series?

Focus on the first book. Follow the guidelines for a novel proposal and make that first book amazing.

But if it is a series, say so from the beginning. Then include at least a half page synopsis of the other books in the series. That way the agent or editor gets to see your talent on full display for the opening book, but also can see where your creativity is going for the rest of the series.

Reminder: If you are a debut author, have the first book completely finished.

Your Turn

For our experienced readers, what has been your experience?

What do you think it would take for a publisher to “break the rules”?

[An earlier version of this post ran in 2017. The principles have not changed.]

The post When Proposing a Series of Novels appeared first on The Steve Laube Agency.

Did you know that the National Court Reporters Association (NCRA) and federal courts require a minimum speed of 225 wpm with high accuracy (usually 95% to 98%) to get certified or hired? I can’t remember a time in my life when I typed anything with 98% accuracy without reflexively hitting the backspace key a bazillion times.

Before 1879, court reporting was done using shorthand. (Side trivia note: Charles Dickens (1812-1870), before becoming a famous author, was one of the fastest and most accurate parliamentary reporters in London while using his own variation of shorthand.) In 1879, the first stenograph machine was invented (see link for a picture).

[If you cannot see the video in your newsletter, please click through to the site to view it.]

The post Fun Fridays – October 23, 2026 appeared first on The Steve Laube Agency.

Well, here’s one for writers. How many of the following twenty marks of a writer can you claim?

1. a strong opinion on the Oxford comma
2. multiple (currently unused) blank journals
3. a favorite pen
4. a favorite punctuation mark
5. a dog-eared copy of The Elements of Style
6. a dog-eared copy of On Writing Well
7. a dog-eared copy of Bird by Bird
8. a dog-eared copy of The Chicago Manual of Style
9. 3+ unfinished manuscripts
10. a scented candle
11. a notebook (or digital file) of story ideas
12. a notebook (or digital file) of character names
13. a favorite writing snack
14. 4+ writing-related mugs
15. a Microsoft Word horror story
16. a rejection horror story
17. a writers conference horror story
18. a critique group horror story
19. a collection of writers conference name tags or lanyards
20. crushing imposter syndrome

What’s your score? What should have been included in the list above? Please do tell in the comments.

The post Marks of a Writer appeared first on The Steve Laube Agency.

In our world, commerce is based on the idea of a transaction. I give you something (like money), and you give me something in return (like a service or a product). We are immersed in this concept. Give = Get.

The world treats prayer in the same way. Note how it is portrayed in books, television, and film. Worldly prayers (aka the pagan prayer) are a transaction: “I give, I get.” Or through persistence, pleading, begging, bribery, or flattery, we get what we want: “If you will just give me this right now, I will do that for you in the future!”

Every Christian starts their faith journey with this preconceived idea about prayer. We were taught that if you do or say the right thing or, like the persistent widow of the parable ask fervently, our wish will be granted.  Because that is the way business works. It is a simple transaction. Quid pro quo.

But with God? It is not.
It is never a transaction.

Read the parable and notice that God is not the judge who relents after being cajoled into shame. It even states that the judge, in this parable, did not fear God nor respect man.

It is a parable of contrast, not comparison. We cannot compare that “transaction” of persistence to our relationship with God. In fact, in 18:1 Luke writes that this parable was told so that the disciples should always pray (“at all times”) and not lose heart. Not a teaching that if we keep haranguing and coaxing, God will eventually relent. Instead, it is the opposite.

Jesus is teaching us that God wants us to always be praying. (Ask, Seek, Knock.) And in contrast to the pagan judge who rolls his eyes and relents, God welcomes our prayers with open arms–anytime, anywhere.

Today God welcomes your prayers. Amidst violence in the street, storms on the coast, tragedy in the home, rampant godlessness at every turn, discourse on ideas becoming ad hominem attacks, and disappointment in the publishing industry and our writing, we need to pray more than ever.

God may not grant us our wishes just because we pray. But he is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us (Eph. 3:20). We have been taught to pray in this way:

You are holy and your will is what we seek (we seek you first).
Give us our daily bread (only you can provide, for you are the source of it all).
Forgive us our sins (only you can wash us clean).
Keep us from temptation (only you can protect us from our selfish desires).
For your Glory.
For your Kingdom (the now and the not yet).

_____

Luke 18:1-5
He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart, saying, “In a certain city there was a judge who did not fear God and did not respect man. There was a widow in that city, and she kept coming to him, saying, Give me legal protection from my opponent.’

For a while he was unwilling; but afterward he said to himself, ‘Even though I do not fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow bothers me, I will give her legal protection, otherwise by continually coming she will wear me out’” (NASB).

The post Prayer Is Not a Transaction appeared first on The Steve Laube Agency.

[If you cannot see the video in your newsletter, please click through to the site to view it.]

The post Fun Fridays – October 16, 2026 appeared first on The Steve Laube Agency.

While that statement may be simplistic, I think you get my “persuasive” point. When a writer comes to the conclusion, the focus must shift from explanation to implication. The reader has followed the argument and, hopefully, now stands at a point where the writer must bring its purpose home. The remaining task in the presentation is to show how that purpose extends beyond the page. The takeaway.

The temptation in a conclusion is to write a recap with a few comments to tidy up. If it were that simple, then a reader could have skipped the previous chapters and read this synopsis. Instead, in great writing, a well-constructed argument carries its own persuasive strength, and the reader can recognize what follows from it.

The writer’s role in the conclusion is to make that recognition clear. To provide direction without restating or overstating the case. This should come naturally from what was already established in the prior material. It is here that the central ideas are gathered in a way that the reader can see what has been argued but also why it matters to them, personally.

When handled with care, the conclusion does more than end the piece. It extends it, allowing the ideas to continue their work in the reader’s thinking beyond the final sentence. Plus, it may create a reader who anticipates your next work with enthusiasm.

The post The Art of Persuasive Writing Series (7 of 7): Where Persuasion Leads appeared first on The Steve Laube Agency.

Sure. Perfectly normal thinking.

Then he did something about it. Enjoy today’s video!

Could your next brainstorm become a reality by using the gifts and talents you have?

[If you cannot see the video in your newsletter, please click through to the site to view it.]

The post Fun Fridays – October 9, 2026 appeared first on The Steve Laube Agency.

Granted, fame might allow an author to publish under any title. I remember perusing library books to find no plot summary or any information other than the author’s name and book title. The author’s photo consumed the entire back cover. That’s it. Certain readers will buy any book by some authors, but offering no information doesn’t attract new readers.

What Should the Title Say?

Regardless of the author, for a novel, I want to know about the plot; and for nonfiction, I want to know the topic before I invest time and money. To wit, here are a few titles from my personal library:

The Meaning of Life

Discovering the Character of God

Real Christianity

Mary Magdalen

Billy Graham in Quotes

Grimm’s Complete Fairy Tales

Heaven Awaits

The Tales of Guy de Maupassant

Mrs. Dunwoody’s Excellent Instructions for Homekeeping: Timeless Wisdom and Practical Advice

The Price Was High: Fifty Uncollected Stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Names through the Ages

These titles immediately reveal each book’s contents and intent. Admittedly, titling your book may not be as straightforward. Most readers will still need context to discern a book’s intent.

A Title May Not Tell Everything

I own a copy of Sin and Temptation. Oops! Maybe I shouldn’t have told you. That’s a racy romance novel, right?

Sure isn’t.

Additional information on the cover tells a different story. How about the sidebar touting Classics of Faith and Devotion. On top of the title, From the works of John Owen. Then the subtitle, The Challenge of Personal Godliness.

Granted, the design sacrifices eye-catching artwork. Because most publishers want to present pleasing and impactful cover art, most authors don’t have the luxury of including several boxes of written information on their covers.

Selecting Your Title

In light of most authors’ restrictions, what can we do?

• Choose few words. This makes the title easy to remember and allows the most room for fascinating artwork. Not to mention, your byline! 

• For a novelist, capture a place, characters, or essence. Arizona Sizzle denotes an entirely different feeling than Vermont Cocoa. 

• For nonfiction, reveal the topic. When I’m searching for nonfiction, I’m on a mission to learn and discover so the topic’s prominent appearance is helpful. To narrow my search, subtitles help even more. A Comfortable Home says a lot. A Comfortable Home: Welcoming Elderly Parents says more.

Is the Title Taken?

After you’ve chosen your title, search the internet to see if it’s been used in the past few years. Perhaps your book is nonfiction, and your chosen title is that of a novel. But many people search by title on the internet rather than perusing physical bookstore shelves where the books have been sorted by category. Thus, a recent title appearing in a search will only serve to distract your potential reader.

Steer away from classic titles. Gone with the Wind might be a great title for a storm chaser’s memoir, but difficult to market.

By the way, I searched online for titles to use in this post to be sure I didn’t make a misstep. To my amazement, I found an independently published novel titled A Comfortable Home: A Pride and Prejudice Variation.

Be Flexible

Please know that unless you’re publishing independently, the title you choose for your proposal is meant to attract agents’ and editors’ attention only. The marketing team at your publisher may decide to change your beloved title. And that’s more than okay. Trust them. They know what they’re doing.

The post Your Best Title appeared first on The Steve Laube Agency.

Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.

Lord, we wait for you; your name and remembrance are the desire of our soul. My soul yearns for you in the night; my spirit within me earnestly seeks you. For when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.

(Matthew 26:41; Galatians 5:17; Romans 7:18; Isaiah 26:8–9; 2 Corinthians 12:9; Romans 7:22–23)

RUMINATE

“Many of my daily preoccupations suggest that I belong more to the world than to God. A little criticism makes me angry, and a little rejection makes me depressed. A little praise raises my spirits, and a little success excites me. It takes very little to raise me up or thrust me down. Often I am like a small boat on the ocean, completely at the mercy of its waves. All the time and energy I spent in keeping some kind of balance and preventing myself from being tipped over and drowning shows that my life is mostly a struggle for survival: not a holy struggle, but an anxious struggle resulting from the mistaken idea that it is the world that defines me.” —Henri J. M. Nouwen

“He who has not the love of God rooted in his heart will fall away in time of temptation.” —Thomas Watson

“If you yield to Satan in the least, he will carry you further and further, till he has left you under a stupefied or terrified conscience: stupefied, till thou hast lost all thy tenderness. A stone at the top of a hill, when it begins to roll down, ceases not till it comes to the bottom. Thou thinkest it is but yielding a little, and so by degrees are carried on, till thou hast sinned away all thy profession, and all principles of conscience, by the secret witchery of his temptations.” —Thomas Manton

From Day Twenty, Spiritual Exercises, Sacred Margins: On the Spiritual Life of a Writer.

The post Monday Moments – October 5, 2026 appeared first on The Steve Laube Agency.

Enjoy today’s video about one of the world’s greatest antiquarian book shows. [It is ten minutes long, so sit back and enjoy!]

The post Fun Fridays – October 2, 2026 appeared first on The Steve Laube Agency.

And I agree with that to a point, but cliffhangers have different tones. If every chapter ends with someone screaming, a gun going off, or a car exploding, readers may eventually say, “Enough!”

But every scene should end with a reason to keep reading.

A strong scene ending creates a question, a problem, an emotional shift, or a new piece of information that makes the reader think, Okay. One more page.

Here are a few ways to do that.

1. End With a New Problem

What this means is that your character spends the entire scene trying to solve something. And then she does! Fabulous, right? She solved it. But … at what cost? Because everything has to cost something:

Maybe she finally gets the information she needs—but now the person who gave it to her is in danger. Maybe she escapes the building—but realizes someone followed her home. Maybe she gets the job—but discovers who her new boss is. (Yikes! I actually love this for a scene ending.)

The original problem may be over, but the story just got more complicated. And the reader is going to turn the page.

2. End With a Question

Not necessarily a literal question in dialogue, although that can work sometimes. But I mean, give the reader something they need answered:

Why did he lie? Who moved the picture? Why does the victim have the heroine’s phone number in his pocket? What did the child see?

The key is that the question should matter to the story. Readers turn pages because they want answers to the questions created.

3. End With a Decision

Decisions create forward motion for the characters and, thus, the story.

Your character has spent the entire scene resisting something either external (like another person) or internal (like making a decision, weighing the costs of the decision, etc.).

Then, at the end, the decision is made:

She’s going. He’s telling the truth. She’s breaking into the warehouse to get the evidence no one else seems to be able to find. He’s finally calling his sister.

You get the idea. A decision points the reader toward what happens next. And if the decision is risky enough, we want to see how badly it goes. Because, of course, it probably will.

4. End With a Reversal

The character thinks one thing is true, then discovers it isn’t. The police have the killer—except the heroine gets a text from him. The missing child has been found—except it’s the wrong child. The hero believes the threat is over, then recognizes the man standing across the street.

A reversal works because it changes the reader’s understanding of what just happened.

5. End on Emotion

Not every scene needs danger. Sometimes the strongest ending is quiet:

A character realizes she no longer trusts the person beside her. A father understands his son is afraid of him. A woman hears the apology she has waited ten years to hear—and realizes it changes nothing.

That emotional shift can pull a reader into the next scene just as effectively as a gunshot. Maybe more effectively. The goal isn’t to manufacture a cliffhanger. It’s to create unfinished business.

Something’s changed. Something’s coming. And something definitely still needs to be answered.

When you reach the end of a scene, ask yourself: What makes the reader need the next one?

If the answer is “nothing,” it’s time to evaluate and perhaps find a new ending.

The post Make Every Scene Matter (Part 3): Scene Endings That Keep Readers Turning Pages appeared first on The Steve Laube Agency.

Revision involves careful thinking. Books are written over time, and chapters done five weeks ago may no longer be easily recalled, which creates common problems. Look for repetitive thoughts, for sentences that circle around an idea without moving it forward, and for meandering sections that slow the progress of the idea without adding anything of lasting value. These troublesome bits tend to accumulate during the drafting stage.  Never fear the delete key or the backspace key.

There is a discipline in deciding what to keep and what to remove. Material that is interesting or well written may still need to be cut if it does not serve the larger purpose of the piece. This requires a willingness to prioritize the book’s purpose over a passionate side point or a favorite section of brilliant prose. The goal is refinement, to make the book better.

I had the privilege of working with the late Calvin Miller on his great book Into the Depths of God. We sat in his study and took turns reading his manuscript aloud. I would read something and he would frown, saying, “That’s terrible. Who wrote that?” We would laugh and cross out a full page or two of text. By the end, thirty percent of the manuscript was on the cutting-room floor.

Good revision acknowledges that the first version of our thoughts rarely represents their clearest expression. Every pass through the manuscript asks the same question, “Does this help the reader understand what I am trying to say?” If the answer is no, the sentence should be removed. The reader will never know how much pain you suffered by making certain words, clever phrases, paragraphs, or pages disappear. That is how it should be. The best revisions are invisible. Yet it marks the difference between a book that is merely finished and one that is truly persuasive.

The post The Art of Persuasive Writing Series (6 of 7): The Work That Strengthens Writing appeared first on The Steve Laube Agency.