An author needs to determine their objectives first. Then they filter out information that doesn’t apply, so the problem of conflicting information has been solved!

Among Christian writers, there are three different categories: vocational, avocational, and personal. The difference is the extent to which they prioritize and incorporate writing into their lives.

The vocational writer/communicator pursues relentlessly, remaining open to all opportunities to work and succeed. No Plan B. The avocational writer might be quite skilled, but fits writing into the gaps in their life. It is a lesser priority. The personal approach is far more casual, keeping a skill active enough to contribute now and then. No competing, no rejection.

Depending on your situation, view advice this way:

Personal Writers

“I just want to get my book published.”

• Craft – Pick up a couple of tips to improve.
• Industry information – Pick and choose what fits you. Ignore the rest.
• Platform development – Take it or leave it.
• Agents – Do you need an agent? No. At conferences, talk to them as consultants, not for representation, since they are looking for vocational writers.
• Publishers – Focus on author-paid options.
• People – Make as many connections as possible with others like you.

Avocational Writers

“I have a couple of ideas that might be interesting.”

• Craft – Focus on the fine points to improve. Push yourself with more mid-level or advanced tracks.
• Industry information – Same as above, but pick and choose what fits your work. Ignore what isn’t applicable.
• Platform development – Focus on one or two activities and do them well, rather than spreading yourself too thin.
• Agents – Do you need an agent? Maybe. Talk to them as consultants and for suggestions to improve your chances in the market, but prepare for rejection, as you might “not be ready yet.”
• Publishers – OK to meet with traditional publishing editors, but be prepared for rejection. Remember, you are competing for attention with vocational writers. Be aware of author-paid options. Be flexible.
• People – Make connections with people like you and those with more experience with a little more intentionality.

Vocational Communicators

“I want to focus my life on life-giving words.”

• Craft – Push yourself with advanced tracks or teach them yourself. Create self-imposed deadlines as a framework for writing. Make yourself uncomfortable. Be open to being proven wrong and adjust.
• Industry information – Same as above. The more challenging the better.
• Platform development – Since this is a significant part of your overall work-life, study it and work at it. Challenge yourself. Continually learn new approaches. Learning about uncomfortable information works here as well.
• Agents – Talk to them as consultants to gather information, maybe for representation, but also for honest suggestions to improve your chances in the market.
• Publishers – Be more intentional with those you meet. Do your homework. Not every publisher publishes every kind of book. Be aware of good author-paid options if you want to add a “both/and” hybrid approach to your career.
• People –Stretch yourself and be strategic. After all, it is who you know. Focus on those who can help you.

Determine which path you are on and filter out the information that doesn’t pertain to you. It will eliminate the mixed messages, and everything will begin to make more sense.

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Steve? Why do you go to conferences? You already have a big agency with a lot of clients.

That is an excellent question and one that I get asked rather often at conferences! (Why are you here?)

(1) Teaching
I enjoy teaching and the opportunity to train writers in how this industry works. Everybody has to start somewhere, and a writers conference is a great place to learn.

(2) Learning
I learned at conferences … while on faculty! When I started as an editor in 1992, I came from the retail side of the aisle. I knew nothing about writing, publishing, or editors. But I knew books.

It was at conferences over the years where I learned the ropes. I took classes from other faculty. I sat with editors and listened to how they worked. I read the books everyone recommended. In short, I learned.

(3) Relationships
I’ve met thousands of writers over the years at conferences. Many are now successful authors, and some of those are clients!

At conferences, I look forward to seeing old friends and making new ones. Working alongside other faculty members and writers has helped build a community of like-minded people with a shared vision.

(4) A Successful Business
As mentioned, many of those relationships have developed into clients whose books are widely distributed.

Book ideas have come while sitting under a tree in a courtyard or walking along a lake. Book ideas have been sold to an editor too!

I view the writers conference as an integral part of our agency’s operations. We are out and about meeting people face-to-face.

I look forward to hearing new ideas from writers. You never know whose story or idea will click. And to hear the writer’s passion behind the idea is invigorating.

Yes, we already have many clients. But that does not prevent us from finding the next best writer. We are always on the lookout.

Your Turn

From your perspective, why would an agent go to a conference? Other than to meet you.

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It started one day when I felt quite atrocious,
My writing was messy, my grammar ferocious.
I needed a spark that was bold and ambitious,
A word so grand, something bright, and delicious.

I thought and I thought. My words were explosious,
When out popped a word that was highly composious.
It jingled and jangled. It rhymed with precocious.
Yes, it was supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

Some say that word is absurd and pretentious,
Too long, too loud, and maybe too boisterous.
But I say it sings with a joy so contagious,
It tickles the tongue and stirs hearts outrageous.

So if you feel glum or just mildly contorcious,
If your poem’s flat or your prose is monstrocius.
Just shout this long word. It’s not preposterous.
It’s simply supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

For super means “more,” and cali means “fair.”
Fragilistic means “handle with gentle care.”
Expi means “pardon.” Ali means “strange,”
And docious means “learning”—a wonderful range.

So gather your words, the weak and the strong,
The short ones, the sharp ones, the ones that belong.
Then blend them with laughter, both deep and devotious,
And make them supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

Frank Ball is a long-time friend and a true supporter of writers. Visit his website for a ton of great advice.

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Please Write It!

Most people experience some trauma, whether innumerable splinter-like hurts or one or more major events. Writing about them can be therapeutic and help put your experiences into perspective.

The Finished Product

When you’ve finished your book, you’ll no doubt think, “Wow, my experience is extraordinary!” Yes, your experience is extraordinary.

You may then think, “People who don’t know what this is like will learn from me, and those who have gone through similar experiences will want to read this.” Let’s consider that.

Buzzy Memoirs

For some time, existing was nearly impossible without hearing about Nobody’s Girl by Virginia Giuffre. Reasons included:

Widely reported scandal
Mystery
Promise that secrets would be revealed
Sympathetic author
Public outrage
Unique insider perspective

Now think about celebrity memoirs, and how the same reasons apply:

(Often) widely reported scandal
Mystery (The book answers how the celebrity’s past affected their life.)
Promise that secrets would be revealed (Why did the celebrity marry so many people, fall into drug addiction, or go bankrupt, for example.)
Sympathetic author
Public outrage (Celebrity bad behavior often makes the news.)
Unique insider perspective

Other Memoirs

In the meantime, many memoirs are written by people who aren’t famous or notorious. The submissions I see are written by authors falling into this category. Because I represent Christian works, the submissions are ministry-related or topical. These include memoirs such as:

I hit rock bottom and now serve Jesus Christ
I survived a terrible illness and Christ saw me through
I was abused and found escape and healing through the Lord

As a literary agent, I honor and respect the courage needed to share horrific happenings in hopes of benefiting others and leading them to a saving knowledge of Our Savior. Your life is a true witness to those around you.

This leads to the next question:

Should I Contact Literary Agents?

Does your memoir address the following:

Widely reported scandal
Mystery (Are enough people interested in the circumstances of your life to pique a publisher’s interest?)
Promise that secrets will be revealed (If you are not famous, can you give us insights about people who are? Are your circumstances unique and insightful enough to garner attention?)
Sympathetic author
Public outrage (Do you make people angry? If you are a victim, do you offer insights and solutions?)
Unique insider perspective

No One Would Buy My Memoir

If I wrote a memoir, I’d be blessed if 500 people clicked a link to find out more about it, and even more if 50 people bought it. I’ll have to say, I can’t blame anyone for taking a hard pass on A Christian Literary Agent’s Life. I find my life fulfilling and fascinating, but few would want to read about the joy I receive from typing this blog post.

It’s all about the reader. Whether the reason is entertainment or education, the reader must be compelled to turn pages.

What to do with All These Words

So many successful authors publish independently that releasing your work on your own is a great way to reach the people most important to yourself. On the other hand, if your memoir naturally presents help and insights regarding a topic, Steve Laube suggests becoming an expert. “When Your Book Becomes Personal”

Regardless of your decision, if you want to pursue traditional publishing, be sure to build your audience before approaching agents or publishers. A memoir needs just as much platform as any other nonfiction book.

A Few More Thoughts

Ponder the consequences of exposing the details of your life to everyone. Some readers will welcome your words, while others will be critical. Also consider the ramifications of writing about friends and family. If you’re worried, hiring a libel lawyer to address any passages that could leave you open to a lawsuit is a good idea.

My prayer is that you will be blessed, encouraged, and inspired by writing your memoir.

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For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him.

Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

(Psalm 27:14; Isaiah 25:9; 64:4; Galatians 5:5; Psalm 62:5; James 5:7; Romans 8:23; James 5: 8)

“Waiting is indeed but an act of faith further stretched out. As an allegory is but a continued metaphor, so waiting is but a continuing to believe on God, and to look for help from him with submission, though he stays long ere he comes. Waiting is an act of faith resting on God; and an act of hope expecting help from him; an act of patience, the mind quietly contenting itself till God doth come; and of submission if he should not come.” —Thomas Goodwin

The above is from “Day Two” page 114 of the book Sacred Margins: On the Spiritual Life of a Writer

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Enjoy this blast from the past (present) (future).

(If you cannot see the video, please click the title of the post to visit our site to view it.)

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Today and next month, we’re going to roll up our sleeves and I’m going to walk you through building your inciting incident step-by-step. Next month, you’ll have a worksheet you can print out and use on every project from here on out.

Grab your WIP. Let’s build.

Step 1: Know Your Character’s Ordinary World

Ask yourself:

What does my protagonist’s daily life look like? What’s the routine? The rhythm? The comfort zone?

What do they want? Not just in the story—in life. What are they reaching for, consciously or not?

What are they afraid of? What keeps them up at night? What do they avoid at all costs?

What wound are they carrying? What happened in their past that still shapes their choices today?

This is the character development work you’ve probably already done in your first chapter. Note this little tidbit: Your inciting incident should target this groundwork directly. It should hit the wound, threaten the desire, or force the character to face the very thing they fear.

Step 2: Identify What Would Shatter That World

Now that you know what’s “normal” for your character, ask the most important question in story construction: What event would make it impossible for my character to keep living this way?

I don’t mean make them uncomfortable or be an inconvenience. I mean impossible.

The best inciting incidents target what matters most to the character. For example:

If your character’s deepest wound is betrayal, the inciting incident might force them to trust someone. If their greatest fear is losing control, the inciting incident might rip control away entirely. If they’ve built their whole identity around safety, the inciting incident should make them decidedly unsafe.

Step 3: Make It External and Concrete

You might now have a solid idea for what should disrupt your character’s world. But remember the first rule from Part 1: The inciting incident must be an event. Not a feeling. Not a thought. Not an internal shift. Something must happen on the page.

This is where a lot of writers stall. They know what their character needs to face, but they frame it internally:

“She realized her past wasn’t behind her.”

“He felt a growing sense of unease.”

“She began to question everything she thought she knew.”

Those are reactions, not events. Your job in this step is to turn your idea into a concrete, external moment. Ask yourself: What happens, specifically, that my character can see, hear, touch, or witness?

Step 4: Stress-Test It Against the Five Rules

You’ve got your event. Now run it through the gauntlet. Pull out the five rules from Parts 1 and 2 and test your inciting incident against every single one:

Is it an event? Does something concrete happen on the page?

Does it disrupt the ordinary world? Is the protagonist’s “before” clearly broken?

Does it launch the main story? If you removed this moment, would the story still exist?

Does it create a point of no return? Can the character go back to normal? If yes, it’s not strong enough.

Does it catalyze transformation? Does it target the character’s wound, fear, or desire in a way that forces growth?

If your inciting incident passes all five rules, you’re in excellent shape. If it stumbles on even one, go back to Steps 1 through 3 and rework it. A weak inciting incident will undermine everything that follows, no matter how strong the rest of your story is.

Step 5: Thread It Forward to the Climax

Here’s the final piece a lot of writers forget. Your inciting incident isn’t only the beginning of your story. It’s a promise. It creates the central story question that your climax must answer.

If your inciting incident is a murder, the climax must resolve it by catching the killer, delivering justice, and revealing the truth. If your inciting incident is a betrayal, the climax must bring the protagonist face-to-face with the consequences of that betrayal. The two ends of your story are a matched set.

Ask yourself:

What question does my inciting incident ask?

Does my climax answer that exact question?

If there’s a disconnect between the two—if your inciting incident asks one question and your climax answers a different one—your reader will feel it, even if they can’t articulate why. The story will feel unfinished, or unsatisfying, or like it drifted off course.

Look at Serial Burn again. The inciting incident, which was the church arson connected to Jesslyn’s family’s death, creates a clear story question.

Who set these fires, and is it the same person who destroyed her family?

Everything in the novel drives toward answering that question by the end of the story.

Your inciting incident should do the same.

Answer these questions, and I’ll have a worksheet for you next month that goes with these posts.

Until then, keep perfect that inciting incident!

The post Build Your Inciting Incident (Part Four) appeared first on The Steve Laube Agency.

Some interesting quotes to ponder in light of this day:

“It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.” — Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address

“Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy forget in time that men have died to win them.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt

“When duty calls, that is when character counts.” — William Safire

“I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.” — Nathan Hale

“Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are stiffened.” — Billy Graham

“Freely we serve, because we freely love, as in our will to love or not; in this we stand or fall.”   — John Milton, Paradise Lost

“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God such men lived.” — George S. Patton

“Our flag does not fly because the wind moves it. It flies with the last breath of each soldier who died protecting it.” — Unknown

“No duty is more urgent than that of returning thanks.”  — St. Ambrose

“May we never forget our fallen comrades. Freedom isn’t free.” — Sgt. Major Bill Paxton

“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter the words, but to live by them.” — John F. Kennedy

“My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” — John F. Kennedy

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I recall about 20 years ago, when a major publisher announced the layoff of about two dozen staffers and then, a few weeks later, posted the same number of job openings, with different duties and requirements. What was required one month was not valued the next.

We intuitively know that most of the things we remember from the past, in all areas of life, are tainted by a good dose of nostalgia, rather than by reality. This is never truer than in book publishing. For example, you might be stuck in the past if you think things were more affordable several decades ago.

In the last 40 years, the cumulative inflation rate in the US is over 200%, which means prices have tripled. During that time, the average income per person in the US has gone up about fourfold. In reality, books are more affordable now than 40 years ago or, at worst, the same.

Other indicators that your view of book publishing might be stuck in the past:

Bookstores are supremely important to the publishing industry.

Sort of, but not nearly as much as they used to be, before online sales of all book formats made up well over 60% of all book sales.  In one sense, when bookstores were the primary way to sell books, they limited the number of books that could be published since most bookstores could only stock a fraction of the total of any publisher’s titles. Publishers would be competing with themselves for shelf space if they increased title output. Online selling has enabled more books to be published.

Author platforms are a recent construct of book publishers.

Not true at all. The only thing that has changed is what makes up that platform. When newspaper and magazine columnists were the thought-leaders of the country, every publisher pursued them. In the Christian market, authors had radio and/or television programs or large ministries. Then pastors of megachurches. Publishers have always sought authors with existing connections to an audience. The only difference today is the type of activities that make those connections.

Books were of better quality many years ago.

Maybe this is true, but only because there were relatively few books published and there was much more focus on each one in the writing and editorial process, involving handwritten manuscripts, typewriters, and reams and reams of paper. One hundred years ago in the US, there was one new book published for every 9,000 people in the country (according to Publishers Weekly) or about 12,000 new books per year.

Today, with self-publishing and traditional publishing combined, there is one new book published for every 85 people in the US, or about 4 million per year (Publishers Weekly).

There are very few barriers and gatekeepers to getting a book published, and the systems are in place to support almost unlimited growth in the number of titles.

Maybe that’s not a good thing. But for sure, compared to a handful of decades ago, considering all the above items, this is the golden age for anyone who wants to write a book and get it published by whatever means they can.

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Among the most common nuggets of wisdom (only nuggets, seldom more) I offer is this: “It’s never too early to write your book proposal.”

Developing writers often express surprise, but here’s why:

If you just set off, willy nilly, helter skelter, higgledy piggledy (I can go on like this for quite some time) writing your manuscript, chances are high you’ll create something with fatal flaws, something that will at least require major rethinking and revising down the line … and may even need to be scuttled.

Writing a strong proposal early in the process, however, will force you to define things that steer your project down more promising avenues: an irresistible hook, the correct genre, an appropriate word length, even a solid (if nascent) platform to support such a work. Writing a comparisons section, for example, will teach you loads about your genre and help you refine your approach. And so on.

You may, as many of us do, realize along the way that your idea as you initially envisioned it won’t quite work, or that your platform-building efforts need to become more strategic if this project is going to take flight. Such rethinking can be deflating at first, but it will save you hours—days, weeks, months, even years, perhaps—of futile effort. I promise.

Speaking for myself, a proposal is about the first thing I do when undertaking a new project. I may not pitch it until I’m farther down the writing road (especially in the case of fiction, since editors all want the manuscript to be complete before they consider a proposal), but the work of crafting a proposal makes the rest of the process—writing, revising, editing, pitching, shaking my head at editors’ lack of vision, etc.—much easier.

That’s my story and I’m sticking with it.

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It is available in ten ebook stores:
(ebook stores linked here)
It is available in print:
Amazon.com (click to view)
ShopTheWord.com (click to view – on sale, 32% off)
An audio edition is available as well:
Audible link
Spotify link
Physical CD link

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Since publishing is a business, every book proposal rises or falls on this unavoidable question: “Will enough people buy this book to gain a return on the investment?” Not how many might appreciate it. Not who should read it. But how many will actually purchase it?

Potential buying behavior is far more than interest. Interest does not equal a sale. This distinction lies at the heart of every publishing decision. Publishers are not evaluating need in the abstract. When the Internet is relatively free, the publisher must ask a practical question: “Will enough people exchange money for this content?” Readers must believe the book is worth both their money and their time.

The buying public should be both identifiable and reachable. It gathers somewhere—online, in churches, in conferences, in newsletters. It shares a common need or issue that your book addresses.

Your audience remains abstract if you cannot describe that reader in a paragraph. Tell me what they struggle with, what they read, or what they are already buying. Publishers are not counting theoretical readers. They are estimating actual sales.

This is where platform defines the audience. You are not being tasked with reaching everyone, but you must demonstrate that enough people are already listening. (See question 1 in this series.) Somehow show that your audience is not hypothetical.

If your audience cannot be defined, it cannot be reached. And if it cannot be reached, it cannot generate revenue. This is more than a marketing exercise; it is a crucial economic question.

________________

5 Questions Your Proposal Must Answer Series:
Question 1. Is Your Audience/Platform Big Enough?
Question 2. Is Your Idea a Book or a Magazine Article?
Question 3. How Is Your Book Different (And Is It Different Enough)?
Question 4. Will Enough People Pay for Your Book?
Question 5. Why Should You Write It? Why Not Someone Else?

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We can be delightfully creative creatures.

Enjoy today’s video!

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