The Steve Laube Agency is committed to providing top quality guidance to authors and speakers. Our years of experience and success brings a unique service to our clients. We focus primarily in the Christian marketplace and have put together an outstanding gallery of authors and speakers whose books continue to make an impact throughout the world.
Our Service Philosophy
Content
To help the author develop and create the best book possible. Material that has both commercial appeal and long-term value.
Career
To help the author determine the next best step in their writing career. Giving counsel regarding the subtleties of the marketplace as well as the realities of the publishing community.
Contract
To help the author secure the best possible contract. One that partners with the best strategic publisher and one that is mutually beneficial for all parties involved.
Recent Posts
5 Questions Your Proposal Must Answer: Question 5
Why Should You Write It? Why Not Someone Else?
This is the most personal question of all.
Writers often hesitate here, unsure how to present themselves without sounding self-promotional. But this is not about self-aggrandizement. If you cannot explain why you are best suited to write this book, a publisher cannot explain it to a sales team. Then the sales team cannot express it to a vendor. Then the vendor cannot describe it to a potential reader.
A strong idea is not enough. A viable market is not enough. A publisher must also be convinced that you are the right person to write this book.
Credible authorship can take many forms. Expertise based on years of study, professional experience, or recognized leadership in a field is notable. It may come from an immediacy of having lived what you are writing about. Or it may be that hard-to-define author platform where an established audience already looks to you for insight.
Think of answering the question “What compelled you to create this project?” Passion, when properly expressed, reveals sincerity. It signals that the book is not merely an idea, but a burden you felt called to write. (Avoid saying “God gave me this book” since it can suggest that editors or agents must agree, or else they are in disobedience to God.)
At the same time, publishers are going to ask, “Why not someone else?” If another author with a larger platform or deeper credentials could write the same book more effectively, your proposal suffers from the comparison. Your job is to show that your book idea is not interchangeable, as if anyone else could write it just as well. Yours is tied, in some essential way, to your voice, your experience, and your relationship with the potential.
All of this is especially hard for a follower of Christ who is trying to model humility. I suggest that no one else can sell your idea as well as you can. Therefore, be bold!
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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?
Fun Fridays – June 12, 2026
Today’s video is hilarious! Enjoy a comedic romp with the English language. [If you can’t see the video in the newsletter feed, click through to the site and enjoy.] (Thanks to Dan Balow for sending this!) ShareTweet
Mixed Messages
It can be rather confusing for attendees of Christian writers conferences or writers groups when publishing experts offer advice on craft, platform development, dealing with agents and publishers, or just about anything else. The reason for this confusion lies in the writer’s priorities and needs, rather than in actual conflicting information. 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 …
Why Do You Go to Conferences?
A great question was sent the other day, and I thought it would help explain the other side of the table, so to speak. 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 …
Fun Fridays – June 5, 2026
Supercalifragilistic Writing by Frank Ball (https://frankball.org/supercalifragilistic-writing/) reprinted with permission 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 …