The writer’s calling

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MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, July 2nd. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: A literary agent redefines success for Christian writers.

Many writers pin their hopes on finding the right publisher or agent and when that doesn’t happen, discouragement takes over. 

But one agent has a counter-cultural message for Christians in any field, and it has nothing to do with how to make the bestsellers list.

WORLD correspondent Elizabeth Shenk has the story.

ELIZABETH SHENK: Steve Laube is known as “The Dream Crusher” by the writers he has rejected. And he’s rejected thousands of them. He has an instinct for the market, and unapologetically describes himself as “The Simon Cowell of Christian publishing.” 

It’s his job to have an eye for marketability, but he views this role as a chance to tell writers the honest truth.

STEVE LAUBE: Bottom line: There is a commercial and a commerce element to the publishing business, but that's a different question than the creative process. And I have to explain that to writers who don't understand that when they come in.

That conflict between the commercial and the creative is where Laube does his best work. And it’s a unique dilemma. As an agent, he’s on the lookout for sales potential. But as a believer, he watches the spiritual toll the rejections can take on authors.

 LAUBE: They define success as getting the big book contract, and if they don't get that, they stamp their own fire out and they give up. If you define success before you begin as being faithful and as being obedient, the results are not yours. They're never ours in the first place! The results come from the Lord Himself.

Writers need honesty about their work, but they also need a shepherd who understands their temperaments, struggles, and weaknesses—a minister with a literary soul.

Having seen that need firsthand, Laube decided he could be that minister. So he wrote a book of his own—subjecting himself to the same anxieties he sees in others. 

This May, Laube released a book entitled Sacred Margins: On the Spiritual Life of a Writer, and it has a decidedly pastoral tone. In it, Laube reflects on the consecration of a writer’s call while unmasking common anxieties.

LAUBE: They just don't realize it. Imposter syndrome, the comparison game, the self-doubt that, "Do I have anything to say?" We tend to talk ourselves out of our writing. You put it down and went, "Is this any good? Of course not. It's terrible. I wrote it." Well, that's self-talk, and guess what? It's the enemy talking to you, not God. That's why I say it's obedience to His Word.

And that’s a radical message from an industry gatekeeper. But Laube says that obedience allows a writer to communicate with the reader.

LAUBE:  I wrote something. It was for myself. I read it to you. You absorbed it. But here's what's happened. You brought your story to my story, and a new story was created. This happens in every book.

It’s a connection Laube experienced when he put his own advice into action. When readers of his book asked how he managed to echo their thoughts, his answer was simple.

LAUBE: I was just faithful to write what I thought was important, what I felt I needed to explore, and it hit you right in the middle of the eyes and made your eyes water. That's incredible, but that's the nature of writing, the communicating process, versus writing on assignment.

That advice caught the attention of the industry. Laube is frequently asked to speak at writers’ conferences—not only to teach writing, but to focus on the spiritual life of the writer.

LAUBE: My first question was, "Well, why me? What has ever given you that idea that I would have anything to contribute?" I realized I had been immersed in this field, in these books for so long, that I had built a reservoir of pure, clean water from God that was keeping my soul cleansed. Not that I have a pure soul, but that I needed to build an aqueduct to become the vehicle to move the water to those who are thirsty, who didn't even know they were thirsty until the water came.

Laube discovered a passion for relating spiritual truths to the art of writing. He calls this desire a “fire in his bones.”

LAUBE: What I say about my creative process may not be the same that happens to someone else. 'Cause for some, the fire in the bones is smoldering. For others, it's a raging, out-of-control fire, and that's where I was. But I didn't know it had been smoldering for 15 years. It was there, but I wasn’t even looking for it.

When those embers burst out again, Laube obeyed.

LAUBE: I'm not looking for that accolade or that byline, that's not my point. That's not what I'm called to. But I can't stop writing.

That’s called being “uncrushable.”

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Elizabeth Shenk.

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