Stephen M. Miller – Tuesday, 31 December 2013 – “Rearview
mirror: writer’s life so far”
MUG SHOT. Could this be the face of someone who has been working
full time as a freelance writer for 20 years? Lucky duck.
WHAT A SHOCK. It just occurred to me that I’ve been working as a
freelance writer for 20 years, come next week. And you know what? Even though
I’m my own company, Stephen M. Miller Inc., I haven’t written a single year-end
report in all that time.
Don’t worry. I’ll not squish 20 years of my life into this tiny
blog post, like I’m stuffing sausage.
But I will bullet some key moments and people.
Kenmore High School teachers. They said I should consider
writing as a career. I don’t believe the idea would have occurred to me.
Everyone in my extended family worked in places like factories and coal mines.
Bachelor’s degree in news journalism from Kent State University.
Far as I know, I was the first of anyone on either side of my family to go to
college.
Master’s degree in religious education from Nazarene Theological
Seminary. I had been working as a newspaper reporter. But when I saw the junk
that Christian publishers were producing, I figured they needed help from
someone who knew what they were doing. Arrogant, but true. I was half right. They
needed help. But I didn’t know quite as much as I thought I knew.
A gracious boss at a denominational church headquarters who
trusted me enough to let me take risks and cover topics that made his bosses
nervous. When he retired about a dozen years later, I left, too. RIP Gene Van
Note, wonderful mentor, caring soul.
Reader’s Digest Books, now bankrupt, but at the time they were
producing what I considered the best Bible-background books on the market. Not
bad for New York City pagans. I was doing some of the same kind of
Bible-background work with a denominational magazine I edited. So I wrote to
them and said, “Hey, I’m doing this stuff, too. Would you like some help.” The
top editor said it was okay by her. They liked my work enough to let me write most
of the remainder of a book they had already started. I said to myself, “Miller,
Reader’s Digest likes you. Gene’s retiring. Get going while the going’s good.”
Wife Linda, the registered nurse in the family. This jump of
mine into freelance writing was not a fiscal risk. My wife worked part-time so
she could stay home to take care of our two young kids. I did the math. The
church denominational headquarters paid me so little that if my wife worked
full-time and I made nothing, we’d come out ahead. So I kicked the dirt off my
sandals and left. Never looked back.
I wrote to Christian publishers, and went to see many editors in
person, from Michigan to Florida to Colorado. Thomas Nelson asked me to come up
with a Bible guide they could use with their release of the Contemporary
English Version of the Bible. I came up with How to Get Into the Bible. My
first book out, and it turned into a bestseller and a Gold Medallion finalist,
tagged as one of the five best Bible study books released that year. Nelson
gave me such a crappy deal—which they called good stewardship—that I hired an
agent for my next book.
When the agent’s baby started answering the phone, I fired
Mommy. I got a New York City agent, later firing him when he admitted that he
hated Christian publishers because they use Christian-talk like “good
stewardship” to justify exploiting writers. True enough in some cases, but I
needed an agent who wouldn’t say that to a publisher’s face.
Chip MacGregor. First good agent I ever met. I love this guy.
Who’s Who and Where’s Where in the Bible came under his watch. It won the
Christian Retailer’s Award as the best non-fiction book of the year. Chip got
me a fair deal on that book.
Steve Laube is my agent now. Chip left agenting for a short
time, to work with some publisher. I don’t know why he left, to come back to
agenting. But my guess is, Who wants to work for some other jerk when you can
be your own jerk? Not that Chip was a jerk, or worked for a jerk…he was not,
and possibly did not. I’m extrapolating from personal experience. Before Chip
left agenting, he suggested I contact Steve Laube. God bless Chip. I have
nothing but admiration for Steve. We don’t always agree. But I almost always do
what he tells me to do. Except when I do it first, and tell him later. That has
gotten me into trouble on occasion because I tend to be, I don’t know, blunt as
a pig’s nose. Steve, on the other hand, is polished. He can be blunt. But I
think it’s usually with me. The Complete Guide to the Bible came under Steve’s
watch. I think that’s my top-selling book. I should check the numbers, but I’m
writing a book and barely have time to write a blog. It’s 9 p.m. and I’ve been
at this desk since about 8:30 a.m.
After working almost exclusively with Barbour Publishing for
about a decade, I’m working now on three books for two other publishers:
Harvest House and Bethany House. Two books come out in a few months: 100 Tough
Questions about God and the Bible (April); Strange and Mysterious Stuff from
the Bible (September).
I’d tell you what I have in mind for later, but that would be
dumb. Some editor or another writer might try to pull it off without me.
[Note to self: Engage your filter. Do not tell the story you
would love to tell. Your agent would say no good would come of it. And he would
be right. Again.]
The editor or another writer could very possibly take my ideas
and do them better than I could. Or worse than I could. But not like I would.
I’m my own snowflake.
We all are.
Way to go, God.
The year 2013 was good to me. Lots of books got sold. More books
are getting written. And I got myself a son-in-law who gives me a family
discount on contact lenses and eyeglasses.
Way to go, daughter.
The post Rearview mirror: writer’s life so far appeared first on
Stephen M. Miller.
More to read:
Did incest populate the planet?
Ghostly escort to world of the dead
It’s a boy: Jesus
Manger, baby-safe
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