Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Stephen M. Miller – Tuesday, 31 December 2013 – “Rearview mirror: writer’s life so far”

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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