Pearly sky again this morning. Yesterday the weather changed about every 15 minutes so it was difficult deciding what to wear when you stepped outdoors.
Whenever I meet wanna-be screenwriters who are convinced they’re going to make it big if they just keep pecking away on their laptops at Starbucks, I always worry about them. It’s simply a fact that there are too many gatekeepers in Hollywood and if you don’t have an agent or manager or live next door to Sean Penn, it’s almost impossible to get your screenplay read. It seems to me your best bet is to enter contests. Of course this advice was fed to me years ago when I interviewed Andrew Marlow who wrote Air Force One after he’d won the Nicholl prize.
But I think a better idea is to write a great novel or story (as in Brokeback Mountain) that might be picked up by the industry. In http.//www.varity.com (Wednesday, April 16) the headline reads Studios turn to books, magazines. The story begins: “Feature development execs were bracing for a deluge of feature spec scripts to flood the market after the 100-day writers strike wrapped in mid-February. But the storm, if it's brewing at all, has yet to hit, so the majors are chasing after books and magazine articles harder than they have in years.
Because the volume of pitches and specs from screenwriters has been light so far, studios, flush with new fiscal-year development budgets, have turned to books, mags as well as graphic novels for ideas, biz insiders say.
The result is that lit properties are moving fast compared to years past.”
The article then goes on to list a number of books and projects that have bought to be shaped into films. So something to think about.
Last year the chair of a writer’s conference asked me if I wanted to be on a panel about self publishing. I declined because I’m just not a huge fan of this trend. Now, I know that some books that were self-published have been picked up by a major publisher and I know that famous writers like David Morrell (no relation) advise writers to try this route if they cannot land a publishing deal. And I know how hard it is to land a publishing deal since it’s what I work at in my life. And I’m all for people writing a legacy for their family and then self-publishing it and I’m crazy about poetry chapbooks. I hear great things about some companies such as lulu.com, and POD (print on demand) is especially cost effective and authors receive a higher percentage of profits. I’m also crazy about the blogosphere which is a form of self publishing and I like watching the old order change and new forms of communication developing.
But I’ve yet to read a good self published book (although I’m sure they’re out there) and I wonder how there can be more 100 companies that create these books. I’m especially leery of companies like Publish America which, unless they’ve changed their policy, demand the right to publish the title for seven years. It seems to me that self publishing only works if you already have a platform or are willing to work your butt off to create one and are a whiz at marketing because most book stores (especially the majors like Borders and Barnes and Noble) won’t sell self published books. And now apparently amazon.com has lowered the boom with their new mandate: they will only sell self published books through BookSurge, their POD arm, although the details don’t seem to be clear. There is a story about this at www.writersweekly.com written by Angela Hoy of Booklocker and Whispers and Warnings column along with other stories scattered throughout the web. And speaking of sites helpful to writers, you might want to check out http://www.beneaththecover.com which covers many aspects of the publishing industry including self publishing. And for more news on the publicity and marketing side of the industry you might enjoy http://thebadpitch.blogspot.com
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