by Rachel Miller on June 11, 2010
I recently read a script that was adapted from a play by the playwright and, boy, did the script read like a play. And this is a problem. Because a play should read like a play, a script like a script, a book like a book.
It is very important as a writer for you to understand what medium you are writing in. Every medium has its own rules, formats and styles. And just because you are a successful playwright does not mean that you can simply switch mediums without fully understanding that new medium.
A script should have a lot of action and move quickly. Remember, unless you are Woody Allen, most people don’t want to watch two people talking the whole time.
In a play, you can have a lot more character dialogue. In a book, you have the room to really delve into the characters’ backstories that you might not be able to include in a movie script or in a play. If it is a TV script, you need act breaks that leave a cliffhanger at each act break (commercial breaks).
Always know what medium you are writing and who your audience is.
And, if you are successful in one area but not in another, you might want to think about someone else adapting your work. Not only will someone else’s expertise help adapt your work to the best possible version, but, also, sometimes it is helpful to let someone else expand on your ideas and see what else that person can come up with.
For example, we represent several authors who would be happy to let screenwriters adapt their books because these authors know that a skilled screenwriter will make the best version possible of the adapted book.
In short, know your own medium well and be willing to say yes to having someone else adapt your work in a different medium. Who knows? Someone else’s adaption of your work might just be the key to getting that adaptation written and produced.
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by Rachel Miller on May 7, 2010
A friend referred a potential client to me. The potential client had a book that he wrote and is interested in getting published.
While the potential client and I talked, I checked out the website for the book. I immediately noticed the home page announced the book would be out June 2010. Obviously, this greatly confused me.
Why if the book is coming out next month would the author need a publisher? I asked.
His response: He keeps moving the date back so that the visitors to his site will remain invested and check back for the book. This is a very good point — you do want viewers to keep coming back to your site.
However, the problem with his strategy is that when he sends the book to publishers, their first response will be to check the website. If they see the book is coming out, they will have no idea why they should even read the manuscript in the first place.
What should you do to keep your website audience coming back without listing inaccurate info — inaccurate info that could hurt your pitch to the very buyers you are trying to attract?
Simple. Keep adding new, original and engaging content.
If you have a website, than every few days you should be adding new content, whether it is blog posts, reports, pictures, a free chapter of your book, etc. By using this Internet marketing strategy, you can add all kinds of original content to to keep your audiences engaged and coming back for more.
No one is saying you have to do all this yourself. In fact, the social media marketing company Miller Mosaic Power Marketing (www.millermosaicllc.com) offers website and social media marketing services to help book authors consistently and continually engage with their prospective readers.
You can download the company’s FREE report “Twitter, Facebook and Your Website: A Beginning Blueprint for Harnessing the Power of 3″ at www.MillerMosaicPowerof3.com
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by Rachel Miller on April 12, 2010
Many people have been asking about how the book trilogy STARCROSSED by Josephine Angelini (http://budurl.com/yatrilogy) happened; and it really is an incredible story.
It’s a story of fate, Facebook, and knowing the right people to work with on a project.
A couple months ago I received a Facebook email from someone I didn’t know telling me his friend had written a book and it was really good.
I don’t usually say yes to blind queries but something about this one got my attention. I agreed to read the book and then sat on the manuscript for a week. However, one day my lunch canceled and I decided to read a chapter.
The one chapter turned into another, which turned into the first 50 pages, which turned into me not doing any of my work for the rest of the day and instead reading this amazing book that had fallen into my lap.
(In fact, my business partner spent the day asking me what I was doing since it was so unlike me to sit quietly in a corner.)
The next day I called book agent Mollie Glick at Foundry Literary & Media and said I had a book for her. Mollie and I had been looking for a project to work on together and this seemed like just the thing.
She told me she would read it in a week. However, the next day she called me to say she had read a chapter and couldn’t put the book down. She was going to stay up all night to finish it if she had too; which she did. And she loved it just as much as I did.
Then I met Josie (Josephine Angelini, the author) and we instantly connected. It turns out she was even close to a friend of mine from NYU!
Everything next happened very quickly. We spent a week doing some minor editing. Mollie then took the book into HarperTeen, where the editors fell in love with it as well. They took the book “off the table” (which means before other publishers could bid on it) for seven figures for the book rights for just the U.S. and Canada. Mollie then sold Brazil, Russia, Poland, France, Turkey, Israel, Italy, UK, Germany, Spain and Catalon — with more territories still coming in.
With all the foreign territories going so quickly we have a very good feeling that this book, along with the other two books in the trilogy, is going to be a huge international blockbuster.
It all goes to show you that sometimes success is luck plus using all your connections to reach out to everyone you know plus writing the best book in the world so that executives with busy schedules and phones ringing off the hook will be so entranced that they will stop whatever they are doing to read your material.
(And if you want to get more insider knowledge on using your connections or writing the best piece of material – check out these insider reports: http://www.showmethescreenplay.com/special-reports-entertainment-industry-insiders/ )
P.S. The best part of the story is that thee guy who Facebooked me turned out to be Josie’s husband. He just didn’t want to tell me as he thought I would be biased against reading the manuscript. Very smart strategy on his part!
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by Rachel Miller on April 1, 2010
Having just closed our distribution deal with Hanover House for the indie film HappyThankYouMorePlease
(http://budurl.com/htympdistributiondl) there are a couple tips I learned from the experience that I wanted to share:
Take Your Time
It’s easy to go with the first person that makes you an offer, but really spend your time doing your research and analyzing the deal. Does the proposed deal make sense for everyone involved (investors, producers, actors)? What’s the distributor’s reputation? How have the distributor’s other movies done?
It’s All About the Marketing
Don’t be fooled by a large upfront fee if there is no money for a strong P&A (Prints and Advertising) campaign. Especially if your movie is an indie you need a strong marketing campaign to spread the word. Sometimes it’s better to go with a company that has a smaller upfront fee and a bigger P&A budget with a great split rather than go with a company that’s going to give you a large upfront fee but then will not really support the movie.
Carefully Study Your Release Date
If a company is offering you a deal and has offered a release date — do your research on the date. What else is being released that day? Is there another movie that is in direct competition with your movie? And, if yours is an indie movie and you are planning on doing a roll-out campaign, make sure to check what is being released in the next couple of weeks after the release date and analyze how those new releases will impact yours.
Overall, when picking the right distributor, it’s important to not just go for the most amount of money without really weighing all the other factors than can determine the success or failure of your movie.
P.S. And make sure to go see HAPPYTHANKYOUMOREPLEASE August 27th in LA, NYC, Chicago, San Francisco, and Dallas (it will then roll out to more cities over Labor Day).
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by Rachel Miller on March 18, 2010
Here is a tale of what NOT to do when trying to get your script read in Hollywood.
Let’s say you have written a great query that has somehow got my attention and I have asked to read your script (which is very rare but it does happen).
The next step is I send you a submission release form to sign and send back with your script. That should be the easiest part.
However, the worst thing you can do is send me an email saying you don’t want to sign the submission release as is and want to make changes. When I get emails like that, it is very simple. I will not read your script.
It could be the best script in the world. But if you are the type of person who is squabbling over the language of the submission release form, you are not the kind of client I want to work with.
Because at the end of the day, if you are worried about somebody stealing your ideas, you will never make it in this town. Yes, there are unscrupulous people who might steal your ideas but they are few and far between. (Because the only way for people to get material is to treat writers well. Otherwise a bad reputation will result and these people won’t get any material.) Most of the managers, producers and executives treat writers well because that is the currency these people live and die on.
But, also, ideas are out there. And every idea under the sun has been thought of. What makes your project different is the execution and your voice. No one can steal that. So don’t be afraid of people trying to steal your work.
If you deal with people who have good reputations you usually have nothing to be worried about besides writing the best script you can.
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