I read an interview with an agent in which she said there are some tip-offs that she's not dealing with a writer that knows what he or she is doing. One is using the term "fiction novel." A novel is, by definition, fiction, so referring to a fiction novel is like saying "a canine dog" or "a tall skyscraper."
That's why I was surprised to see this book on the Kindle Books site:
From the description: "You will learn how to understand the dramatic structure of a novel (both fiction and nonfiction), and all of the details in between."
Huh? What's a non-fiction novel?
One of the reviews says, "I only got a third of the way through before the incorrect word choices ("bare in mind", "the old barriers... ...is crumbling", "the same person playing every roll")".
There is also "the exact same book," "the imagination and visualization of our mind," and "Your mind places the exactly perfect faces and noses and eyes on the exactly perfect characters."
The author has some interesting ideas: "Reading is like running: like it or not we all have to do it. Everybody on this planet needs to be able to read. And everybody on this planet needs to be able to run. I'm pretty certain that if you are incapable of either of these things then your place in society is going to be decidely more uncomfortable."
I'd run from this book--and from using the term "fiction novel."
OTHER THINGS THAT TURN OFF AGENTS AND PUBLISHERS
* Query letters that assure them your book will be more popular than 50 Shades of Grey (or whatever is the best-seller at the moment);
* Assurances that your relatives and friends all think your book is great;
* The revelation that you intend to rewrite it but decided to send this version anyway;
* Ideas for merchandizing and spin-offs or your ideal casting for the movie version;
* Offering to pay more than the usual commission, or suggesting a cut in the usual commission.
(You'll find friendly guidance for writing your book in Your Writing Coach, published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)
Let's say you have a problem relating to your writing or selling what you write. You're stuck...now what?
I suggest a brainstorming activity I call, “How do THEY do it?”
First you think of somebody who does something that’s similar to—but not exactly the same as—whatever
you want to do. Then you look at what are the main things they do and translate
those back to what you’re trying to do.
For example, let’s say you have finished writing a book or
script and now you want to sell it. First let’s pick a “they.” Who sells stuff?
Well, salespeople. Let’s pick the kind of selling that probably is the most
daunting: door to door sales.
WHAT THEY DO
What do THEY do? Make a list of their key behaviours and attitudes:
They go from door to door, calling on many potential
customers in a day.
They come up with a first sentence or two that is designed
to capture the interest of the potential customer so the latter won’t slam the
door in their face.
They have a strong pitch that relates the product to the
needs of the potential customer.
They have answers ready for the most likely objections, such
as “I can’t afford it right now,” or “I’ll have to ask my spouse.”
They know that most people will say no, but that if they
persist, it’s likely some will say yes.
They listen to what the non-buyers say and adjust their
pitch accordingly for the next time they might make the sale. They learn from the no's.
WHAT WE CAN DO
Now what can we take away from that in terms of selling
our manuscript or script? What would be our equivalents to what "they" are doing?
One is that we would approach a number of agents or
publishers or producers, not one at a time. After all, a door to door salesperson
wouldn’t say, “Well, Mrs Miller said she’d think about it and let me know next
week, so I’ll just wait for her answer before I try next door.”
To get our foot in the door we would fashion a strong first sentence for our query
letter or our pitch, so we capture the interest of our potential customer.
We would think about what objections might come up—for
instance, maybe that it would cost too much to produce a certain script—and
we’d be ready with an answer. Maybe we could even build that information into the
pitch or the query letter itself to disarm the objection.
For instance, if you were pitching a novel right now that
features zombies, you’d want to be sure to explain very early in the letter or
pitch how it’s different from all the zombie stories out there at the moment.
We would not give up after the first few
rejections.
And we would listen to the feedback we get, and if several
potential customers point out the same issue, we’d fix it before moving on to
the next one.
That’s the “How do THEY do it?” strategy and you can
apply it to just about any process that you’re finding difficult.
MORE EXAMPLES
Having trouble building a story? Figure out how the people who build houses do it and translate that back to story-building.
Having problems with a story that seems too predictable but you don't know how to throw the reader off the scent? List how magicians deceive their audience and find out which strategies might work in your story.
Finding it difficult to come up with ideas? Find out how advertising agency people come up with them and apply them to your kind of story-telling.
By getting inspired by people and solutions outsideo of your field you will come up with fresh ideas, not imitations of what everybody else in yours is doing already.
(You'll find lots more creative ideas for solving writing problems and creating powerful stories, in my book Your Writing Coach. It's published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite book seller.)
Below is an item from a list written by an online marketer who calls himself Johnny B Truant.
The best moneymaking and success strategy is to be awesome. It’s amazing how many people fret about perfecting their marketing strategy when what they have to offer is total shit. Sure, marketing and SEO and positioning matter… but only once you are producing awesome stuff. No matter how many times we talk about marketing funnels or KDP Select promotion strategy on the podcast, the bottom-line advice always boils down to, “Keep writing awesome books that people love.” That philosophy applies to everything.
This resonates with me especially because I was approached recently to work on a book series that has a lot of promotional angles to it, but when I read the description of the actual content, it was terrible, so I declined.
It's easy to get so hung up on marketing--which certainly is important--that sometimes core quality gets lost. We have to remind ourselves that while hooks and gimmicks can help sell things, we have to be careful not to let the marketing dictate the content, or at least not to the point where it hurts the quality. This can be very hard when we are working for someone else so we owe it to ourselves even more to to do it when we do our own work.
(Want to learn how to focus and overcome procrastination? Get my book, "Focus: use the power of targeted thinking to get more done." It's published by Pearson and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)
If you're in London and want to learn screenwriting on the cheap, there's a great deal going from Groupon. You get a full day of instruction, including an optional chance to pitch and get feedback on your own idea and a networking session, for a mere £29. Here's the link (which is only active for another day):
It's usually taught by Elliot Grove of Raindance but this time the instructor is Jurgen Wolff...oh, that's me.
If you come, be sure to say hello during a break or at the networking session.
***
It's kind of annoying when writers get wrong things like using "literally" when they mean "figuratively" ("I literally screamed my head off"), but one I rather enjoyed the other day was an article advising that you could do two things in "one foul swoop." We've all had a foul swoop or two.
***
The other day this blog had 16,265 page views. Since this is considerably above the average, I was curious about the reason. Did some nugget of my wisdom about writing stimulate this frenzy?
Er, no. It turns out that reddit, which lists unusual facts, had linked to a post I did about how in the days of silent films one producer stimulated his writers by bringing in someone from the local insane asylum to throw in his or her ideas. I don't think that happens anymore, although some recent films seemed like they might have had that kind of input to their storylines...
There, we've caught up a little! Back to the usual format tomorrow.
In the previous posts we've looked at some big questions to ask youself about your future as a writer and as a person, and how to use the zero-based planning approach to help you come up with a powerful picture of how you want each of the parts of your life to be--regardless of how they are right now.
If you haven't yet written a dramatic and motivating description of how you'd like each part of your life to be, go back to the previous post and do that now. I suggested you THINK BIG and gave you some tips on how to do that. If that's still difficult for you, this true story may help:
Six years ago some young guys set out on a two-week road trip on which they wanted to achieve as many items as possible of the 100 on their "bucket list." It turned into a way of life for them, and they pledged that for each one they managed to do they would help someone else attain a goal important to that person.
Among the things they've done is being on the Oprah show, playing ball with President Obama, streaking a stadium, and making a $300,000 donation to charity. Their adventures are recounted in a book called "What Do You Want to Do Before You Die?"
One of the guys, Ben Nemtin, points out that most people aim for a realistic goal. They're afraid of failure, so they don't reach too far. The number of people aiming for the "unrealistic" goals are fewer. "Therefore," he writes, "not only do you statistically have a better chance of achieving what may seem like an unrealistic goal, doing so fuels you. Once you feel the first high of accomplishing something major and seemingly unattainable, you want to go bigger and badder, and you force yourself to fulfill the need all the more. Even better, the technically smaller goals suddenly seem less daunting."
Of course setting the goal is only the first step and wishing won't make it so. You have to take action, and the action also has to be big. A few suggestions:
* Study the behaviour of the people how have actually done whatever it is you want to do, not the people who just write about it. There are loads of self-help books by people telling you how to lose weight, get rich, have better relationships, etc. who haven't actually done it themselves.
* Dare to ask. Most people never even try to get advice or help from those who are successful in their field. They assume those people are too busy or wouldn't be interested in helping someone else. Often that's not the case.
* Be willing to allocate the resources necessary. Sometimes that's money, but often it's commitment to many hours of effort and not giving up when things get tough. This is why it's important to be sure that you want that goal enough. Some of these resources have a high price, not necessarily financially but in other ways. For instance, how deeply will this cut into the amount of time you have free to spend with family and friends? Will you still have time to exercise and get enough sleep?
* Understand that you can have it all, but not all at the same time. Sometimes people set three goals, any one of which would take total dedication. They will cancel each other out because you have only so much time and energy. Pick the one that is the most important to you. Sometimes achieving that one makes it easier to achieve your number two and number three goals.
* Treat failure" as a setback , not a reason to quit. If you think something is going to work and it doesn't, what's the lesson you can learn from it? Did it tell you something about what might work better? Give yourself a day or two to feel disappointed, then get moving on the next thing you'll try.
* Develop a thick skin. There's never any shortage of people who are happy to advise you (whether asked or not) that you're aiming too high, you'll never do it, you're wasting your time, etc. etc. If you're feeling gracious, say "Thank you, I'll keep that in mind." Then, unless there's something constructive in their comments, forget about them.
All of these are easier said than done. One big goal I felt strongly eough about to do all of these steps, was creating a career as a writer. There have also been big goals I've set and failed to reach (although in some cases I came close). The problem was never that they really were unattainable, it was that I didn't want them badly enough to make all the sacrifices required. There's nothing wrong with that, the only thing I regret is that sometimes it took me too long to come to that conclusion.
If you're ready to consider some Big Hairy Audacious changes for the better, congratulations! In the next post we'll see how to choose one goal and get moving on turning it into a reality.
(If your big goal is writing a book or screenplay, you'll find friendly guidance in my books, "Your Writing Coach" and "Your Creative Writing Masterclass," both published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)
Most people would say obviously a more modest goal is also more realistic.
Wrong! says writer Tim Ferris ("The 4-Hour Work Week"), but his answer isn't based on positive thinking or The Law of Attraction, but on facts.
He cites an experiment he did with two university classes. He said he would give a round-trip ticket to anywhere in the world to any student who could contact three seemingly impossible-to-reach people (Bill Clinton, Warren Buffet, anybody who fit into that category) and get at least one to respond.
Twenty heard the challenge. How many do you think completed it? Zero. Most didn't even try. They had various excuses, but Ferris said they boiled down to one: 'It's hard and one of the others is sure to do it better than me.'
The next year he told this story to a similar class. Knowing how the first class had failed gave this group the courage to try it. Of the 17 who took part, six got their answers within 48 hours.
Ferris writes, "99% of the world is convinced they are incapable of achieving great things, so they aim for the mediocre middle ground. The level of competition is thus fiercest for 'realistic' goals, paradoxically making them the most time- and energy-consuming. It is easier to raise $10million than it is $1million. It is easier to pick up the one perfect 10 in the bar than the five 8s."
He also points out that having a big goal motivates you more: "If the potential payoff is mediocre or average, so is your effort."
It's something to keep in mind as you set your writing or other creative goals for the coming year (and if it's a big goal, don't wait for January 1st to get started, the best time is right now!).
(One thing you need if you want to reach a big goal is focus. That also is the name and subject of my book: "Focus: use the power of targeted thinking to get more done." It's published by Pearson and you can get it from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)
Yes, it's possible to sell a script to Hollywood even if you don't live there. The steps that could lead to such a deal:
1. Write a great screenplay in one of the genres they favor (see the previous post). This spec script (meaning you're writing it on speculation--that is, for no money upfront) will be what opens doors for you. It has to be the best you can do.
2. The first set of door it must open is the one that leads to getting a US agent to represent you. Some UK agents do have arrangements with US agencies so it's possible to get in that way, but it adds another layer.
Most of the bigger agencies say they don't look at unsolicited scripts. That means you have to find a way around that, either by getting their attention with a great query letter in which you offer to sign a release form, or getting a recommendation via a writer they already represent, or by some clever strategum you figure out yourself.
(For help with inspiration, see my book "Do Something Different," published by Virgin Books--it's not about writing but it contains 100 case studies of how people used clever, inexpensive ways to market themselves and their products, and you could adapt some of those to this situation.)
3. Tell the agent you frequently go back and forth between wherever you are and Los Angeles (that's where the agent should be, ideally). This will make him or her less hesitant about setting up meetings with you and any of the producers who show interest in your script. Be ready to finance that first trip yourself.
4. Don't assume that once you have an agent everything will be done for you. You still need to educate yourself about who is buying what, who is who at the studios and production companies, etc. Variety and the Hollywood Reporter, although both suffering in the current shift away from print advertising, are still your best bets for US information. Keep the agent informed of any initiatives you plan to undertake yourself--it has to be a partnership. The agent doesn't want to be embarrassed by approaching someone on your behalf only to find you've already been there and got a rejection.
5. Finally, you need a load of good luck and good timing.
What kinds of scripts are the Hollywood studios looking for?
How much hope is there for a newer writer to sell a script there or get hired
to write one?
Long-time movie critic David Denby recently revealed his view on the subject in the
New Yorker:
“The six major studios want to make three kinds of
movies. They want to make blockbusters costing a hundred and fifty million
dollars and up (with another fifty to a hundred million dollars spent on
promotion)—that is, films that are based on comic books, video games, and
young-adult novels. These movies mostly feature angry pixels contending in the
dead air—action sequences of total physical abandonment and virtually total
meaninglessness, in which nothing imprints itself on your memory except the
experience of being excited.
They want to make animated features for families, some
of which—especially the ones from Pixar—are very good.
And they want to make genre movies—thrillers, chick
flicks, romantic comedies, weekend-debauch movies (female as well as male),
horror movies.”
There you have it. It confirms my feeling that writers
interested in making solid dramas and non-slapstick comedies will increasingly find their future in digital, lower-budget films
that will be distributed mainly via the internet, as well as HBO, Showtime, and some of the other cable outfits. Here in the UK, some recent changes in the tax laws should help free up some investment in independent films.
Next post: CAN YOU SELL TO HOLLYWOOD WITHOUT LIVING THERE?
Marketing your writing isn't a sprint, it's a marathon. If you're writing articles or scripts, you have to sell only once, to a publisher or producer. If you're writing books, you have to sell twice: to a publisher and then to your target readers (or directly to the latter if you're self-publishing). Marketing to readers isn't a one-time thing, you have to keep at it in order to keep your book selling.
Persistence is important, but only if you're persisting with things that work. Here are some tips on what to do:
1. Keep an open mind. Certainly be aware of what has worked for others, but don't assume it will work the same way for you. Be willing to try anything legal and ethical.
2. Whenever possible, measure the results of each thing you do. For instance, you can easily monitor how many people are visiting your web site, how much time they spend on it, and what they look at while they're there.
Don't forget, though, the one key metric is how many books you are selling.
If ten thousand people download your free sample chapter, but only ten of those order the book, that's not a success. If only 1000 people visit your website that's not a failure, either--if half of them order your book.
3. Do more of what works. If we have two methods, one of which works well and one of which doesn't, our impulse is to spend more time trying to improve the one that doesn't. This isn't the best use of your time. Instead, find ways to do more of the thing that's working, and drop the one that isn't. Add another method and see how well that works in comparison to the one that's giving you the best results currently. If it does better, make that your new number one priority.
4. Don't get bored with what works. Have you noticed that some ad campaigns run for year after year without any changes? That means they're still working. Because you're a creative person you may find yourself getting bored with the look of your website or the wording of your sales page. Your impulse will be to change them just for the sake of change. However, while you should always be testing new methods, don't replace anything that's working until you find something else that works better. Just because you are bored with your materials, that doesn't mean your target audience is.
5. Listen to your customers. Most of them won't bother to communicate with you, but pay attention to the ones that do, whether their feedback is positive or negative.
If it's negative, what can you do to make them happy? There's nothing worse than an unhappy customers going around trashing your brand or your products, so try hard to satisfy them. Are some of them unreasonable? Certainly. Should you have to cater to their whims or unreasonable demands? There's no "should", there's only reality. Unless they demand something totally out of the question, it is better to go the extra mile to satisfy them. Then consider whether their complaint contains any useful information for what you might change or add or subtract from your product or service.
If the feedback is positive, brainstorm how you can build on whatever features they like best, and how to make other potential customers aware of these positive points. Be sure to thank people who compliment you or your product. Ask them whether they are OK with you using their feedback as a testimonial, or ask them to write a review on Amazon or other sites.
This completes my series of ten "must-do" marketing tips for writers, but I'll be returning to this topic frequently. To be sure not to miss any of the posts, please subscribe to this blog. You may also want to get my book, Marketing for Entrepreneurs. It's published by Pearson and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.
Reality shows are getting less real all the time. Often it's obvious that there are scripted elements--sometimes it is a fairly light intervention, other times the participants are coaching in how to create conflict, sometimes they're even told what to say and the show may involve actors posing as real people. The Writers Guild of America has won the right to represent such writers (often called "producers" rather than writers in the credits because they don't want to let the audience know how much the supposedly real events are manipulated).
Despite the popularity of such formats, there hasn't been a lot written about how these series come about, which I why I was delighted to find a great series of videos by Mark Cronin, founder and producer of Mindless Entertainment (the name of his company shows he has a good sense of humor…).
In the video below (about 12 minutes long), he answers the basic questions you are likely to have about the business of reality shows: what networks look for, what the production company does, creative control (or lack thereof), some trends in funding, and what qualities a good reality show producer should have. I'm not particularly interested in working in this genre but I still found his information interesting.
In tomorrow's post I'm featuring Cronin explaining how pilots are made.
