Time to Write

An inspirational tale from the slush pile (could it be you next?)

Here’s one of those inspirational stories of a writer discovered from the slush pile: Cumbrain Police Constable Matt Hilton has signed an £800,000 contract for five novels. The first one is “Dead Man’s Dust,” to be published in June 2009, with more featuring his character, Joe Hunter, to be issued every six months.

Agent Luigi Bonomi brokered the deal and revealed that the manuscript was actually discovered and championed by his thriller-loving wife.

Now, in reality, these big multi-book contracts often depend on the success of the first segment of the deal, so if his first book tanks, it’s not likely he’ll see that £800,000. But with that much money at stake, the publishers will do everything within their power to make a big success of the first novel.

(There are tips on writing scripts at www.yourwritingcoach.com and of course in the YOUR WRITING COACH book, published by Nicholas Brealey. You can also get a free monthly Brainstorm e-bulletin just by sending an email request to [email protected].)

Sneak peek at a "lost" script (Michael Chabon)

McSweeneys has posted the screenplay that Michael Chabon (“The Yiddish Policemans Union”) wrote for Spiderman 2. Ultimately he got only a story co-credit along with Miles Millar and Alfred Gough, with sceenplay credit going to Alvin Sargent and source material credits to Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. If you’re curious, you can see Chabon’s Spiderman 2 version here. (I’m not sure how long it will be up on that site, so if it’s gone by the time you click—sorry!)

(For tips and techniques for being more productive and creative, sign up for my free monthly Brainstorm e-bulletin--just send an email request to [email protected].)

How to Get to Make a $20 Million Film

Elliot Grove, who founded and runs the excellent Raindance film organisation, wrote an article about Hollywood's four biggest lies.

Number 4 is that the film industry makes film-maker deals. Actually it makes money deals. He says film-makers often want to make a $20 million picture right away. The way to get to make a $20 million picture is to first make a $2 million picture that is profitable. The way to get make a $2 million picture is to make a $200,000 picture that is profitable. The way to get to make a $200,000 picture is to make a $20,000 picture that is profitable...

I think that lesson applies to a lot more than just movies. Elliot teaches a "Lo-To-No Budget Filmmaking" class at Raindance. For more information check out raindance.co.uk.

(There's also information about writing films and other stuff at my site, www.timetowrite.com. Go have a look!)

Are You Writing the New Hero?

I was lecturing recently in Terrassa, Spain, at a program called "Four Corners," for recent film school graduates. Very nice people, but the city was once a center of industry and is struggling to reinvent itself (the promotional pamphlet says it is "the city of chimneys and mills"...I'm not sure that's going to make people flock there).

Anyway, it was good while there to catch up with scriptwriter and author Tony Macnabb. His lecture was on "Heroes and Villains." Pointing to series like "The Shield" and "Dexter," Tony says:

"We have always liked edgy characters such as maverick cops, spooks, and psychopaths--in fiction and on feature films. Ruthless and amoral characters are not new. But our complicity with them is. It's one thing to have someone like this as the hero of a novel or a movie. Quite another to make them the returning hero of a TV series...Now we want them in our living rooms, week after week, pursuing our enemies, telling us we're as powerful and dangerous as our enemies are."

He adds, "They are not anti-heroes, ironic challenges to our moral certainties, but anti-anti-heroes, doing what has to be done in a dangerous new world where morality is being redefined and new myths constructed."

Whether or not you think this re-defining of morality is a good thing--and personally I don't--Tony makes a good point: "In popular culture, supply follows demand." That's as true of heroes as of energy drinks or mp3 players.

(Tony Macnabb and Tony Bicat are the co-authors of "Creative Screenwriting--A Practical Guide." In the UK, it's available from Play.com, among others.)

Watch and Learn from Author Interviews

Borders’ BookZone website has now gone live, featuring interviews with more than 100 authors, divided into sections devoted to fiction, non-fiction, children’s and also special features, reader reviews, and competitions.

It’s a good place to see what works and doesn’t work in terms of how authors present their work. A good example is Ben MacIntyre doing a 6 minute interview about his non-fiction book, “Agent Zigzag.” He tells the story simply and entertainingly and makes me curious about the book.

(for free monthly tips for being more creative and productive, subscribe to our Brainstorm e-bulletin--just send an email request to [email protected])

A New Model for Books & Authors?

A new model may be emerging for the book business. Bob Miller (founder of Hyperion publishing) is starting a new unit at Harper-Collins that will pay no advance but will share profits 50-50 with writers. It will also pay more attention to online marketing. The catch is that they will deal only with writers who already have a major track record. That cuts down the risk for the publisher but it seems to me that new authors are exactly who should be offered this kind of deal—that way, publisher and author would be sharing the risk and the reward. Maybe the reason they don’t want to do it is that these days advances are so low already that they’re not much of a factor. Still, if this works, it may spread eventually, and if they show the way to innovative online strategies, that will be something we less well-known authors may be able to copy.

The Secret of Book Success - Celebrity Edition

More evidence that we all have to get onto a game show (or otherwise turn into celebrities somehow): Virgin Books is paying “a substantial six-figure sum” for world rights to the autobiography of “Dragon’s Den” judge James Caan…Transworld Publishing has also paid “a substantial six-figure sum” for a book by girl band “Girls Aloud.” TV hosts Ant and Dec” have signed a deal for over two million pounds for their autobiography. In a recent seminar, George Ross (pictured, left) Donald Trump’s sidekick on “The Apprentice” told attendees that for 40 years he toiled in obscurity, but now he helps Trump tell some nice kids “you’re fired” and suddenly he’s mobbed wherever he goes. And of course he’s written a book…

Agents Lazy? Surely not...

Speaking at a seminar called “Winning the Non-fiction Battle,” sponsored by The Bookseller, agent David Miller said “Agents are going to have to get less lazy so they are thinking about podcasts and online, and engaging more with the world of the rights director.”

Of course the same applies to writers—because ‘lazy’ publishers’ first impulse will be to take all rights to your work, forever, in whatever format, often with no additional compensation, and unless you or a not-lazy agent are alert to the implications of this, you will end up with a contract that fails to protect you.

The moral of the story: we all have to stop being lazy about new media.

Book piracy--crisis?

Ben Hoyle reports in the (London) Times that the UK Society of Authors forecasts that book piracy on the internet will ultimately drive authors to stop writing unless radical methods are devised to compensate them for lost sales.

The article says, “The internet is awash with unlicensed free digital copies of individual chapters or in some cases entire books. Prominent victims of book piracy include Jamie Oliver and J. K. Rowling but the most vulnerable writers are less well-known poets, authors of short stories and writers of cookery books.”

I can attest to the fact that you don’t need to be famous to be a victim: I found a complete copy of my “Your Writing Coach” book online as an unauthorized PDF. I asked the hosting site to take it down and they did, but it reappeared within a few days with a slightly different file name. Once again I demanded that it be removed, and it was, but this feels like a futile chase.

I also traced it to another site based in Russia, and they also removed it, although with the snide comment that they were doing me a favor as reading the book online probably would make people want to buy the hard copy (oh, sure).

I informed my publisher but they are pessimistic about being able to find any legal remedies when the hosting sites are in countries like Russia.

So I agree that we’re moving toward a crisis but one of the suggestions that the Society of Authors came up with, government funding of an academy of salaried writers, seems like a terrible idea. Isn’t that what they used to have in Eastern Europe? And having said all that, I don’t think there exists any force in man or nature that will actually stop writers from writing.

(for free monthly tips on being more creative and productive, sign up for our Brainstorm e-bulletin--just email a request to [email protected])

More Amazing Talks Online

This is part 2 of Richard Tierney's report from the TED talks meeting in Monterey recently:

One talk which I personally didn’t like, but almost everyone I spoke to admired, was by Wade Davies. His 2008 presentation is not yet online, but you can see a talk he gave a couple of years ago. He’s very unusual in being invited to speak at TED twice.

A big part of the event was the awarding of the three annual TED prizes, this is where three individuals are given an award of $100,000 plus (and this is the big bit) the support of the TED community in realising some dream. There’s a related web site of the three winners this year.

Two really appealed to me;
Karen Armstrong and Dave Eggers. Oh now I feel guilty for leaving out the third: Neil Turrok.

There were also about 50 shorter presentations – less than 3 minutes each which I found more variable in quality, but also showed the difference between the accomplished presenters and those less familiar with the stage. I’ve not seen these online at all so I’ll be interested to see if I get copies of them.

Two more talks which are online already are Craig Venter, who talks about creating artificial life, but manages to avoid the “acting as god” accusation. I was inspired.

The World Wide Telescope is a new product from Microsoft and it’s a kind of Google Earth for the stars, although I’m sure Microsoft would hate my using the G word. The demo on the video really does not do it justice, so listen to the talk and then go play when it comes live in a couple of months.

Finally, when they come online watch out for Chris Abani, Nassim Nicholas Taleb (some didn’t like him – I did), Paul Stamets, and most especially Richard Preston when they come on line. I remarked to another delegate that if Richard Preston’s talk about the forest canopy above the redwood trees in Northern California had been on at my local town hall I probably would not have gone, yet in the TED environment I sat transfixed by his description of a climb with his children over three days; yes they slept in the trees. Magical!

Thanks, Richard.

And if you'd like a monthly dose of ideas about how to be more creative and productive, sign up now for our Brainstorm e-bulletin--just send an email request to [email protected].

Finally, a good book promo video

Most of the book promo videos I've seen up to now have been pretty bad: cheesy low-budget attempts to dramatize portions of the book or a nervous author with deer-in-the-headlights eyes trying to summarize the book in a minute.

Here's an exception, a video for an unusual new book by Daniel Pink, called The Adventures of Johnny Bunko--it's career advice, manga style. Have a look, see what you think.

(PS: You know you could be more creative and productive, if only somebody reminded you how. All you have to do is sign up now for my free monthly Brainstorm e-bulletin--send an email request to [email protected].)

The best and shortest advice ever on character & plot

Here's the best and shortest advice on character and plot ever given. It was novelist Joseph Wambaugh ("The Onion Field") talking about cop books, but you could apply it to any genre:

"The best crime stories are not about how cops work on cases but about how cases work on cops."

(For tips and techniques for how to be more creative & productive, sign up for my free monthly Brainstorm e-bulletin. Just send an email request to: [email protected])

Amazing talks online

My friend Richard Tierney attended this year's TED Conference, which features amazing speakers on a variety of subjects--each one gets 20 minutes to share their insights. I asked him to be a guest on this blog, to point you to some of the best presentations to watch at the Ted site. Here is part one of his report:

I’ve been a big fan of the TED Talks site ever since Jurgen first sent me a link to Ken Robinson’s talk on how schools kill creativity.

Since then I’ve probably watched on of the talks online a couple of times each week. My favourites include Eva Vertes on a possible cure for cancer and Malcolm Gladwell on Spaghetti Sauce (trust me) and Richard Branson.

So my flight to Denver was filled with anticipation, but also the question, “Why am I paying so much money to watch something I could see for free?”

There is something about watching in a group which alters the experience, I remember turning to the woman next to me at the end of Jill Taylor’s speech and saying nothing, but exchanging a “Fucking Hell!” kind of look which said it all, and over the four days we returned to the subject several times. Of the talks which are now online, the standout for me was this remarkable story of brain damage as seen from the inside. She not only had a wonderful piece of insight, she had the training to interpret her experience and the story telling skills to share it with others. Quite a combination.

As an attendee I will get sent a full set of the videos, some told me they had an event a couple of months after TED when they show DVDs of their favourite speeches to a room full of people. That’s something I might do. It’s also – naturally - about the people you meet. One person I met was Jill Souble which meant I took a look at her performance from a couple of years ago once I returned. Sadly her co-performer Julia was unable to attend this year.

(More to come soon from Richard...)

If you'd like a monthly dose of inspiration about being more creative and productive, sign up for my monthly Brainstorm e-bulletin--just send an email request to [email protected]

The Best Time to Write

When is the best time to write? Well, every writer has his or her favorite time and finding when you function best is a matter of trial and error. Kate Furnivall, the author of The Russian Concumbine (published by Sphere) told Writing Magazine:

"I do much of my best writing in bed. It makes me sound bone-idle, but it actually gets the brain cells turning over early in the morning. All the unconscious stuff that has been churning in my head overnight can transfer to the page without being deflected by fiddling with the dishwasher or cleaning up the daily quota of mouse entrails deposited by the cat."

In case you're wondering how that works with the computer, she actually composes by hand first, then types and edits it in the evenings.

She says, "I often write seven mornings a week, plus three or four afternoons, depending on how close to a deadline I am."

If you want to find out more about her, see www.katefurnivall.com. And if you're finding it hard to get any writing done, play around with different times and locations until you find the ones that work best for you.

(For a monthly helping of tips and techniques for being more creative and productive, just send an email request to [email protected])

Rejections for Your Writing--Look at these numbers

On her website, sci-fi/fantasy author Jennifer Pelland offers some useful advice for forging a writing career. One of the key points is be persistent, and to back this up she gives these stats from her own career:

I'm currently up to 242 short story rejections. I got my first one in 2001.

I received around 70 short story rejections before making my first sale.

I've only sold one story to the first market I tried with it

I sold one story to the 19th market I tried.

One of my favorite stories is at its 26th market

She’s had 30 stories and two novels published. Her latest is a collection of short stories called Unwelcome Bodies, and she has been nominated for the Nebula Award by the Science Fiction and Fantasy writers of America.

The next time you get discouraged by a rejection, take another look at those statistics (I know I will).

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