Time to Write

This is one author dedicated to selling his books! (330 visits...)

We all know that these days it’s up to authors to get involved in marketing their books and here’s an extreme example that it can work. Robert Dorr is the co-author of the book, “Hell Hawks! The Untold Story of the American Fliers Who Savaged Hitler’s Wehrmacht.”  He has made more than 330 visits to a small bookstore affiliated with the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum in Washington D.C., with signings lasting between 3 and 8 hours.

As reported in Publisher’s Weekly, he greets customers, tells them who he is and about his book. If they don’t show interest, he moves on quickly.

The result: over the course of less than two years, that shop near Washington Dulles airport has sold 13,200 copies of the book. That’s more than half the copies that have been sold in total.
 Of course if we figure out what Dorr’s hourly wage for this activity, it might not be that impressive, but I’m guessing maybe he’s retired.

(If you want ideas for how you'll market your writing, I suggest reading three of mine: "Your Writing Coach" published by Nicholas Brealey, and "Marketing for Entrepreneurs," published by Pearson, as well as "Do Something Different," published by Virgin Books. You'll have a treasure trove of traditional and guerrilla marketing ideas to help you turn your book into a best-seller--without having to do 330 signings).

Polanski's take on writing

Whatever you think of Roman Polanski's personal life and current legal problems, he's an interesting film-maker and it was fascinating to read how he approaches scripts. This quote is from an essay in the Sunday Times by Robert Harris, who wrote the novel and the screenplay,"The Ghost," which Polanski turned into a film. (I found the novel a bit thin--not in page numbers but in terms of creating a full sense of reality; it will be interesting to see how the film compares). Anyway, here's the quote:

"He thinks everything through from the perspective of the actor: what is in this character's head as he comes into a scene, and what is in that one's. The language, the visuals and the action are entirely subordinate to the logic of character.

He also warned me to beware of the commonest fault of screenwriters: cutting away from a scene just when it starts to get difficult. 'When it's difficult to write--that's when you know you've reached the interesting part.' "

When I've served as a script consultant, often I've found the same thing true of British and European writers (less so of American writers): they tend to cut away when the temperature of a scene is about to reach boiling point--which generally is what the audience wants to see. Maybe it's a fear of melodrama or sentimentality (which, admittedly, sometimes do plague American films).

(For help writing your novel or screenplay, see my book, "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon and other online and offline retailers. And if you want support in reaching your writing goals, join my Breakthrough Strategy online coaching program--details at www.jurgenwolff.com).

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