Showing posts with label getting to yes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label getting to yes. Show all posts

Sunday, July 10, 2011

You Could Write a Book

I lived through a horrific and fascinating event. Various people have encouraged me to translate my reality into a book or movie. My occupation is in IT leadership, and I am by no means suited to write a book or screenplay; however, I would like to get the story out. What should I do?
To get a movie made out of your life, or some events in your life, you will realistically have to write a book. Producers option books, and they option newspaper stories that are in the headlines, but they don't usually option someone's life story unless it has already attracted attention.

Are you sure you're not cut out to write a book? I know a book seems kind of daunting, but if you break it down into chapters, and then pages, they're not that hard to write. Write one page a day, or five pages every weekend, and in a year, you have a book.

But if that seems too daunting, there are various writers out there that specialize in helping people tell their stories. They used to be called ghost writers, but these days they usually get a credit on the book ('as told to') since it turns out no one really expects celebrities and such to write their own books.

Once your book is a bestseller, the movies will come knocking.

Of course there is no guarantee that your book will become a bestseller. But you can hire a publicist and/or marketing people to push it. Your publisher, if you get a good one, might do this, but generally publishers expect authors to do most of the work marketing their book. Try to avoid self-publishing as many venues look down on self-published books. Having a legit novelist working with you will help.

If you want to hire a novelist to co-write a book with you, I can ask around what that would cost. It would depend of course on who, and whether you want them to do all the heavy lifting, or are willing to really collaborate.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Where's the Fire?

Sometimes you have a great conversation with a producer or network exec, and you promise to send them something right away. Then you get a bunch of ideas. But you promised it right away!

Don't worry about being speedy. Unless you're in production, or the producer specifically mentioned wanting to read something before an important meeting with a potential buyer, the only deadline is in your head.

Make the piece as good as you can. If you like, shoot the producer an email saying, "I know I promised you this thing, but talking with you gave me some great new ideas, so I'll send it as soon as I'm done revising." 99% of the time the producer's reaction is: great.

They are probably not in a hurry to read your stuff. They may take two or three weeks to read it. So why rush to get it in?

It is not the speed of delivery, but the sheer quality of your work, that sets it apart from the vast pile of ordinary, unproduced material.

Everybody wants to read the best version of your pitch or spec, so take your time and make it as good as you possibly can. Even if that's just 5% better, it may be that last 5% that pushes it out of the "hmmm" pile into the "yes!" pile.

So take your time, get comments from your readers/friends/cronies, and send it in when it's ready. If you can make it better, you will lose nothing, and possibly gain everything, from the delay.