Max Allan Collins and me (or is it "I?" I really should learn how to WRITE) are pleased to announce the formation of The International Association of Media Tie-in Writers
(IAMTW)
Please forward the information below to anyone you think might be interested.
What is a Tie-In Writer?
We write science fiction, westerns, mysteries, romance and thrillers and sometimes all of the above. Our work embraces just about every genre you can think of, from STAR TREK to CSI, from GUNSMOKE to MURDER SHE WROTE, from DUNE to James Bond, from RESIDENT EVIL to Lizzie McGuire.
Our books are original tie-in novels, comic books and short stories based on existing characters from movie, TV series, books, games, and cartoons… or they are novelizations (books based on screenplays for movies and TV shows).
Tie-ins and novelizations are a licensed works… meaning they are written with the permission and supervision of the creators, studios, or other rights-holders of the original characters.
Well-known tie-in writers include Kingsley Amis, Kevin J. Anderson, Raymond Benson, Gregory Benford, Lawrence Block, Davd Brin, Greg Bear, Max Brand, Orson Scott Card, Leslie Charteris, Arthur C. Clarke, Max Allan Collins, Peter David, Ian Fleming, Alan Dean Foster, John Gardner, Elizabeth Hand, Stuart Kaminsky, David Morrell, Robert B. Parker, Robert Silverberg, Theodore Sturgeon, and Jim Thompson to name just a few.
Our books are published by the major publishing companies, are available everywhere, sell tens of millions of copies worldwide and regularly appear on the New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists… but the actual craft of tie-in writing goes largely unrecognized and is
greatly misunderstood.
The International Association of Media Tie-In Writers will change all that.
Why the IAMTW?
Tie-writers and their work are often overlooked andunder-appreciated by existing organizations like the Mystery Writers of America, Science Fiction Writers of America, and the Romance Writers of
America, even though some of their most respected members work in the field. Tie-ins represent a huge percentage of the books published each year, they are enormously successful and are widely
enjoyed by readers. And yet we have no organization that represents our unique business and professional interests nor acknowledges excellence in our field.
Until now. Until the IAMTW. The name itself is a declaration of pride in what we do: I AM a Tie-in Writer. We say it with pride because we are very proud of what we do and the books we write.
The IAMTW is dedicated to enhancing the professional and public image of tie-in writers…to working with the media to review tie-in novels and publicize their authors…to educating people about who we are and what we do….and to providing a forum for tie-in writers to share information, support one another, and discuss issues relating to field (via a monthly e-newsletter, our website, and our active yahoo discussion group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/novelscribes/)
Our members include authors active in many other professional writer organizations (MWA, PWA, WGA, SFWA, etc.) and who bring those unique perspectives to their work for their fellow tie-in writers.
Every major industry has an award for excellence in their field…not just books, movies, records, and TV show. Awards are a demonstration that people take pride in their work and strive to constantly do better. Respect from ones peers is important…and, up until now, tie-in writers haven’t even been able to enjoy that, despite our impressive sales. Our Scribe Awards will celebrate excellence in our craft and, at the same time, draw attention to tie-in writers among publishers, booksellers and readers.
Who Qualifies for Membership?
You do if you’ve written licensed fiction based on a TV show, motion picture, computer game, stage play, comic book (or strip), radio serial or other dramatic work as long as you were paid for it and it has been published (or is about to be). The membership committee will determine, on a case-by-case basis, what qualifies as "other dramatic work" (for instance, a series of books based on a toy or doll).
It doesn’t matter whether you’ve written forty novels or one short story, whether it was published last week or thirty years ago, you qualify for membership as long as you were paid for your licensed work and it was published (or is about to be).
Fanfiction does not qualifty.
The Scribe Awards and How You Can Enter
The IAMTW will present SIX AWARDS in THREE CATEGORIES for books (& comic books and graphic novels) published in 2005. We will also honor one “Grandmaster” for career achievement in the field.
SPECULATIVE FICTION (Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror)
BEST NOVEL (adapted) – A novelization based on an existing screenplay, whether it’s a feature film,
episodic teleplay, video game script, or play.
BEST NOVEL (original) – An original novel using pre-existing characters from a movie, television series, video game, play, or an existing series of novels (ie new novels extending an existing literary franchise, ie DUNE, James Bond, etc.)
SUSPENSE FICTION (Mysteries, Thrillers, Suspense)
BEST NOVEL (adapted)
BEST NOVEL (original)
BEST YOUNG ADULT (All Genres.)
BEST NOVEL (adapted)
BEST NOVEL (original)
GRANDMASTER (For Career Achievement)
Judging committees are made of up three your peers from within the organization, writers who know what tie-in writers face, because they are tie-in writers themselves. The judges will read all the submissions in their category and select both the nominees and the winners (a system patterned after
the Mystery Writers of America and the Private Eye Writers of America among others).
Books may be submitted by members and/or editors. Authors are limited to one submission in each category, though they may enter as many categories as they wish.
A judge aware of a good book in that category cannot nominate that book without submission, but
it’s fair for a committee member, through the award chairperson, to contact the appropriate author/editor and suggest/request submission. (Obviously, authors serving as judges can’t submit books in the categories they are judging)
Details on where, and how, to submit your work will be announced soon.
Current Officers
The IAMTW was co-founded by Max Allan Collins and Lee Goldberg, who serve as President and
Vice-President respectively.
MAX ALLAN COLLINS, an MWA "Edgar" nominee in both fiction and non-fictioncategories, has earned fourteen PWA "Shamus" nominations for his historical thrillers, winning for his Nathan Heller novels, True Detective (1983) and Stolen Away (1991). His graphic novel Road to Perdition is the basis of the Academy Award-winning film starring Tom Hanks; a prose sequel, Road to Purgatory, was published by Morrow in 2004. His many comics credits include "Dick Tracy"; "Ms. Tree"; "Batman"; and "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," based on the hit TV series for which he has also written video games, jigsaw puzzles, and a USA TODAY-bestselling series of novels. An independent filmmaker in his native Iowa ("Mommy," "Shades of Noir"), he and his writer wife Barbara frequently collaborate, sometimes under the name Barbara Allan.
LEE GOLDBERG is a two-time “Edgar” nominee whose many TV writing and/or producing credits include Martial Law, Spenser: For Hire,, Diagnosis Murder, The Cosby Mysteries, Hunter, Nero Wolfe, Missing and Monk. He’s also the author of many books, including My Gun Has Bullets, Beyond the Beyond, Unsold TV Pilots, Successful Television Writing, The Walk, The Man With The Iron-On Badge, as well as the Diagnosis Murder and Monk series of paperback originals.
How To Contact the IAWTW
IAMTW
PO Box 8212
Calabasas, CA 91372.
Email tieinwriters@yahoo.com
Website:
To Join:
Send a check for $35 for your annual dues, payable to “I.A.M.T.W,” to PO Box 8212, Calabasas, CA 91372.membership application will be posted on the website… as soon as its up-and-running. In the mean time, please include with you check a letter with your NAME, ADDRESS, EMAIL ADDRESS, PHONE
NUMBER and the TITLE, PUBLISHER and PUB DATES of some of your most recent licensed tie-in work. You will receive a letter from the membership committee notifying you of your acceptance.
What, no psuedo-associate, wanna-be, reader types? Damn, I miss out on all the fun.
No room for the fans…..
If you can add game-related tie-ins to that list, I’m in. By games, I mean tabletop (noncomputer) games, like Dungeons & Dragons, Warhammer, etc. Books from Dragonlance or the Forgotten Realms (both based on D&D worlds) often make the NYT Best Seller’s list and have led this established form of tie-in writing for decades.
It is I.
Kitty’s right. The trick to figuring out me or I is to say the sentence without the other people in it. Me started. I started. Which sounds right? 90% of the time, that’s the right answer.
Congrats! I’m sure there is a lot of hard work behind this. And considering some of the tie-ins I’ve read, you all deserve some more recognition.
Heck, maybe this will get me reading more tie-ins. (Like I need more books to read.)
Mark
“I are pleased to announce” or “me are pleased to annouce.” Both sounded wrong.
Obviously you’d change the verb. I am pleased to announce. Me is pleased to announce. Now which sounds wrong.
(You’re as much of a smart aleck as me is.)
Mark
After watching SFWA and other orgs bash media tie-in writers for years, I am really happy to see this happening. You all deserve recognition and fair-minded promotion. Might as well do it yourselves.
I’ll second Matt Forbeck’s suggestion to include game tie-in novels. I’m really pleased to see the formation of an organization like this!
You might want to consider adding another category to the awards or amending your description of “original” – in game tie-in work at least, a lot of novels deal with original rather than pre-existing characters (the settings and other IP originate with the company).
(Shame on me – nitpicking within hours of the announcement)
We have a number of members already who write books based on games and the consensus seems to be that they would easily fall into one of the existing categories.
As someone who probably read dozens of media tie-in novels as a teenager (including — I swear — the novelization of the movie version of “Grease,” complete with lyrics), I think it’s high time for such a group.