On Other Blogs

The Big Pitch

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Screenwriter Craig Mazin has some excellent advice on pitching. Here’s an example:

First, understand what it is that you’re pitching.  You’re not pitching a script.  You’re not pitching a story.

You’re pitching a movie. Don’t give me that blank
look. You’ve already done it. Ever see a movie and then have someone
ask you to describe it? That’s movie pitching.

What you want to do is achieve the same effect with the producer or exec.  You want them to believe that you have already seen a great movie, and you’re just telling them about it.

Craig’s pointers also work for pitching a series. But there’s one thing he doesn’t bring up. Be flexible. Be prepared to get, and consider, the input of the person you’re pitching to.  Today we pitched a series to a major production company. The exec we were pitching on got hooked on one aspect of the pitch and said, basically, how would you feel if you just went with that one aspect and tossed the rest? And, what if we added this extra element?

And you know what? It was a damn good idea. We jumped on it. And so did the exec, who is now as invested in the idea as we are and taking it to his superiors with enthusiasm. Will it go anywhere? Who knows. But it would definitely have gone nowhere with that company if we hadn’t been willing to consider other possibilities.

The Decline of the Western Writers of America

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For some time now, legendary western writer Richard S. Wheeler has been charting the demise of the western and, sadly, the preventable decline of the Western Writers of American (which should stand as a cautionary tale of what could happen to the Mystery Writers of America if we aren’t careful). On Ed Gorman’s blog, he notes that prominent agent Nat Sobel has resigned from the WMA as both its agent and as a member.

… it is
not hard to fathom why a successful New York agent would abandon the western
writers. For decades, WWA conventions were marketplaces in which New York
publishers, editors and agents gathered with solidly professional authors to do
business. That is how I got launched, and how many other western novelists got
going.

At the last convention, only one editor showed up, and he came
because one of his authors had won a Spur Award. When I first joined WWA in the
early eighties, there would be ten to twenty editors and publishers on hand, all
of them ready to do business, plus various agents, and often a few publishing
executives as well. Part of the reason they have vanished is that western lines
have shut down due to shifts of fashion. But there is more: A few years ago WWA
amateurized itself, at first covertly in defiance of its own membership bylaws
and then as a result of a bylaws amendment that permitted self-published authors
to join. That brought a flood of new members, so WWA is fat financially, but it also
meant that it was no longer a guild with clout in the publishing world or that
western literature was significant. Thus, Library Journal, diligent about
listing literary awards in other fields, no longer bothered to list Spur Awards.
What it also meant is the end of the western marketplace at WWA conventions.
Where once editors came to conventions to look for talent and good stories, now
they don’t come at all. It is pointless for them to show up.

I am a strong believer in limiting MWA membership to published mystery authors — and what’s happened to the WMA is a good example of the reasons why. Allowing self-published writers to become members diminishes the professional stature and legitimacy of the organization, not just among its members, but to the industry as a whole. This is going to make me very unpopular, but I also I believe associate memberships should be limited to people in the industry ( booksellers, editors, critics, publishers, etc).

Best Wishes to Ed Gorman

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Author, editor, and publisher Ed Gorman reports on his  must-read blog that he’s about to undergo radiation treatment in his battle against cancer.

I noted a while back that I wouldn’t be commenting on my health unless things
changed. I’m about to go through three five day weeks of radiation therapy. I’ll
work in the morning and have my radiation session in the afternoon. I’m hoping
to get 1,000 words a day done on my book so I don’t fall out of its rhythm. But
I won’t have the energy for the blog. So I’m doing Blog’s Greatest Hits, pieces
by contributor’s that I thought were particularly noteworthy. And if anybody
wants to submit anything original, I’ll be very grateful to run it. Thanks,
everybody.

So please send Ed your best wishes and if you’ve got some thoughts on publishing or the mystery genre, send him a post for his blog, too.

PublishAmerica Sued

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PublishAmerica is in more trouble. This time, they are being sued for trademark infringement by Encyclopedia Britannica. Sarah Weinman, subbing over at Galleycat, reports that the lawsuit filing includes lots of references to articles about PA’s questionable business practices.

Seems that PA has an imprint that they originally called PublishBritannica,
which is supposed to be the UK arm of their Vast Empire. But alas, PA didn’t
seem to understand the whole concept of trademark infringement…

There are LOTS of things the dimwits at PA don’t understand…

WGA Election Packet

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The fat WGA election packet arrived in the mail yesterday. I haven’t opened it yet. I’m dreading going through all the election material and reading all the statements. I haven’t made up my mind yet how to vote. This one isn’t easy. My friend Mark Evanier does a great job summing up the election over on his terrific blog.

If you’re not a WGA member, you’re missing out on the fun of seeing a
batch of articulate, dedicated people who essentially agree on almost
all the key issues waging a bloody battle against one another. Every
one of them is in favor of strengthening the guild, increasing
minimums, protecting and rebuilding the health insurance and pension
funds, extending WGA jurisdiction to non-covered areas like animation
and reality programming, etc. Still, in the guild, we never like to let
the fact that we’re all on the same side keep us from having a nice,
divisive fight…

…To the extent there is a difference of issues between the teams, it’s
that the "New WGA" crew wants to drastically increase the amount of
money the WGA spends on organizing efforts, getting non-guild TV shows
and movies under the guild umbrella, along with new technologies. The
"Common Sense" candidates endorse the goal but not the strategy,
arguing that the "New WGA" guys are looking at a very expensive
organizing model that might work for non-creative unions but won’t work
for writers.

Like Mark, I’m unlikely to vote for one of the slates but will pick individual candidates I agree with (he calls it the "Chinese Food" approach).

Explaining Yourself

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There’s some good screenwriting advice over at The Blank Page:

Okay, this is more of a pet peeve of mine, but I see it in scripts all the time. It comes from writers who think they have made a clever pun or (even worse) double entendre, and then, not trusting that the reader is getting the joke, they have to explain it in the next line of action-description. For example, you might see this:

                                 WALTER
  Hey, Jim, can you pass me the corn?

                                     JIM
   Of course I’ll lend you my ears.

Jim laughs at his little Shakespeare joke.

This reminded me of an experience we had years ago when Roger Corman hired us to write and produce a TV series version of LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS. Roger sold the pitch to the then-fledgling USA Network. When we wrote the pilot script, the inept USA exec asked us to underline the jokes and italicize any clever  social commentary. This really pissed Roger off  (us, too, but he was the lion in the room). Roger told her that if we had to explain what the jokes were then it would kill the jokes. But the executive argued that she really wanted to be sure she caught the jokes and might miss them if they weren’t clearly marked. After this horrible experience, Roger ran screaming from TV for the next decade…

Bookstore Humiliation

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TessblogDropping in at one of the big chain bookstores to sign stock is often a humbling and humiliating experience, even for bestselling authors like Tess Gerritsen.

"Whether you’re just starting out, or you’re already a NYT bestselling
writer, any delusions of grandeur you may harbor will quickly be
squashed by a few sobering bookstore visits…"

Her wonderful blog post today about her experiences signing stock in Honolulu is funny, horrifying and all-too-familiar.

The All-Important Rewrite

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Screenwriting class is in session over at Paul Guyot’s blog, where today he is talking about the importance of rewriting. Lots of aspiring screenwriters don’t give much thought… or effort…to rewriting. They focus all of their attention on having a killer opening. Mistake.

Nobody seems to want to learn to be a great writer anymore. They just want to
learn how to get paid to do it.

But what few seem to grasp is that you
seriously increase your chances of getting paid for it if you’re really good at
it. And one of the best ways to "get good" is to understand rewriting, and know
that when you think you’ve done all you can, you can still do more.

POD People

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The writing team that works under the bestselling nom-de-plume PJ Parrish is blogging today about self-publishing:

So why do I hate POD and SP so much? I hate the way they prey
on dreamers. I hate that they overinflate expectations. But what I really
hate is that they make it possible for people to think there are shortcuts,
ways of circumventing the craft, hard work and legitimate editorial process of
becoming a writer. Becoming…that’s the key word here folks. Like way
Tiger Woods became a great golfer. The way Renata Scotto
became a great soprano. The way your Uncle Morty becamea
doctor. Or the way your mom became a great cook.

Here is what set me off:

At a Mystery Writers of America meeting, a
woman asked, "Should I go POD?" I drew in a long breath so I wouldn’t start
screaming and spewing spittle. Then I asked her: "Do you want to publish a book
or do you want to have a career as a writer?" She looked at me like I was nuts
and said, "Well, the latter, of course!" So I told her: "Then do your homework,
learn the craft of writing, educate yourself about the market place and your
genre, submit your manuscript, get rejected, rewrite, rewrite again, throw out a
book and start over, do it all over again and again and again until you are a
legitimately published writer."

Wash, rinse and repeat. She walked away.
She didn’t want to hear it.

They never do.  Because that would require talent, dedication and hard work, which is a lot more effort than just writing a check.

News Views Schmooze

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You might have noticed two blogs on my blogroll with the same title…News, Views and Schmooze.  One belongs to mystery novelist Rochelle Krich, the other to writer/producer Bryce Zabel. Both are well worth a visit each day. Today, Rochelle talks about the common practice of auctioning off character names in books.

I’ve participated in four charity auctions and have named several
characters after real people. The challenge, as a writer, is forgetting
that the characters are, in fact, based on real people.

At Left Coast Crime in Pasadena, a fan bid successfully to make his wife a character in Grave Endings.
When the book came out, he threw a surprise party for his wife, who
joined me in signing copies of the book that her husband gave each
guest.

Today, Bryce talks about his experience seeing a one-night-only staging of CAMELOT at the Hollywood Bowl.

The entire time I sat in those incredible seats, however, my mind
kept wandering away from the music (which was above average), away from
the story (which was below average), away from the staging (which was
less than the usual school play) to thoughts of how unique this night
was.  All these talented people, all this effort, all for one night.

Or, as Arthur would describe Camelot, and Jackie would describe her husband’s administration — "one brief, shining moment."