My Blog

I sent an email to my editor the other day, listing the events I’ve got scheduled to promote my book and the ones in the works. He wrote me back saying how pleased and impressed he was that I was working so hard to support the book.

I can’t imagine an author who wouldn’t do the same thing… but, apparently, there are.

The way I look at it, writing the book is only half the job… you have to sell it to. Unless you’re already a bestselling author, or can afford a high-powered publicist, you have to go out there and sell yourself.

A lot of people cringe at the idea. Sell myself? How tacky.

The idea of promoting yourself, of actually selling your work, can make some authors hyperventilate.

But if you want your books to sell, you have to write booksellers, call booksellers, go out and meet booksellers… months before your novel actually comes out. You need to convince them, first and foremost, the stock your book… and then, perhaps, invite you in for a signing.

If you’re a new author, or a mid-list author like myself, you probably ask yourself why anyone would bother booking you for a signing. Who the hell is going to come to see me? I’m not Elmore Leonard.

But I learned a valuable lesson years ago… it’s not the books you sell at your signing that counts, but the books that are sold in the days and weeks after you leave. And you can’t beat the advertising a signing gives your books… without an event scheduled, you’re just six copies, spine out, on a shelf among thousands of other titles in the store. If the store is having you for a signing, you get a highly visible display of dozens of books, cover out, for days in advance of your appearannce… as well as days afterward. Think of it as in-store advertising. You will stand out in a way you wouldn’t without booking the event, whether a single person shows up or not. More importantly, you will get to know the bookseller who, if you’re lucky, will like you and your novel enough to recommend it to shoppers ie “hand-sell” it to customers.

I did a signing once where no one showed up… I sat in the store for two hours chatting with the owners and signed all the stock. A month later, they drop-shipped another box of books for me to sign… they’d sold out of their stock. (Of course, you want people to show up… that’s the best thing of all!)

It isn’t enough to simply schedule a signing… you have to let people know it’s happening. You need to promote yourself as well as sell yourself. Especially now, in this rough publishing climate. That means sending out mailings… establishing a website… and sending out press releases.

You also need to just get out there and network… that means going conventions, book festivals, and events in your genre (MWA events if you’re a mystery writer, for example).

Of course, you can go to far… and get the rep as a blatant self promoting whore. It’s a fine line… but one any writer who hopes to stay in print has to walk.

Rob Long is a sitcom writer who also wrote the amusing novel CONVERSATIONS WITH MY AGENT a few years back. Now’s he’s got a radio gig that could be very interesting for folks curious about the TV biz…

New commentators during the NPR’s All Things Considered & Weekend Edition.

June 2nd, meet veteran TV writer Rob Long. Each week he’ll share a behind-the-scenes look at Hollywood life with Martini Shot — a four-minute weekly commentary heard during KCRW’s broadcast of NPR’s All Things Considered. It will air Wednesdays at 6:44 pm, beginning June 2nd. Rob Long’s career began as a writer on the long-running TV sitcom, “Cheers” and he served as co-executive producer in its final season. He production company is currently based at Paramount Studios. He’s a contributing editor of National Review, and Newsweek International and writes occasionally for the Wall Street Journal.

I’m fascinated by flop pilots…I have been since I was nine, when I started writing my book UNSOLD TELEVISION PILOTS. That fascination hasn’t ended now that I’m an adult and in the business myself. Zap2it was kind enough to do an overview of some of the high-profile unsold pilots this season…

“Jessica” (ABC, comedy): Simpson’s media assault was to have continued in this show, where she would have played a bubble-headed pop star-turned-correspondent for an “Access Hollywood”-like show. Proving that ABC just has issues with that family, the network shunned “Hot Mom,” in which husband Nick Lachey co-starred with Gina Gershon. ABC opted instead to order a few more variety specials featuring Nick and Jessica pretending to be themselves.

“The Catch” (ABC, drama): Greg Grunberg (“Alias”) was to have starred as a bounty hunter in this long-in-development midseason show from J.J. Abrams, with Orlando Jones and Don Rickles co-starring. It sounded like a good idea to us, but the fact that “Alias” got pushed back to January may have something to do with it getting bounced.

“Dark Shadows” (WB, drama): Maybe The WB didn’t want to put another vampire show on the air right after canceling “Angel.” Or maybe it was too expensive. Whatever the reason, it’s a bit of a surprise that this show, produced by “ER” maven John Wells and starring Martin Donovan, Marley Shelton and Blair Brown didn’t make the schedule.

“The Robinsons: Lost in Space” (WB, drama): The WB paid big bucks for the rights to this remake and hired John Woo to help the pilot. Either the pilot didn’t seem to have the young adult male appear the network was craving, or else it looked like a potential franchise bomb in the “Birds of Prey” or “Tarzan” mold.

“Beck and Call” (UPN, drama): Set in the fashion world and starring Vanessa L. Williams, “Beck and Call” was for a time rumored to be in line to get paired with “America’s Next Top Model” on UPN’s schedule. Instead, the network went with “Kevin Hill,” leaving this Lisa Kudrow-produced pilot in the cold.

“Sudbury” (CBS, drama): Kim Delaney and Jeri Ryan play beautiful women who are also witches? It’s like “Passions” for primetime. Or it’s like “Practical Magic” for the small screen (complete with producers Denise DiNovi and Sandra Bullock). Up until the days before the CBS upfront, it was considered at least a favorite for a midseason slot. Instead, Delaney will get the chance to appear on the final season of “NYPD Blue.”

“Untitled Andrew Secunda Project” (UPN, comedy) and “Untitled Tarses/Wrubel Project” (NBC, comedy): We’re not sure that either comedy really sounded like a good idea, but without “Buffy” and “Angel,” we need a dose of actors from the Whedon-verse. However, these two comedies — starring Charisma Carpenter and Alyson Hannigan — failed to make their network cuts.

The fact is, the vast majority of pilots made in any given season are scrapped… never to be broadcast. There were 120 pilots shot this season, of which maybe thirty will get picked up as series. Of those thirty series, maybe five will survive to celebrate their first birthdays…

Even more pilots never make it past the script stage… among those this season were two of ours… “The Cleaner” for NBC and “Proof” for Lifetime. But there’s hope… several of the pilots this season were rejected scripts from last season, including NBC’s “LAX” (which was picked up as a series), Fox’s “Mr. Ed,” ABC’S “Gramercy Park” and CBS’s “Ricki Lake” sitcom.

So there’s hope… today’s flop pilots can become next year’s flop pilots, too.

A few months back, author Robert Crais announced that a TV series pilot based on an old script of his was being dusted off and reworked for CBS…

CBS is now filming the pilot WANTED which is based on RC’s original pilot script, DECOY. As conceived by RC, DECOY follows rookie plainclothes officer Jacki Haber, the newest member of LAPD’s elite Fugitive Apprehensive Section, and her struggles to find a place within the dangerous, hyper-male world of professional manhunters.

The cast includes Scott Glenn (SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, URBAN COWBOY), Louise Lombard (HIDALGO), and Jason Gedrick (BACKDRAFT, BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY). The pilot is being helmed by director Gregory Hoblit (NYPD BLUE, HILL STREET BLUES)

It sounded very intriguing… but it was not among the series CBS picked up this week for its fall schedule.

Several high-profile, big-buzz revivals of long-dead series failed to make it on the network schedules…among them:

Director John Woo’s LOST IN SPACE. Producer John Wells’ DARK SHADOWS. WB’s MR. ED. And ABC’s new take on CHARLIE’S ANGELS.

Both LOST IN SPACE and DARK SHADOWS were shot… I don’t know if MR. ED and CHARLIES ANGELS got past the script stage.