#1 New York Times Bestselling Author & TV Producer
I got his email today:
My mystery novel XYZ is being published by Publish America. Can I become an active member of the Mystery Writers of America?
I’m afraid not. Publish America is not recognized as a legitimate publisher by the MWA. You can visit the MWA site for more info. In the meantime, here is the current list of publishers accepted, and not accepted, by the MWA for Active Membership.
(You’ll find the list on the jump)
I remember reading an interview with Robert B. Parker somewhere where he said he doesn’t go back and rewrite his work…he just bangs it out and moves on. Apparently, his books aren’t edited by his publisher, either. Bill Crider posts the evidence.
From Appaloosa,
p. 266: "The room was quiet and
noisy."p. 238: "Bragg took a tan leather case out of his inside coat pocket. He offered a cigar to Bragg and
me."
The Guy A. Hanks Screenwriting Program, established by Bill Cosby at the USC School of Cinema and Television, is starting it’s 12th year and accepting application this summer. The press release says:
This non USC program has single handedly
brought more successful African-American Writers into the entertainment industry
than any other program of its type.
It is designed to assist writers in completing a television or feature script, while examining African-American history, culture and images in the media. Participation is free to those
selected. The program is not designed for beginning level writers. They are seeking writers who have taken the initiative to formally study television or feature writing. In an industry that
is extremely competitive, the program has found their greatest success in
assisting those who have a strong writing foundation in television or
screenwriting. Alumni from the program have
excelled in the entertainment industry and have been honored by organizations
including the NAACP. The program’s work has been recognized by the state’s
Governor, Senator and the Los Angeles Mayor’s office.
I’m a 1995 graduate of the Guy Hanks screenwriting program, only then it was called "The Cosby Mysteries" and Guy Hanks was the name of the detective that Cosby played.
I was a supervising producer on the show and one of the invaluable screenwriting lessons I learned was that scripts don’t matter. The best television is when actors throw out the script entirely and completely improvise scenes regardless of story continuity (or, in the case of whodunit mystery, the clues) or what what shot before… so that when the show is cut together, nothing makes sense.
I only got one piece of screenwriting advice directly from Mr. Cosby. He called one day and said he thought it would be great if some ninja assassins cartwheeled through the window in the finale, which was shooting the next day (which also was the final day of production on the episode). We mentioned it might be odd to see ninjas in the finale since there were no ninjas in the show at all. As I recall, he said: "There are now."
We wrote the ridiculous finale, but after he read it, he refused show up for the scene at all because he felt we didn’t put our heart into what we wrote. So instead, we get a piece of amazing improvisation: The two villains not only get into a martial arts battle for no reason, they also explain to each other between blows how the murder was committed and how Guy Hanks might have put the clues together (since Guy Hanks isn’t there to tell us himself). I was surprised they didn’t read each other their rights and arrest themselves. As it turned out, the police show up and slap the handcuffs on them after the fight…and, if I recall, there’s a silent shot of Cosby sitting in the car looking pissed.
A short time after THE COSBY MYSTERIES was cancelled, Cosby went on THE TONIGHT SHOW and blamed the show’s failure on the scripts.
I don’t know if there’s a real Guy Hanks and if the character, and the screenwriting program, are named in his honor. But I like to think that there isn’t, and that it’s Cosby’s way sticking it to the writers on the show one more time…
Well, I do today. I’m struggling with some clues in my latest MONK novel and it’s hell. I’ve been in this position hundreds of times (literally) and it never gets any easier.
God, I wish I could write a "mainstream" novel. It must be so nice to just tell a story without having to weave in a puzzling mystery to solve…
I suppose it could be argued that all great novels include a mystery to be solved and clues to the solution along the way… but those are mysteries of character. It’s not easy coming up with those puzzles either. But in a good whodunit, you need to have the mysteries of character and a murder/crime puzzle as well.
It’s especially difficult if you’re writing a long-runing mystery TV or book series, because you’re also struggling not to repeat yourself, not to use any of the tricks or clues you’ve used in the past. So the more successful you are, the harder it becomes.
End of whine. Back to work.
Variety reports that Showtime has ordered a pilot from writer James Manos for a TV series based on Jeff Lindsay’s novel DARKLY DREAMING DEXTER. The series would follow the exploits of a Miami Police Department forensics expert who also happens to be a serial killer. There’s a series you’d never find on CBS.
Think of this as a companion piece to the "Day in the Life" post here a few days back. Author Harley Jane Kozak talks today about money, contracts, and the work-a-day life of a writer.
I was offered a contract this week. Actually, I was offered two. After a year of writing “on spec” as we say in Hollywood, that was pretty exciting news. It’s not that I made no money this past year; there were those first two books, and I still get residuals for the acting work I did in my previous life (another six bucks for that 1986 Highway to Heaven episode) but it’s safe to assume that I spent a lot more than I took in. Would that I could say the same about calories.
So, when I sold a short story to Ms. Magazine, and was offered a two-book deal from Doubleday on the same day, I called my husband at work to tell him the good news.
“Great!” he said. “How much?”
I told him.
Silence on the other end of the phone.
I could hear him mentally dividing the book advance by two (two books in two years), then subtract taxes and agent’s fee, then add up babysitting costs, marketing and promotion . . .
“Can you ask for more?” he asks.
Bryon Stedman asked me this question in a comment to another post:
I have a situation where a broadcast entity claims they want to hear my idea for
a boxing series or made for TV movie. The characters belong to my family from a
comic drawn by my father.If a narrative is they way to go, what are the key points to include? Do I go as far as dialog and cameas shots and locations or simply text with main characters CAPITALIZED? Advice requested and appreciated.
A series treatment and a TV movie treatment are very different. A series treatment sells the characters and the franchise of the show…the relationships and format that will generate stories week after week. A TV movie treatment sells a story.
If the studio is already familiar with your Dad’s comic, I don’t know why they need you to come up with a series treatment…the strip itself sells that or they wouldn’t be interested in the first place.
A series treatment isn’t about telling a story…it’s about describing the characters, how they interact within the unique format of your show. Who are they? What do they do? And how will who they are and what they do generate 100 interesting stories?
For a TV movie treatment, you’re selling the characters and their story. At this point, you’re trying to sell the broadstrokes…they can pay you to work out the rest. Write up a punchy over-view of what happens in the story, as if you were writing a review of a great movie (only minus the praise). You want to convey the style and tone of the movie. But don’t go into great detail. Keep it short, tight and punchy.And whatever you do, DON’T include camera shots or dialogue.
Don’t fixate on treatment format, because there isn’t one. Tell your story in the style that works best for you. Don’t worry about whether the character names are in capitals or not (it doesn’t matter). Concentrate on telling a strong story.
Yesterday was a typical day for me…when I’m not writing/producing a TV series.
While dealing with the business of writing (exchanging emails with my editors & agents, watching a pilot for an upcoming staff job interview, arranging a book signing for August, etc.) I worked on writing several things all at once — one for pay (P), the rest speculative (S).
1) My second MONK novel (P)
2) A series pilot treatment for a producer/studio to pitch to the networks (S)
3) A TV movie treatment for a production company tailored for one particular network (S)
4) A series pilot treatment that Bill and I are going to pitch to the networks (S)
At the end of the day, when I emailed yet another revision of the pitch/treatment to the production company, I realized that three quarters of my day was spent on speculative work. Then I started thinking about just how much of my time and creative energy goes into writing punchy pitches & treatments that never go anywhere. I would guess that Bill and I, together and individually, have probably written hundreds of pitches & treatments over the last 2o years, and out of all of them, maybe two dozen have led to non-paying options and a little more than half that number have led to actual paychecks for writing the script (and/or producing the project).
That’s a hell of a lot of spec work…most of which led to absolutely nothing.
On the other hand, I’m sure every other screenwriter/TV writer/freelance writer probably has roughly the same experience. A good portion of a professional writer’s time is spent managing the work you’re doing now, promoting the work you’ve already done, and hustling for the work you’re going to need tomorrow.
And most important of all, somewhere in the midst of all that, you also have to write. Speaking of which, what am I doing blogging? I’ve got work to do!
There’s a phenomenon in mystery/thriller fiction… I call it "The Made Men." These are authors who wrote several terrific books…a string of career-making, break-out, wonderful books which have made them icons/leaders/celebrities in the genre…but have been writing mediocre (or worse, far worse) books for the last few years. And yet, each new book from one of these authors is treated as if it’s another masterpiece, and the hyperbole used to describe the author and his work gets grander with each new release.
Are reviewers in a trance? Are readers under a spell? I don’t know. But I must be one of the few who didn’t get hypnotized.
My theory is that for some special authors, once you reach a certain status in sales and critical acclaim, from that point on you are untouchable. You are a genre "Made Man" (though this applies to female authors as well) and seemingly no matter what you write, you are held in the same high regard by critics and readers alike. I recently read the latest book by one of these authors and am dumbfounded that anybody could have ranked it as a masterpiece…or even particularly good. It certainly didn’t come close to matching his previous work (by the way, just because I say "his," don’t assume I am talking about a male author). So why all the praise? Made Man, that’s why.
Am I way off base? Or am I simply a lousy judge of good writing? Or is it sour grapes on my part? Or am I on to something here? Your thoughts are welcome.
I received this spam email today from Richard Brawer. The subject heading was: "New Book from MWA Member."
Hi
Everyone,I’d like to introduce you to David Nance in his latest case,
"MURDER ON THE LINKS", a mystery set at the Jersey shore, in Monmouth
County.Book Jacket:
The body of a prostitute is found tossed into
the woods bordering the fifth hole of a posh golf club. The same day a penny
stock promoter and the daughter of a New York mobster are found murdered in a
mansion in the wealthy community of Elberon, New Jersey. Peer into mob
infested stock brokers scamming worthless paper to naïve investors, and into the
deviant world of the rich with their kinky sexual appetites as David Nance roots
out the murderer from among the members of Spring Brook Golf and Country
Club.Read excerpts of Murder On The Links and all the books in the
David Nance Mysteries Series at: www.rbrawerbooks.comORDER FORM: MURDER
ON THE LINKS is only offered through the mail from HFFO, Inc. Please print out
this form:
I think this email is a perfect example of how NOT to promote your book. Beyond being impersonal, there is no hook, no angle, no grabber. Nothing that would persuade you to do anything except hit the delete key.
If you are going to send out a spam email, the least you should do is make every possible effort to make your solicitation an attention-grabber, something that hypes your book and makes people want to read it (especially if your book, like this one, is self-published and only available through mail-order).
Let’s start with the subject heading: "New Book from MWA Member." That’s supposed to mean something? That’s supposed to intrigue me? New books come out from MWA members every day. Your subject heading is your headline, your banner, your movie marquee… it should entice the reader to open the mail, not delete it. (I only opened this one because I had a feeling it would make a good blog post).
But he compounds the error by making the first line of his email an utter snooze: "I’d like to introduce you to David Nance in his latest case, "MURDER ON THE LINKS", a mystery set at the Jersey shore, in Monmouth County."
Why would anyone bother to read further? I’ve read time-share sales invitations that are more exciting. Sadly, the rest of the email is just as perfunctory and dull.
Where’s the salesmanship? Where’s the enthusiasm? Where’s any reason whatsoever to read the email…much less the book? Whether the author realizes it or not, the email reflects on him and his book. If the email is flat, dull, pointless and lazy, it implies the book probably is, too.
Rather than promoting his book, I think Richard Brawer has done the opposite…he’s driven people away.