When I explained to a non-writer friend what my agent did, he said, “So he takes your book, shows it to the people who are actually going to publish it, and takes a cut of the money you make. Sounds parasitic.” When you’ve just started looking for an agent (and received many rejections), it can […]
Accepting Advice
/ 2021-04-02Not long ago, I was in an online chat. A woman had just been offered representation by an agent, and she was over the moon. She was concerned, however, that the agent had asked that parts of the story be rewritten in a different direction. Others in the chat rose up in a banter about […]
Five Ways COVID Has Changed Professional Screenwriting
/ 2020-09-25I know, I know. We’re all sick of talking about COVID. It’s the pandemic that just won’t go away. Unfortunately, that may be doubly true for the world of professional screenwriting. The impact of COVID has, for better or worse, changed much of Hollywood’s old reality, and many of those changes look to be with […]
What If You Were the First?
/ 2020-08-07Black authors’ work is surging, which is a great, great thing. Long overdue. Not long ago, LGBTQ authors made a comeback, and their work came into its own. Harry Potter taught the world that Young Adult was important for all, not just kids. All the books labeled with GIRL or WOMAN over the last three […]
Trident Media Group Literary Agent Mark Gottlieb on Overcoming Panic in Publishing During the Pandemic
/ 2020-04-17“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me.” –Frank Herbert, DUNE Fear has taken hold of the minds of many people in trade book publishing during the pandemic brought on by […]
Best Practices for Working with a Producer, Agent or Manager in Film & TV
/ 2019-10-11Producers. Agents. Managers. Oh my! As a writer looking to make a living in the world of entertainment, these enigmatic creatures will be an integral part of your journey from unproduced novice to sought-after scribe du jour. Learning to work with them in a way that proves mutually beneficial means creating a winning environment for […]
Show, Don’t Ask
/ 2019-05-18By C. Hope Clark Don’t ask an editor what you can write for him. Writers aren’t just about putting words together. They are about bringing fresh material to the table. Writers are a dime a dozen. New ideas are a dime a dozen. Writers who can write and produce fresh ideas hit the sweet spot. […]
Write the Nonfiction Book Proposal Before Writing the Book
/ 2019-03-15I finished a manuscript, set it aside for a month, then read it again. But I never even tried to publish it. Why not? Because as brilliant as it was (well, I thought so and so did my mother), it was doomed because it had no point. The book, overflowing with insightful arguments and powerfully […]
Optioning Your Screenplay to a Producer
/ 2019-02-02Congratulations! Not only did you finish writing your 120-page cinematic opus, but you have a motion picture producer interested in bringing it to the silver screen. You’re ready to sell. Ready to see your name on the back of a director’s chair. Ready to chow down on craft service while Jake Gyllenhaal and Rachel McAdams […]
Entertainment Writing Jobs You May Not Have Considered – Part 2 of 2
/ 2017-04-21In this follow-up article, I put more of an emphasis on the feature film world. Thanks to the proliferation of “prosumer” technology like HD cameras and editing software, more films are being made now than ever before, offering increased accessibility for writers who are willing to attempt a more non-traditional approach to their careers. Write […]
Entertainment Writing Jobs You May Not Have Considered – Part 1 of 2
/ 2017-04-15As a former literary manager, I represented film and television writers for the better part of eight years. Many of the talented but less experienced writers who hadn’t yet made a living at the craft were solely interested in creating original screenplays that would be shopped to production companies, studios and packaging agents. They never […]