7 Essential Ingredients to Writing a Successful Holiday Movie
huffingtonpost.com – Thursday November 26, 2015
The Holiday movie genre is one of the most consistent box office earners in the history of the film industry. Since 1960, Holiday movies have earned well over two billion dollars (not adjusted for inflation).
What's even more interesting is the phenomenon that we see each and every year. Television networks play those movies endlessly from Thanksgiving through the New Year. Classics like It's a Wonderful Life and A Christmas Story often have 24-hour runs. The more contemporary classics continue to grow in stature with the likes Christmas Vacation, Elf, The Santa Clause movies, Home Alone, Scrooged, and many more.
The Hallmark and Lifetime Channels have made a successful ratings business out of producing original Christmas-themed telemovies.
Audiences, each and every year, and even for those that don't celebrate the Christmas holiday, sit down with their friends and family to watch movies they've seen over and over and over again.
So what is it about these movies that make people come back for more?
Melton Times reporter Nick Rennie shares the secrets of writing and self-publishing your own book
meltontimes.co.uk – Thursday November 26, 2015
Not so long ago, writing and publishing your own book was just a pipe dream for many of us.
It wasn’t so much getting the words down on paper which was putting us off.
It was more the expense of either finding an agent and a publisher or paying through the nose to print dozens of copies yourself which might have ended up unsold and gathering dust in the garage.
But that is resoundingly no longer the case. Digital publishing and online booksellers such as Amazon have been an absolute game-changer.
Want to Succeed in Self-Publishing? Have a Plan: Tips from an Indie Author
publishersweekly.com – Tuesday November 24, 2015
E.C. Murray considers her first book, the self-help titleLife Kind of Sucks, an experiment in self-publishing. So when it came time to release her second book, the memoir A Long Way from Paris, she decided to do things differently, leveraging her experience and embracing all aspect of the self-publishing process. Murray quickly realized how demanding the indie route could be: handling distribution and marketing is “time consuming…even with a publicist who arranges visits. I need to follow up with press releases, event calendars, and so forth.” An important part of Murray’s indie strategy was sending A Long Way from Paris out for review. Her efforts paid off: Kirkus named her memoir a best book of 2014 andPublishers Weekly called it “Rich with history…substance…[and] relatable.”
When the Sharing Economy Comes to Publishing
publishersweekly.com – Sunday November 22, 2015
The idealized vision of writers toiling away at their art in solitude may not be going anywhere, but it’s also not the sole vision of how writers will produce quality work in the near-distant future. Let’s face it: we are experiencing a cultural revolution brought on by the sharing generation, and sharing-economy practices will not ignore the publishing industry. After all, why do all stories need to be a one-way exchange of ideas from writer to reader? Why can’t stories be written collaboratively by multiple authors and shared as they are written?
Best Practices for Selling Your Book to Agents and Editors (or How to Avoid Being Delusional About Getting Published)
huffingtonpost.com – Saturday November 21, 2015
Deciding you're ready to publish is a huge deal; it's also the point where you hand over control to someone else, putting the power in the hands of an agent, an editor, the universe.
Most writers have traditional publishing aspirations. They want an agent to fall in love with their project and champion their work; they're looking for the external validation of being accepted by a publishing house; their fantasies about getting published involve a red carpet experience that's increasingly elusive in this industry.
Multiformat narratives open new doors for publishers
thebookseller.com – Friday November 20, 2015
Publishers are continuing to explore new models for the book - using enhanced audio and visual materials, and print-on-demand - as content is curated, sliced, repackaged and evolved in more innovative ways than ever before.
Ahead of the FutureBook Conference (4th December), which features two panels on the “new publishing”, innovators told The Bookseller that new digital products were helping them build on their assets and drive customer engagement. Others warned that publishing risked missing out on these new markets if scaleable and discoverable products were not brought to market. Just last week app developer Touchpress announced it was selling its literary and education apps, and focusing on free music apps designed for the Apple TV platform.
'Translated Into 20 Languages!' Self-published Authors Are Selling Foreign Rights -- Just Like the Big Publishers
huffingtonpost.com – Thursday November 19, 2015
The big traditional publishers often promote their books by highlighting the number of languages the books has been translated into. With the global publishing marketplace easier to access than ever, self-published authors are selling foreign rights to grow their audience around the world and promote the number of foreign rights sales to increase sales at home - just like the big publishers.
Betting Big on Literary Newcomers
wsj.com – Thursday November 19, 2015
Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney, a former marketing copywriter in Los Angeles, dreamed for years of becoming a novelist but never had any illusions about earning a living from it. Her goal in writing her first novel, “The Nest,” which she tackled in her early 50s, was merely to finish it.
In a whirlwind week as publishers read the manuscript last December, HarperCollins’s Ecco editorial director Megan Lynch made a pre-emptive offer to publish the novel for at least $1 million. “I never imagined people would respond that way in a million years,” said Ms. Sweeney, 55. The book, about four adult siblings whose anticipated inheritance has all but evaporated because of one brother’s bad behavior, is scheduled to be published next March.
5 Things Every Screenwriter Should Know About Action Writing
huffingtonpost.com – Wednesday November 18, 2015
Action sequences can be a screenwriter's best friend or worst enemy. If you can write them well, you'll be more of a coveted commodity in the eyes of the powers that be. Such a gift will make your spec scripts shine brighter than the rest, thanks to an entertaining and engaging read, and will increase your chances of being considered for key studio writing assignments.
If you can't, well, it's time to start honing that skillset.
How fantasy author Ellen Kushner used TV writing techniques to publish a serialized story online
dailydot.com – Wednesday November 18, 2015
Ellen Kushner’s Swordspoint came out in 1987, subtitled, “A melodrama of manners.” Combining swashbuckling duels, queer romance, and political intrigue, it's since become a cult classic, kicking off the fantasy subgenre of “mannerpunk” and spawning two other novels set in the same nameless city.
Now the series is moving in an unexpected direction: online serialization. Unfolding in weekly installments from authors including Malinda Lo and Alaya Dawn Johnson, Tremontaine is published in text and audio episodes by the subscription service Serialbox.
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