Keeping Your Spirits Up In Troubled Waters

If you’re a writer, director, composer, performer, producer—you’re an entrepreneur in the most challenging business of all—

The so-called business of self-expression known as “show business.”

But believe it or not, show business is not about you—it’s about your audience. That’s why I tell my clients—and myself—to take the WORK, not YOURSELF, seriously.

RULES FOR SUCCESS

1) Toughen up. It’s the ultimate school you’ve enrolled in, because the rules are always changing and you’re making them. If it wasn’t tough everybody would be doing it.
2) Because it’s a Recession, toughen up even more. The good news is that everyone is feeling it. Only the toughest will survive. What could be more exhilarating?
3) Persist. Endure. Continue. Shaw wrote “Pygmalion” in his old age. Henry Miller didn’t start until his late forties. Dune was rejected 36 times!
4) Dream Big—there are fewer people at the highest altitudes.
5) Redefine your inner circle: Associate with positive people. Stop associating with negative people. Be ruthless about this. Life is too short.
6) Stay off everyone’s “Life is too short” list.
7) Place no deadlines on your career.
8) Follow your instincts.
9) Don’t depend on luck or timing.
10) Take responsibility. No magic thinking. “I never get personally involved in my own affairs”—an actress once told me. Wrong approach!
11) Take charge of your own thinking. You can’t fail at being you so long as you focus and communicate it clearly.
12) Let go of the wrong kind of control. Even the most successful people can’t control everything. Arthur C. Clarke said, “The mark of intelligence is not to resent the invevitable.”
13) Figure out what you really want and start living as though you already have it. Form follows function. A client had gotten her wish: she’d been hired as a staff writer, but she was miserable. She’d forgotten to wish to be a staff writer on an intelligent series—now she was paying for her oversight.
14) Congratulate yourself and celebrate. “Let’s drink a toast to folly & to dreams—they are the only reasonable things.”—Paul Loup-Sulitzer

RULES FOR CONTINUATION

1) Keep moving forward despite your moods. “Never despair, but, even if you despair, work on in despair.”—Edmund Burke. Or as Ray Bradbury said: “Start doing more. It’ll get rid of all those moods you’re having.”
2) When things get tough, take a vacation. Don’t confuse fatigue with depression. No deadlines on your career.
3) The difficulty you are experiencing is normal--and necessary. Tom Hanks’ character to Madonna’s, in “A League of Their Own”: “Of course it’s hard. If it weren’t hard everyone would be doing it. The hard part is the great part.”
4) You’re the one who chose this life. You can do it.
5) Don’t doubt yourself. Lack of self-confidence never goes away. Those who succeed ask as though they don’t have it.
6) Face your fear. Make it your ally. Anxiety is a good sign. Remember what the Cajuns say: “If you ain’t scared, you aint’ doin’ anyting woithwhile.”
7) Try just “coasting” for awhile. Live in the present as much as you can. “If worse comes to worse, I’m happy now.”
8) Exercise—walk—travel—vacation--> regain your perspective.

[revised notes from keynote to South Florida Bar Association, South Beach]

LEW HUNTER HOLDS SUMMER SCREENWRITING COLONY IN JUNE

AEI Highly Recommends!

Lew Hunter's Superior Summer Screenwriting Colony 2008

Dates: June 14-27

You’re brimming with ideas and your fingers are itching to hit the keyboard. You desire – you have to – string your vision into a tangible, cohesive whole. It’s time to write that screenplay.

But where to start? Do you begin with characters or plot? Or you have a beginning but lose sight of your story in the middle and need some help with structure. Or you have the story, but don’t know how it ends. Or you have the whole shebang in your head, but haven’t written it yet!

Boy, some guidance would sure be swell.

Lew Hunter’s Superior Summer Screenwriting Colony, this coming June 14-27, immerses you into that nurturing, fulltime screenwriting experience you desire.

learn more >>

The Superior Summer Screenwriting Colony is designed to provide you with a productive, cocoon environment for your writing where you will be encouraged to progress from story idea, to treatment, to step-outline and finally to complete the First Act of the Screenplay (30 pages).

Ten advanced/pro writers will be in one section, and another ten rookies/"getting their toe into the water" writers will comprise the other section. UCLA Professors Valerie, Stephanie, Brenda or Dr. David will be professing along with Lew.

Lew will facilitate the best writing by creating an atmosphere of constructive feedback for all participants.

The Superior Summer Screenwriting Colony fills rapidly and it is strongly suggested that you submit an application at your earliest opportunity to ensure acceptance and availability.

All skill levels of writing experience are encouraged to apply and to participate. We can easily accommodate the most basic beginner to the most experienced professional. All writers will be respected, honored and supported through the writing process.

This is the complete immersion writing experience that will take your screenwriting and dreams to the next level. Don't put either on hold any longer. Enroll today.

DR. LITA SINGER’S ADAM WAS TRAPPED EVE WAS FRAMED REVIEWED BY SANTA BARBARA INDEPENDENT

Adam Was Trapped Eve Was Framed

By Lita Rawdin Singer, Ph.D.

“Five Steps to Relationship Freedom”

Adam Was Trapped Eve Was Framed might not be the sweetest Valentine’s read—but it’s certainly one of the more useful. Part history lesson, part self-help manual, and part eye-opening introspection for anyone who’s ever been romantically involved, the book charts how religion and spirituality have combined to make our modern-day male/female relationships so disjointed and challenging.

Rather than dishing out technical psych jargon, Santa Barbara’s Dr. Lita Singer breaks things down into five easy-to-understand parts, all leading down the road to “relationship freedom.” So for those of us looking for some deeper insight than He’s Just Not the Into You this holiday, Adam Was Trapped has your answers—as well as some nifty factoids and exercises that will actually make them work for you.

Buy Adam Was Trapped Eve Was Framed on Amazon

DR BAZAN DONATES PART OF UNA VIDA PROCEEDS TO STUDY OF ALZHEIMER’S

From: Health News

BY KANDACE POWER GRAVES

Novel Benefits Research

Dr. Nicolas Bazan, director of the Neuroscience Center of Excellence at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center (LSUHSC), is donating a portion of the proceeds from his novel Una Vida: A Fable of Music and the Mind (Five Star Publications Inc., November 2008, $25.95) to his center's research on Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases.

Una Vida is Bazan's first novel, but he has written 20 books and 800 articles and other pieces in his field of study, diseases of the eyes and brain. Bazan says he called on his professional knowledge in writing the book, set in New Orleans, about a neuroscientist and a street singer who suffers from Alzheimer's.

For more information about the book, visit www.unavidanovel.com.


In Dr. Nicolas Bazan's brilliant first novel, neuroscientist Alvaro Cruz finds himself haunted by a recurring dream of a banjo player in an elusive cornfield that leads him on a personal quest to uncover the mysterious past of a New Orleans street singer known as Una Vida. Stricken with Alzheimer s, Una Vida can only offer tantalizing clues about her past through her mesmerizing vocals, incredible recollection of jazz lyrics, and the occasional verbal revisiting of a fascinating life that s fading quickly and forever into the recess of her mind. As Cruz searches for Una Vida s true identity, he learns profound lessons about the human psyche, the nature of memory and himself.

Buy Una Vida on Amazon

PODCASTING YOUR NOVEL TO START THE BUZZ

[via AEI client Joe Cervasio]

I'm sure you guys know about "podcasting" as a means to distribute books, but I found the link to the Time Magazine article as interesting. Perhaps this is a mini-step for projects to develop a following, and then communicate such "viral" response to the "unpublished" work to attract the main line commercial publishers.

Read the article here: Podcasting Your Novel: Publishing's Next Wave? By Hector Florin

SEE PREVIEWS OF NOIRE’S FIRST FILM, ‘HITTIN’ THE BRICKS’ FROM SPANISH HARLEM ENTERTAINMENT BASED ON HER NOVEL FROM BALLANTINE

See previews

How to Escape Lifetime Security and Pursue Your Impossible Dream: A Guide to Changing Your Career: Excerpt

By Kenneth Atchity

The never-satisfied mind

I was taught to be a perfectionist, but in a practical way. One hundred percent is the goal, but we aim for it with the foreknowledge that we're human and will never reach 100%, or if we do, we’ll maintain it only temporarily.

Yet 100% is a better goal than 88%, because if 88% is your goal you'll never hit 90%. So 100% is a better goal as long as you understand that goals are, almost by definition, unreachable because the enterprising goal-seeker will have set a second goal by the time he accomplishes the first. If your goal is to finance a $30 million film, by the time you've closed your deal for $28.6 million you'll be so busy planning your $75 million dollar film you won't be upset that you "fell short" by $1.4 million.

But the 100% standard is used by the Accountant as a superb sabotage mechanism. The Accountant uses the argument of "quality vs. quantity": "Yes, I know you could rush to production with this new Visionary script. But a million things can go wrong with it down the road and it's better to troubleshoot them all before you make an enormous laughingstock of yourself with an equally enormous liability. Let's do a quality job." So the Accountant proceeds to supervise an endless troubleshooting expedition that tunes, fine-tunes, and re-tunes the script to the point that it's no longer recognizable; or until someone else goes public with the same story. "But I want it to be 100% perfect," it argues when the Mind's Eye scolds it. "We'll settle for 98%," replies the Mind's Eye, realizing that such a compromise is required if we're going to reap the benefits of the Visionary's great idea and escape from “development hell.”

Without losing the spirit of the quest for excellence, the perfectionist, also known as “the judge” or “the critic,” must be tamed if you are to accomplish your goals, objectives, and dreams. How do you know when to stop fine-tuning? You don't. Rewrite can go on indefinitely. You set a deadline, beyond which you will cease fine-tuning and begin pre-production.

Buy How to Escape Lifetime Security and Pursue Your Impossible Dream: A Guide to Changing Your Career on Amazon

INFORMANT'S "CRAZY HEART' TOUTED FOR 2010 OSCARS

From SpoutBlog
By Christopher Campbell

Yesterday, for the second time in two weeks, In Contention’s Kristopher Tapley confessed to being done with 2008 and noted a bunch of anticipated 2009 films. These aren’t necessarily titles he’s looking forward to seeing, though; it’s basically a preliminary jump on next year’s Oscar season. Because apparently this year’s Academy Awards are all but handed out, the winners properly predicted and expected, and now it’s time to think about what will be up for what in 2010. Those titles Tapley lists are Rob Marshall’s Nine, Peter Jackson’s Lovely Bones, Michael Mann’s Public Enemies, Clint Eastwood’s “Mandela“ (formerly The Human Factor), Richard Curtis’ The Boat That Rocked, Scott Cooper’s Crazy Heart and the latest from Terrence Malick (The Tree of Life), Steven Soderbergh (The Informant), Paul Greengrass (Green Zone), Martin Scorsese (Shutter Island) and James Cameron (Avatar).

POINT OF VIEW—A NOVEL’S GRIPPING OPENING PAGE

For years, in lectures on novel-writing, I’ve used the opening page of Jerzy’s Kosinski’s sociopathic thriller, Cockpit, to illustrate

(a) Point of view—a grippingly successful use of second-person POV, where the narrator addresses the reader directly.

(b) The fact that a protagonist, like Tarden in this novel, can be sympathetic without being likeable.

(c) The fact that reader’s turn pages because they can’t NOT turn the page. Here the narrator induces in us a combination of voyeurism, horror, and curiosity that compels us to keep reading about this despicable character whose nature is painted in a few short paragraphs:

COCKPIT

Jerzy Kosinski

Although we have known each other for a long time and have spoken often, we have never spoken intimately. I was intrigued by you the first time we met at your party. Since then, I have wanted to see you alone but could never bring myself to ask.

You probably do not recall that, during the party, I headed toward one of the bathrooms, locking your bedroom door behind me. If anyone had tried to enter the room during my inspection if it, I would have explained I had locked that door because I had not been able to lock the one to the bathroom. I opened your closets and checked the proportion of evening dresses to sports clothes, noting their quality and condition. I examined your underwear and the heels and soles of your shoes. Then I flipped through some of the letters I found on your desk, read a few, and glanced over your checkbook, telephone and hotel bills and airline ticket receipts.

In the bathroom, I surveyed your cosmetics and studied the vials of pills in your medicine cabinet. I wrote down the name of each doctor on the label, the prescription date and indicated dosage, than took a sample from every bottle.

That evening, I talked to a couple in their thirties who said they had known you for years. The woman, a bit drunk, said, "look at me, Mr. Tarden. Once, a long time ago, I was soft and moist and supple. It was a time, if you can imagine, when staying thin wasn't a losing battle, when I didn't suffer from lower back pain, when I wasn't on my way to a drying out tank like so many other women. Now my only unique features are my fingerprints, which developed before I was born. When I was in high school, any idiot could foresee the kind of man I would marry, what our children would be like and the sort of home we would live in. Anyone could have predicted than that my life would become as dried out and bleached by alcohol and boredom as my hair and skin are by the sun and wind." She raised her Scotch in mocking salute. Her husband joined her in the toast and they both laughed, displaying their capped teeth, white against their dark tans.

When I returned home from the party, I took out the pills I has stolen from your bathroom and looked through the most recent edition of the Physicians’' Desk Reference, which includes full-sized, color reproductions of all currently marketed medications. I identified the proper chemical name of each of your drugs and read about its composition, use and side effects. For some reason, learning these details increased my desire to know you. The afternoon we met by accident and I drove you home, I wanted to invite you to the apartment I rent as Tarden, the only name you know me by. But I was afraid that, if I did see you alone, you might be upset by what I had to say, by my desire to share my life with you. I did not want to just tell you about my past. I wanted you to relive it.

Buy Cockpit on Amazon.

PUBLICIZING YOUR BOOK Suggestions for Success: Part 4

Continued from part 3

Now that you have finished your book, and it is ready to be shopped around to publishers (or has already been bought by a publisher!) it’s time to think about what you can do to help promote your book.


Sell More Books!
by Jennifer Minar-Jaynes

Do you want to sell books? Lots of books? If so, you have to become a tireless self-promoter. Not good at self-promotion? Not a problem. You can learn.

The first thing to realize is that there are no guarantees a book is going to sell just because it's well-written. But it is guaranteed to sell if it's marketed well. A tireless promoter consistently contributes to the progress or growth of whatever he's promoting and is constantly coming up with more ways for getting his products in front of potential customers.

As an author you're promoting books. As a tireless promoter, you're always finding ways to get your books noticed. Be your best salesperson. And remember, no one's going to care more about your books than you.

"But my publisher will do this for me," you may say. "I'm an author, not a salesperson or marketer." True, a good publisher will take care of some promotion, but if you're not Grisham or Steele, or any other household name, the person ultimately responsible for selling books is you. If you're the author and publisher, the ball is mostly in your court.

A tactic is a plan for attaining a particular goal. Below are some conventional and guerrilla, or not so commonly used, tactics for marketing your books on- and offline.

Conventional Tactics

Stay Educated & Connected. Educate yourself about the industry. Read books and articles; attend conferences. Learn what is working for other authors and use this information when developing your own marketing campaign.

Visit writing-related web sites and read as many articles as you can. Talk to other writers, join trade and social associations, attend conferences, book fairs, and writer's groups.
Network, network, network.

Not only can other writers become part of a support group for critiques and bouncing ideas off of, knowing them can open many doors. For instance, you can find writers who might be interested in co-publishing a newsletter or who would be interested in developing co-op ads and cross-promoting. Find writers who share your interests and keep in touch often.

Gather testimonials. Compile testimonials you receive from readers and experts. Use them in newsletters, in ads, on your web site, and in media kits. Testimonials are powerful. They can give a potential customer the extra confidence he needs to buy your books and will encourage retail buyers to take a second look.

Launch a Press Release Campaign. Find an angle and write a short press release. In fact, write many. A well-written press release about a powerful story will raise reporters' eyebrows. Distribute the release to local media and through one of the wires. It doesn't cost much and the results can be amazing.

A few to research:
http://www.enewsrelease.com/
http://www.pressreleasenetwork.com/
http://www.prweb.com/

Get Reviewed. Constantly seek out reviews. Reviews and testimonials can be invaluable. Moira Allen provides tips on getting your book reviewed at WritingWorld.com.

Keep in Touch with Decision-Makers. Retail buyers and potential customers are decision-makers. 1001 Ways to Market Your Books (Open Horizons, 1998) author John Kremer suggests that authors start a promotional newsletter that can be sent to this audience. Send it to wholesalers, retail buyers, past customers and prospects.

Write Free Articles. We've published several articles on WWW.WritersBreak.com about the advantages of submitting your articles to other web sites and publications that offer a generous byline. In the byline, you'll want to include your site URL and information on your books. "But why should I give my articles away?" you may ask. Two words: free exposure. Exposure leads to awareness. Awareness sells books.

Create a Web Site. Though it can be a time-consuming venture, a web site is a great way to give readers and people in the industry the opportunity to get to know you and your work better. A good web site can open many doors. Not only can you sell more books with a web site, you can swap ads and barter space.

Do Interviews. Accept interview requests no matter the size of the publication. Not only will you get better at giving interviews, your books will receive more exposure. Again, exposure leads to awareness. Awareness sells books.

Guerrilla Tactics

A guerrilla, by definition, is one who carries on, or assists in carrying on, irregular warfare. The below can be considered guerrilla tactics because in this business, they're seldom used.
Sell Books in Person. Selling books in person can be very lucrative. In his book, Kremer gives the example of how author/publisher Gary Provost began selling his book, The Dorchester Gas Tank. He'd work a busy Boston corner every day and peddle his books, selling 20 to 25 books a day--more than most books sell in a single day.

Kremer also mentions another author who managed to sell 70,000 copies within ten months by loading her van and visiting grocery stores, gift shops, and health clubs.
Remember, though, when face-to-face with your audience, to convey professionalism and passion for your book. If you do, your prospect will be more likely to buy.

Create an Affiliate Program. Affiliate programs give web site and ezine owners the incentive to help you sell more books.

Have Magnets Made. Do you commute long distances? If so, you may want to get automobile magnets that read "Visit www.yourwebsiteaddress.com" or "Check out MY BOOK'S NAME at Amazon!" How many drivers see your bumper every day? If you're like me, thousands. Talk about some cheap exposure! Plus, if you're commuting during the same hours each day, the same people are seeing your ad over and over again. At some point, these people will become curious enough to visit your site or Amazon's.

Leave Review Copies. Leave copies of your books in doctor's waiting rooms, in libraries, at tanning salons, hair salons, the county tax office. You never know who will pick it up and begin talking about it. Also, give copies to clerks at bookstores. If they read it and like it, they could create a buzz with their higher ups.

Use Promotional Tools in Untraditional Ways. Have bookmarks, flyers, and business cards made. Stick bookmarks or business cards in with your monthly bills. Leave them with tips at restaurants. These tools are low-cost items, and you never know whose interest you'll generate. Have your friends and family do this, too. Again, the idea is exposure.

Leave Bookmarks in Best-Sellers. I recently read a thread about this on one of my online writer's news groups. Approach the manager at a local bookstore and ask if you can stick a bookmark in each of the store's bestsellers. If the manager is amenable, you may want to find out if you can also stick them into books of your genre. You already know a few things about the person on the other end. He buys books, and in the latter case, he buys the types of books you write. Visit local entrepreneurs. Ask if you can leave an attractive bowl somewhere in their store and place a handful of free bookmarks in it. Everyone's a potential customer or knows potential customers.

These are just a few tactics for selling more books. Some may be good options for you, some may not. Try a few. Good luck! And here's to selling more books!

Jennifer Minar
Editor-In-Chief
www.WritersBreak.com
Named a 'Best Web Site for Writers'
by Writer's Digest magazine, 2005-2007
www.MySpace.com/jenniferminar

Read part five
Read PUBLICIZING YOUR BOOK Suggestions for Success from the beginning.