The Breakdown - May, 2021

May 29, 2021

Hey, y’all! I just wanted to send out a truly hearty thank you to all of you who’ve been reading, and especially supporting, The Breakdown. I don’t look at my stats regularly, but I did take a look this morning and was stunned and pleased to see an open rate of 61% for the April issue, 39% for the free Industry Deep Dive #3 Preview, and 50% (and counting) for the Industry Deep Dive #3 - Screenplays: How to Sell Your Story! Those are great rates and tell me that you’re getting real value from what I’m sending out, and that the move to a longer, monthly format is the best path forward.

So to that end, I’m making that part official—that we’re going monthly—with the additional Industry Deep Dives and Writer’s Workshop articles for Premium Supporters. Also, just a reminder, with the longer format:

➡️ BE SURE TO EXPAND YOUR EMAIL BECAUSE POSTS CAN GET CUT OFF!

And if you didn’t catch April’s issue, just click the link to catch up. If you want to know more about all the goodies in the Industry Deep Dive #3, click that link for the preview, and you can find the actual article here.

Photo by Xavier L. on Unsplash

And with that, let’s get started!

Special Segment

I’ve been thinking quite a bit about the implications, especially for newer authors, of all these massive events and shifts in consumer behavior over the past year. Not just from the pandemic, but also from the massive consolidation on the publishing, film & TV, and multi-platform entertainment fronts.

I’ll talk about it more in the Final Thoughts section, but essentially it boils down to two key takeaways:

As Bill Gates said in his eerily prescient essay, way back in 1996, “Content is king.” And we’re seeing that prediction come true on so many fronts: corporate consolidation to create a streamlined content/IP pipeline; indie authors surviving and succeeding largely off of massive series and an extensive backlist; subscription services becoming the norm, franchise mania in film & TV, and the exciting birth of new content platforms, almost monthly…if not weekly.
Also, there’s the emergence of what I’m calling “disaggregated content” that can pretty much live anywhere. With the rise of streaming, the increasing popularity of audio, and mobile phones serving as little computers in our pockets, popular and accessible content is no longer bound by the format it was originally produced for. Meaning, your story can exist and be consumed almost anywhere, from your phone or tablet, to your gaming device, to your watch—and with the growing popularity of smart home devices—pretty soon from your washing machine and refrigerator.

So, to that end, I reached out to award-winning author and entrepreneur, Ben Sobieck, who participated in an intriguing pilot project, in conjunction with the multi-platform entertainment company Wattpad.

The pilot involved including his work, The End of War, as well as other hand-picked stories from Wattpad authors, in a catalog being made available to airline passengers as part of their in-flight entertainment. It’s similar in nature to another Wattpad pilot where Wattpad stories are being offered to Canadian transport customers via their GO Wi-Fi Plus portal.

I asked Ben a bit more about this initiative.

1) So Ben, what's the nature of the pilot program and how will it be delivered?
The program, to my knowledge, doesn't have a formal name yet, but the basics are that Wattpad teamed with airlines in Spain, Mexico, Italy, France, Greece, and Portugal to offer in-flight entertainment. This translates into the ability to read Wattpad works in the air. Exactly how this happens, I'm not sure, but I'd bet it boils down to either an e-reading experience on the passengers' entertainment / information consoles built into the backs of the seats, or something over the in-flight Wi-Fi. Regardless, it's a "captive audience" play, and I appreciated the efforts Wattpad makes in trying new things.
2) Will your entire story be available via this method or just an excerpt? And are you compensated for participating?
My entire novel, The End of War, will be available. And no, I'm not being compensated for this program, and I wasn't compensated for a similar program involving public transit in Toronto.
3) So then, what do you see as the primary benefit of having your work available through this new vehicle if compensation or a direct sale isn’t involved?
There’s a fuzzy line between the benefits of these "captive audience" programs and some other deals related to The End of War that do involve compensation. And I wouldn't normally recommend a writer accept zero compensation. However, in this case, the exposure was worth it, if looking at the benefits to The End of War, as a whole. Whether or not to participate in programs like these is something that's really up to each writer to consider whenever, and by whomever, they're approached.

It’s early days yet, so the impact of these pilot programs as well as the impact to the author of these newer platforms that can serve as a home for their content (e.g.; Wattpad, Tapas, Radish, Amazon Vella) is still to be seen. But there’s definitely a larger pool of options available to creators these days.

News

(Click on title for source article)

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Mobile Comics Platform Tapas Acquired In $510 Million Deal With Korean Entertainment Giant

Tapas Media, a US-based webcomics publisher that has made giant strides in the booming market for mobile-optimized content, was acquired by Kakao Entertainment in a $510 million cash transaction for 100% of the company, according to an announcement from Tapas. That move is bound to open a new and intensive round of competition for North American fans between two South Korean media giants angling to dominate the fast-growing market.

The Los Angeles-based Tapas has grown from a startup to a publishing powerhouse in the past decade by catering to a rising generation of young fans eager to read comics and genre fiction on their mobile devices. Tapas saw a 500% increase in year-over-year revenues in 2020, bringing in more than $2 million per month for its creators. The site’s popular titles such as The Beginning After the End and Magical Boy generate hundreds of millions of pageviews per month. In the aggregate, the company’s 96,000 original series of comics and prose novels have driven over 8 billion page views.

Right now, the manga and anime space is booming. And, surprisingly, the Korean platforms are the most popular and fastest growing platforms in Japan—the home of anime and manga. So, with that kind of growth and the growth of serialization platforms and audio globally, the end game becomes a bit clearer.
IP + Eyeballs (and Ears) = Attention, which is today’s currency.
Just think about it. In the past few months, we’ve had:
Kakao buying Radish and Tapas (they already own a talent agency and a studio)
Naver buying Wattpad (with plans to leverage and cross-promote to Wattpad and Webtoon’s audiences)
Amazon buying podcast producer Wondery and launching Vella (with Amazon Studios in the background. And with ComiXology and Kindle in their pocket, I’m not sure how this IP pipeline can’t be end game.)
Spotify getting into podcasts and audiobooks.
All this freeform, disaggregated content, is ultimately aggregating into tributaries that flow towards an ever-shrinking pool of “content conglomerates.” That’s not necessarily bad news, just news we should be aware of when looking at the market. This trend towards content conglomerates, is even highlighted in the news piece below.

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Amazon Buys MGM, Studio Behind James Bond, for $8.45 Billion

Amazon and MGM announced a definitive merger agreement under which Amazon will acquire MGM for $8.45 billion.

MGM, founded in 1924, complements Amazon Studios, which has primarily focused on producing TV programming, the companies said. Amazon will help “preserve MGM’s heritage and catalog of films” and provide customers with greater access to these existing works, the companies added.

For Amazon, snapping up MGM — which has more than 4,000 movies and 17,000 TV shows in its catalog — is a way to supercharge its Prime Video service with a slew of well-known entertainment titles. In addition, Amazon is anticipating being able to mine Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer properties like the Pink Panther, Rocky and, yes, the James Bond franchises for new original content.

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Legendary Comics launches a YA graphic novel imprint
Legendary Comics, the graphic novel division of film production house Legendary Entertainment, is launching a young adult imprint, Legendary Comics YA, along with a slate of five graphic novels to be published over the next 18 months.

Legendary Comics Senior VP Publishing, Robert Napton, noted that many publishers are expanding their graphic novel lists to serve early as well as middle-grade readers. Napton sees an opportunity to attract new and older readers brought to the graphic novel category by the manga boom of the last 15 years.

The first graphic novel on its list, Championess, was released in April. It’s a fictional story based on the real 18th century bare-knuckle boxer Elizabeth Wilkinson. Writers Kelly Zekas and Tarun Shanker and artist Amanda Perez Puentes recast Wilkinson as a poverty-stricken, half-Indian London resident who turns to boxing for money. She needs to pay her sister’s debts and earn enough to live on as she struggles to confront the forces that destroyed her family and the challenges of being a pioneering woman of color in a white male field. The story is being developed for television by Watford & Essex and Legendary Global.

The other graphic novels in the works are The Heart Hunter by writer Mickey George and artist V. Gagnon, a dark fantasy tale set on a cursed island where the residents are immortal until they find their soul mates--but those who want to remain immortal hire “heart hunters” to kill their soul mates first. Lupina by writer James Wright and artist Li Buszka is a revenge story about a young girl and her companion, a wolf, in a land ruled by an oppressive empire. The first of the six volumes is scheduled for September 9, 2021. Tragic is the retelling of Shakespeare’s Hamlet by writer Dana Mele, artist Valentina Pinti, and colorist Chiara Di Francia. And The Witches of Silverlake by writer Simon Curtis and artist Stephanie Son is the story of a high school witches’ coven that accidentally unleashes a murderous demon.

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Save the Cat!® Goes Anime with Netflix

The growth of Anime in the west is astounding, especially when you consider that—contrary to current viewing habits—anime fans, ranging from ages 12-60, often prefer the subtitled versions of their shows to the dubbed versions, a viewing experience that requires deliberate attention. And then, if you look at the animation/anime/comic world in aggregate — the appeal of building an IP pipeline that includes animation and comics makes sense. Just on the Western front, we’ve had Disney buy Marvel, Netflix buy Millarworld, HBO Max digging into the DC Comics treasure trove via Warner Bros., and Sony buying Crunchyroll from WarnerMedia.

We’ve looked at the impressive growth of both the anime and comic worlds before. Indications are that Western animation is growing just as robustly.

I noticed that Netflix is creating several events to help nurture the animation community, with many of these events aimed at new and burgeoning animators. Back in February, 2021, they sponsored an Animation Virtual Speaker Series, and now they’ve launched this partnership with the Save the Cat organization. Even their main animation site is largely focused on recruitment.

In conjunction with the two stories above, you can see a pattern emerging, right? For those of you who don’t know me, I write in a modified script format on Wattpad and other platforms. Character and dialogue are my strengths, so I’ve chosen to lean heavily into that.

One of the interesting things I’ve noticed is that readers over 25 tend to struggle with this format. It’s often too unconventional for them, so they don’t give the story a chance. Under 25? Not an issue. I’ve had so many young readers who: a) actually prefer the format once they get used to it; and b) tell me that one of the reasons they prefer it is because it allows them to play the anime-style “movie” version in their head, and they enjoy that freedom.

Millennials and Gen X seem to process information differently, having been raised as digital natives with a device perpetually in their hands. Now, while I’m not suggesting you go out and make a movie or write a screenplay, there is a takeaway here. If you’re writing for a YA, or YA-adjacent audience, keep your writing fast-paced, learn to master the art of brief but vivid descriptions, and don’t settle for boring dialogue. And if this is a style you can’t adopt, then apply it to your marketing and social media instead. There’s an energy that resonates with this younger generation. Think about ways to tap into it.

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Spotify’s podcast monetization scheme and how paid subscriptions will work

Audio content is gaining more and more popularity and can now be considered an interesting source of income for most authors. Spotify, the streaming music app launched a podcast subscription program so creators can earn money by offering exclusive paid content. This will be a native solution on Spotify to power paid podcast subscriptions and include the activation of independent creators as part of the Spotify Audience Network.

In April, Spotify launched its new monetization scheme in the United States and plans to expand it to other regions and add more authors in the coming months. This new monetization feature will be available to creators through Anchor, allowing podcasters to mark episodes as subscriber-only and publish them to Spotify and other podcast-listening platforms. For the next two years, the program will come at no cost to the creator, meaning that participating creators receive 100% of their subscriber revenues (excluding payment transaction fees). Starting in 2023, Spotify plans to introduce a competitive 5% fee for access to this tool.

Initially, the option will only be available to a select group of 12 podcasters, including 'Tiny Leaps', 'Big Changes' and 'Mindful in Minutes'. Creators who want to access the subscription scheme can send their proposal in to sign up for a waiting list.

In addition, Spotify is launching its Open Access Platform (OAP). This allows creators and publishers who have subscribers elsewhere, the technology to allow listeners the ability to hear their content on Spotify using the content producer’s existing login system. This gives creators with existing subscriber bases the option to deliver paid content to their existing paid audiences using Spotify, retaining direct control over the relationship.

One of the first publisher launches of the Open Access Platform (OAP) is with Storytel, the Swedish audiobook platform that serves much of the worldwide population that Audible does not.

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Publishing Sales Rose 22% in Q1

With sales in all categories posting double-digit increases, sales for the 1,358 publishers that report results to the AAP’s StatShot program rose 22.3% over the comparable period in 2020 for the first quarter of 2021. The quarterly increase was given a boost by sales in March, which jumped 40.2% over March 2020.

In the adult category, print sales slightly outperformed digital sales. Hardcover sales jumped by 43.1%, mass market increased 37.5%, and trade paper rose 21.3%. Downloadable audio sales increased 20.1% in the quarter, and e-books were up 17%.

In the children’s/YA category, the still-small digital categories had a good quarter, with e-book sales jumping 66.1% over 2020 and downloadable audio up 31.3%. Hardcover sales had a 30.9% increase, paperback rose 18.4%, and board books were up 9.8%.

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23 Mystery Publishers that Accept Direct Submissions (No Agent Required)

Mystery has diversified, growing in its range from cozy mysteries, to regional noirs, to supernatural mysteries, to crime novels based on true stories or actual history. Most of the publishers in this list are small presses that focus on one or two sub-genres of mystery, although some are much larger, multi-genre publishers or subsidiaries of top mystery presses. Some of the publishers are currently closed to submissions right now, but the majority are open.

Contest Alerts

BOOKS LIKE US First Novel Contest

Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, has announced the launch of the BOOKS LIKE US First Novel Contest to facilitate accessibility to underrepresented writers and celebrate the diversity of readers across the United States.

The publisher welcomes inclusive, entertaining, and ground-breaking reads with expert pacing, depth as well as heart, and irresistible characters who leap from the page. At the end of the submission period, the editorial, marketing, and publicity team at Gallery Books, will review all submissions for originality, relevance to today’s publishing climate, and writing quality. In December 2021, the author of the selected novel will be awarded the opportunity to enter into a $50,000 book deal with Gallery Books. Contest Entry Period: Tuesday, June 1, 2021 - Monday, June 14, 2021.

Spring 2021 Story Contest

Narrative Magazine's Spring Contest is open to all fiction and nonfiction writers. They’re looking for short shorts, short stories, essays, memoirs, photo essays, graphic stories, all forms of literary nonfiction, and excerpts from longer works of both fiction and nonfiction. Entries must be previously unpublished, no longer than 15,000 words, and must not have been previously chosen as a winner, finalist, or honorable mention in another contest. The deadline is July 31, 2021.

IndieReader Discovery Awards

Every book entered will be reviewed by their staff, and every author who enters will receive a verdict, written by an IndieReader reviewer and based on their assessment after reading the complete book. Top prize is a first-look consideration by a top, NYC-based literary agency, and other prizes include $500, publicist consultation service, a Reedsy credit, and a custom author website.

Book Deals - (Fiction Debuts)

Amber Brown and Danielle Brown's THIS IS WHAT IT TAKES, pitched as for fans of THE OTHER BLACK GIRL, SUCH A FUN AGE, and WHEN NO ONE IS WATCHING, about a young Black woman whose internship experience at the fashion house of her dreams is cut short after overhearing the owner's daughter plotting to kill him. When he actually turns up dead, she's framed for his murder and must race to seek justice for herself before it's too late, to Brittany Lavery at Graydon House, at auction, in a two-book deal, for publication in fall 2022, by Jessica Faust at BookEnds (world).
Caroline Fauchon's WITHOUT THEM, set in a near-future where the men have gone and one woman decides to remember them, translated from the French by Emma Ramadan, to Olivia Taylor Smith at Unnamed Press, in a nice deal, for publication in fall 2023, by Marleen Seegers at 2 Seas Agency on behalf of Actes Sud (NA).
Lo Patrick's THE FLOATING GIRLS, in which a girl pitched as reminiscent of a modern-day Scout Finch stumbles onto a boy and his father in a stilt house in a neighboring swamp right before her developmentally disabled sister goes missing, uncovering the mystery of his mother's death and her own parents' potential role in it, to Erin McClary at Sourcebooks, for publication in summer 2022, by Alyssa Jennette at Stonesong (NA).
Christopher Hood's THE REVIVALISTS, pitched in the vein of STATION ELEVEN and THE LEFTOVERS, in which a couple risks everything to journey across a devastated, death-strewn country in the wake of a horrific pandemic that may have killed as much as 70 percent of the world's population, to rescue their daughter who has fallen into the clutches of a new age cult, to Sara Nelson at Harper, by Henry Dunow at Dunow, Carlson & Lerner (NA).
Jen Devon's BEND TOWARD THE SUN, in which a guarded, self-reliant botanist undertaking the ambitious restoration of an abandoned vineyard in Pennsylvania wine country and a doctor struggling after the loss of a patient learn to heal together despite deeply different views on love, to Alexandra Sehulster at Griffin, in a six-figure deal, at auction, in a two-book deal, for publication in spring/summer 2022, by Laura Bradford at Bradford Literary Agency (NA).
Artist and former fine art professor Matthew Daub's LEAVING EASTERN PARKWAY, in which a boy's life as a 15-year-old living in the heart of the Hasidic community of Lubavitchers is turned upside down when family tragedy strikes; as everyday living changes forever, his saving grace becomes handball; pitched as THE CHOSEN meets CALL IT SLEEP, to Joseph Olshan at Delphinium, in a nice deal, in a pre-empt, for publication in mid-2022, by Harvey Klinger at Harvey Klinger (NA).
Sarah James's THE WOMAN WITH TWO SHADOWS, a World War II thriller pitched as in the vein of Kate Quinn, about a young woman searching for her missing twin who finds herself in the epicenter of the gravest scientific undertaking of all time with no idea who she can trust, to Shana Drehs at Sourcebooks, in a two-book deal, by Abby Saul at The Lark Group.

Book-to-Screen Adaptations

"Bumblebee" vet Travis Knight, CEO of animation studio Laika, signs on to direct Netflix's film adaptation of A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF THE VAMPIRE UPRISING by Raymond Villarea. The story follows a CIA agent investigating the origin of a global viral outbreak that turns people into vampires. "Stranger Things" vet Shawn Levy will executive produce the film under his 21 Laps banner, as part of his overall mega-deal with Netflix. Jeremy Slater ("Death Note") wrote the adaptation.
David E. Kelley and House Of Cards’ Melissa James Gibson will adapt Sarah Vaughan’s ANATOMY OF A SCANDAL for Netflix. Focusing on women caught in the wake of a scandal rollicking through an elite British circle, the six-part anthology is in the vein of Big Little Lies. The cast includes Michelle Dockery and Sienna Miller.
Mary South's story "The Age of Love," from the collection YOU WILL NEVER BE FORGOTTEN, in which old men in a nursing home dial phone-sex hotlines to stave off their debilitating loneliness, to Anonymous Content, by Lucy Stille at Lucy Stille Literary, on behalf of Cynthia Cannell at Cynthia Cannell Literary Agency.
Liane Moriarty's APPLES NEVER FALL, optioned to David Heyman (Harry Potter, Marriage Story) and NBCUniversal International Studios, with Moriarty executive producing, by Jerry Kalajian at Intellectual Property Group, on behalf of Fiona Inglis of Curtis Brown Australia and Faye Bender at The Book Group.
Michael Lewis's THE PREMONITION: A PANDEMIC STORY, to Universal, with Phil Lord and Christopher Miller directing and producing along with Aditya Sood at Lord Miller, also with Amy Pascal and Rachel O'Connor at Pascal Pictures producing, by CAA, on behalf of Writers House.
Matthew Farrell's WHAT HAVE YOU DONE, involving two brothers in the Philadelphia PD's homicide division who investigate the murder of a woman they both know and begin to suspect each other as the murderer, to Andrew Davies Gans at Glanzrock Productions, by Andy Cohen at Grade A Entertainment, on behalf of Curtis Russell at P.S. Literary Agency.
Beth Cowan-Erskine's LOCH DOWN ABBEY, pitched as Downton Abbey meets Knives Out, to Madison Wells Media, by Michael Cendejas at Lynn Pleshette Agency, on behalf of Gregory Messina at Linwood Messina Literary Agency.
Stacey Abrams's just-published thriller WHILE JUSTICE SLEEPS, to Katy Rozelle at Working Title Television, for adaptation as a series, at auction, by UTA, on behalf of The Loewenthal Company.
Tracy Dobmeier and Wendy Katzman's GIRLS WITH BRIGHT FUTURES, about the cutthroat world of college admissions at Seattle's Elliott Bay Academy, to Discovery+, with Manhunt: Unabomber producer John Goldwyn and Twilight producer Karen Rosenfelt adapting, by Addison Duffy at UTA and Carly Watters at P.S. Literary Agent (world).
Kwana Jackson's REAL MEN KNIT, about four brothers struggling to keep their foster's mother's knitting shop afloat, to Muse Entertainment, in a nice deal, by Lucy Stille at Lucy Stille Literary on behalf of Evan Marshall Agency.
Stacey Lee's THE DOWNSTAIRS GIRL, about a Chinese teen in 1890s Atlanta who moonlights as Dear Miss Sweetie, a wildly popular newspaper advice columnist that has all of high society in an uproar, to Bound entertainment (Okja and Snowpiercer), with Lee also serving as executive producer, by Kristin Nelson at Nelson Literary Agency and Alice Lawson of The Gersh Agency and attorney Wayne Alexander.

Source: Publishers Marketplace Deals

Final Thoughts

After writing this article, one thought comes to mind: Create little bits of content to plant everywhere and make it visual if you can.

Yeah, I know that’s not terribly quippy, but the disaggregation and distribution of creator content, followed by the aggregation of key content by corporate entities, followed by said entities leveraging that IP and turning it into many different forms of entertainment appears to be the new norm.

So, for me as a creator, what’s my takeaway here?

1) Become more prolific. I need to get cracking on creating more content, even if it’s not large projects like a completed novel or screenplay.
2) Create rich story worlds, not just interesting stories. There’s an art to this that I’ll explore more in my Industry Deep Dive: Idea or IP?
3) Find ways to get visual! I don’t have an artistic bone in my body, but I did commission an artist to do character illustrations for my ensemble cast from The Otherworlders. Those illustrations on Instagram have consistently brought in followers, even though I’ve only made one new post in the past six months.

Well, I’ve got my To-Do’s! How about you? What were your takeaways from this article? I’d love to know!

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