The Breakdown - Week of 7/13/20
And we’re back with another issue of “The Breakdown!”
I’m so, so happy that over 50% of you opened the first ever Industry Deep Dive #1 email! Awesome!!! I hope you read it and garnered some very useful information from it. :-)
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And now, a little housekeeping…
I wanted to make sure you knew that this newsletter has a Contest Alert section. Be sure to check it out because the deadlines for some really great contests are coming up, fast, at the end of this month.
The news section is going to be a bit theme-related this time since the news articles I highlight in The Breakdown are more about trends and less about breaking news. In any event, you’ll see that for this episode our them is along the lines of audio-first and audio-only publishing.
But first…
…let me hit you with five new scene-specific writing prompts, drawn from my book “What Would Your Character Do? - Writing Prompts to Help You Destroy Writer’s Block, Write Faster, and Write More” (up on Amazon and free in Kindle Unlimited!)
Prompts
As mentioned before, these prompts from “What Would Your Character Do?" are designed to give you some momentum if you ever find yourself stuck in a scene. If these five prompts don’t work for you, hang tight! You’ll get another five new ones in a week, or you could just buy, or check out, the book to pick from over 500 more.
Okay, so let’s get started.
If you're stuck in a scene, try to have your character:
Promise someone more than they can deliver
Separate two people who are fighting
Offer to help someone find someone else who's missing
Recall something they read in a book, a magazine, or saw on TV
Start to protest a point but get interrupted
Give those prompts some time to marinate, and if they’re not doing it for you, you’ll get five more next week!
Contest Alerts
The Screencraft TV Pilot Competition (and info. on book submission contests too!)
Deadline (July 31st) - So, this contest wasn’t really around (or at least wasn’t all that prominent), when I was working in Hollywood. However, it seems to have risen in prestige and the judges lineup for this TV pilot contest is very impressive. That’s how you can tell how worthwhile a contest is—by the experience, prestige level, and number of produced works of the judges on the panel. Now, there’s a bit of a Catch-22 here, which is that the higher the level the judge (like Betsy Beers, who is Shonda Rhimes producing partner) the less likely they are to take on your project, just because they’ve probably already got many, many high-level projects on their slate. But, if they have a development deal with a studio, then you never know. They may be looking for something very specific that they currently don’t have and don’t want to develop from scratch. The upside from an opportunity like this, if you’re not the Grand Winner or a Finalist, is:
An industry contact
A possible warm introduction to an agent or manager
Possible feedback and project guidance
The nice part about this contest is that they have a development program, which if you win or final, means more opportunities and some hands-on support.
Also, it looks like they have a Book Adaptation Contest opening up in September as well as a Short Story Contest, so novelists haven’t been left out of the fun!
Shore Scripts Screenwriting Contests
Deadlines (July 31st) - This is also a new one to me, but a perusal of the judges shows more of a hodgepodge of folks (some actors and film festival directors), but all industry pros. They have a Feature Contest, a TV Pilot Contest, and a Short Film Fund (for actually producing a short film, but open to both screenwriters and directors.)
Deadline (July 31st) - Now, while this isn’t a contest, per se, it is a fellowship. I believe it’s a residency one, although with COVID, they don’t say how they’re going to handle that aspect of the program. In any event, it’s one of the many great writing fellowships/apprenticeships sponsored by the TV networks and ideal for those who want to work in the industry, not just write shows on spec.
News
Book Deals: Week of July 13, 2020
The book deals that caught my eye this week were Irish author Dervla McTiernan, inking a seven-figure deal with HarperCollins for a trio of standalone novels set in the U.S. This is because her previous Cormac Reilly series has sold more than 400,000 copies and the first in that series, The Ruin, is currently in development as a limited TV series. Also, there’s Nick, a novel about The Great Gatsby narrator Nick Carraway, which was acquired by Joshua Kendall at Little, Brown. Trident Media Group’s Ellen Levine handled the North American rights agreement for author Michael Farris Smith. LB is calling Nick a prequel to Gatsby, whose U.S. copyright expires at the end of 2020.
I’ve been doing some reading on public domain works, and after a shift in the U.S. copyright law which prevented a lot of works entering the public domain for many, many years, it seems the doors are opening again. This Nick example of leveraging a public domain work, I thought, was particularly brilliant. Food for thought if you’re looking for story ideas…
San Diego Comic-Con is virtual (and free) this year!
Be sure to create a schedule for yourself and dive into some of these great Zoom panels with industry experts (also streaming on YouTube.) Due to COVID, much (but not all) of the programming has been redesigned to focus on how comics can inspire and teach kids, which I think is fantastic! So, even if you’re not interested in the panels (which you really should be, given that the Con now covers books, TV, and movies), you may have kids or nieces and nephews who might dig it.
There’s still a lot of programming and panels for industry pros and those who are interested in what’s going on in the comic book and comic-book adjacent world. I took a quick perusal of the panels (which start this Wednesday) and spotted one of particular interest, which I’ll talk about below.
Legion M - Bypassing Hollywood Gatekeepers
So, I need to dig into this company more, but I love this idea! Legion M is the first fan-backed, fan-owned entertainment company that’s actually getting content produced. Their model is kind of like the Green Bay Packers public ownership model meets Patreon. Fan “investors” get to vote on and champion projects that the company will focus their development dollars on. They’ve raise $10 Million so far, so that’s nothing to sneeze at.
They have a panel at this year’s Comic-Con scheduled for this coming Thursday - Legion M: How We're Opening the Gates to Hollywood
Now, what I find so incredibly fascinating about this company, aside from the fan-owned component, is how they’re getting their content out there. Besides the films they’ve already backed, Save Yourselves! and Archenemy and some previously released titles Colossal (with Anne Hathaway) and Bad Samaritan (with David Tennant); they’re also optioning book series for adaptation, like Emperor’s Blades; they’re producing scripted podcasts, like The Left/Right Game; and they’re hosting contests which let their community scout, vote on, and advocate for films from the Sundance Film Festival that the company should try to get involved with or back.
Their approach reminds me a lot of how both Wattpad and Swoon Reads are trying to leverage both data and community to find their next hits.
Amazon Developing Podcast “The Horror of Dolores Roach” with Blumhouse TV
The Horror of Dolores Roach, Blumhouse Television’s drama series adaptation of the Gimlet podcast, is in development at Amazon with a virtual writers’ room set up.
Blumhouse won the rights to adapt the podcast last year in a competitive situation. The Horror of Dolores Roach is based on Mark’s one-woman play Empanada Loca, which starred Daphne Rubin-Vega, who broke through in the Broadway production of Rent and is set to star in feature In The Heights.
Launching a Book as a Free Podcast? Not So Crazy
While most of the podcast acquisitions for fiction adaptation have been slickly produced, high-end productions, this case study is an interesting account of a writer’s experience releasing his first book as a podcast before publication.
Where to Catch your Favorite Adapted Podcasts
Amazon seems to have taken the lead in adapting podcasts, both fiction and nonfiction ones, into TV shows with Lore, Homecoming, and the upcoming Dolores Roach mentioned above. But several of your other favorite podcasts have ended up at other networks and streamers. The link above provides a good guide as to where they landed.
Anything in today’s news or contest round up catch your eye? Have you got questions? Just let me know!
Final Thoughts
Between the rise of audio, emerging podcast drama networks, and the restrictions of COVID, writing rich, dialogue-heavy stories with smaller casts might be a great bet for the next year or so if you’re interested in getting your work adapted. It’s definitely something I’d be thinking about if I were embarking on a new project.
If you saw my recommendation in the comments section of the Industry Deep Dive #1 to reader, Teace, who asked about ways a new writer might possibly get their work noticed, one of my suggestions was to create as many forms of your story as possible so that even an abridged or teaser version lives on every platform and in every format available.
More and more, producers want some indication that your story will resonate with an audience. And the best way to make that happen is to hit up as many audiences as possible in as many ways as possible. Today we took a look at how audio might get you there. Does this mean you should run out and produce a podcast? Well, no. But the more serious you are about getting your work noticed, the more open you have to be about ways to sell and market it as potential IP. Maybe you have some out of work actor friends? Maybe the sound guy your brother knows is looking for something to do during Lockdown? Maybe you’re looking for a way to get your story and more inventive material onto social media platforms like Instagram, YouTube, or (and I’m not advocating it, but its growth is undeniable) TikTok?
Start thinking creatively about how your story can exist in the world as more than just words on a page because now is the time to get inventive and take risks while people’s minds are open and the whole world is hungrier than ever for new and intriguing content.
Until next time!
~ Paula
Another great edition! And thank you for these contest alerts. I didn't realize so many of them were open to you submitting your book for adaptation. I tried to write a screenplay once and it was a complete disaster! This seems like a much more viable option for me. 😄
Wonderful, informative, and fun to read!
I've definitely had my eyes on going more into podcasts or YouTube readalouds. Since your advice last week, I've even created a new wattpad account to start some rebranding. My goal is to dedicate the account and essentially my time there, to one series that I would develop and morph into these different versions for accessiblity and hopefully marketability.
So far, the effort is on a stand still as I carefully look at how to divide my time but I promise not to rest too long. Thank you for the advice, Paula