by Voyage | Sep 23, 2015 | Blog post, Book to Film, Entertainment Business, Pitching
(HINT: You don’t need a lit agent) When was the last time you were at the movies? If it was sometime in the past 50 years of so (please tell me it was!), then chances are you caught a flick that was based on a book. Book adaptations have always been a source of compelling content (think Jaws and the first Jurassic Park), but more recently, adaptations have become one of the fastest growing, most reliably profitable and attractive markets for producers in Hollywood (think Hunger Games and Harry Potter). Authors everywhere are gaining more and more traction with producers looking for compelling stories to be adapted for film and television… So where do you start? Traditionally, authors begin by looking for a literary agent who would then connect them with producers and agents in the entertainment industry, and act as their calling card to success in Hollywood. Well I’m here to tell you that is not [always] the case… If you are a well-known author who already has a large following of fans and readers, then this traditional route will be effective for you because a lit agent has pull with producers. A lit agent’s job is basically to make a producer’s life easier by acting as a middleman between writers and producers. But… If you are an author who is just starting out or still working to figure out how to gain traction for yourself and your book(s), then going the lit agent route is not your best option. Here’s why: Literary agents are very focused on the projects that will provide an easy transaction with guaranteed...
by Voyage | Aug 10, 2015 | Audience, Book to Film, Entertainment Business, Pitching
The Key to Getting Your Project into Production For creators like us, generating content comes pretty naturally (excluding the occasional writers block of course). That’s why we do what we do. But as you probably have experienced first hand, writing and conceptualizing isn’t always the hard part; it’s money. Finding investors who are interested in funding your project can be incredibly difficult. It’s the ultimate catch 22 in a creator’s life—investors want to give money to projects that are well known and bound for success, but a project can’t become well known and successful without money from investors. If you don’t have a very generous great uncle waiting in the wings to donate to your creative project, I have the perfect solution to help you out with this age-old dilemma… ***Crowdfunding*** Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising many small amounts of money from a large number of people, typically via the Internet (google.com). Whether or not you’ve heard of crowdfunding before, I’m here to tell you that it should absolutely be on your radar as a tool to finance part (or all) of your project. Websites like Kickstarter.com and Indiegogo.com give you the chance to get your project or ideas off the ground without having to go out and solicit investors the traditional way. These crowdfunding platforms by nature create a reciprocal relationship between investors (who pledge money) and creators (who offer various perks to backers who donate). And it works because everyone is benefiting from the partnership, and the momentum that comes with having so many supporters is exactly what you...
by Voyage | Feb 24, 2015 | Book to Film
Unless you’ve been hiding your head under a rock, then you know how hot Book Trailers are… All the major publishers use them to promote their books – Penguin, Random House, Harper Collins, and others… And self-published authors now follow suit, with trailers of their own. Book trailers simply make sense when it comes to book promotion… People are much more likely to buy a product when they see a video about it Trailers are visually exciting and entice readers more easily than text They can be used effectively on all the social media platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, Twitter, Instagram, etc. They act as a great centerpiece to an author website Unlike paid ads, they live forever, garnering more and more organic views over time As an art form, book trailers are just beginning, but already it’s easy to see what separates the great ones from the lackluster. A great book trailer is cinematic. They are filmed and edited by talented professionals – often with original footage, talented actors, professional voiceover, and exceptional filmmaking. A great book trailer piques a reader’s interest and makes them want to see more! Even celebrities and Hollywood heavyweights have taken notice of this new art form and its power to attract an audience… Check out this trailer for Neil Patrick Harris’ Choose Your Own Autobiography, starring none other than NPH himself. Or this trailer for One More Thing by B.J. Novak, starring B.J. Novak (“The Office”) and Mindy Kaling (“The Office”, “The Mindy Project”). And then there’s some cinematic book trailers that rival those of big-budget movies, shot using 4K...
by Voyage | Jun 11, 2014 | Audience, Book to Film
Keys to Turning Your Book Into A Film Or Original Series – Part 4 Make Your Film Project Stand Out — Get Ahead on Time and Money In Part 3 of Keys to Turning Your Book Into A Film Or Original Series we talked about creating short form materials to help facilitate getting producers to read your work and this week we’re going to talk about why creating short form materials help a producer not just save time, but also save money. When a producer is deciding which projects to focus on, which aren’t projects to consider, and which projects to option and acquire, they’re largely considering three major things: What is their cost to bring the project to market? How much of an investment are they going to need to make? What’s the probable speed to market, meaning is the project efficient or inefficient? How much time will it take? Does the project meet the producer’s creative and market needs? These questions can help your film project stand out. A Closer Look at Costs The other thing to really understand is that producers in Hollywood are signatories of the Writers Guild of America. The Writers Guild of America is the union that manages all screenwriters and authors. In the case of a producer in Hollywood who’s the signatory to the union, when they’re looking at a novel to adapt, one of the first things that they’re likely to need to do is hire a screenwriter to develop the material into a treatment or screenplay. The minimum union scale for a writer in the Writers Guild of America is roughly...
by Voyage | Jun 4, 2014 | Book to Film
Hook them with a logline First and foremost, in order to sell a story, you have to know its logline like the back of your hand. Loglines are an industry standard of communication, so being a master of writing a logline is definitely a requirement. So what is a logline, exactly? A logline is a one sentence compelling and cinematic description of your story, its main character, that characters main objective, and the main obstacle they face. Your logline is the absolute essence of your story. Loglines are, by necessity, simple. But they aren’t always easy. While a logline is a simplified encapsulation of the main points of your story, fitting the essence of your story into an easily-digestible sound bite can sometimes be tricky. You have to make several important decisions: What does the audience absolutely need to know? What else can they infer from the page? What can you make them feel? What makes your story stand out from the rest? In order to be as effective as possible, your logline needs to do these three key things: 1. Answer their questions: First, it must answer the who? what? where? when? and how? of your story. This is the bare bones of the story you’re trying to tell. Without this, it can be difficult for a producer to determine what your story is even about, even if the concept may be clear as crystal in your own head. A good rule of thumb is to include one or two telling adjectives about both your protagonist and antagonist. It might be tough to pin down your complex...
by Voyage | May 28, 2014 | Book to Film
Keys to Turning Your Book Into A Film Or Original Series – Part 3 Why Do I Need Short Form Materials? In Parts 1 and 2 of this series — The Keys to Turning Your Book Into A Film Or Original Series– we discussed how to solve the time (and money) problem for a producer, how to make a producer’s life easy and really attract them to your book, and how to view this entire process as the business that it is – the “Adaptation Business”. Today in Part 3, we are going to start discussing exactly how to do this. To start, one of the best ways of beginning this process is by creating short form materials. Let’s take a look at what short form materials look like, why they’re important, and how you can create them… What Are Short Form Materials? There are a variety of valuable short form materials, but the most effective for promoting your book to producers are: Logline
– Loglines are quick, one-sentence summaries of your book written in exciting and visual entertainment speak, can be really great sales tools, and serve a bit like your ‘elevator pitch’. Synopsis (or Book Summary)
– This is probably self-explanatory, but a synopsis is a short summary that provides a clear and concise outline of the story. Although longer than a logline, this should be relatively short. Treatments – In most cases, a treatment is a 7 to 10 page breakdown of the story outlining the beginning, middle, and end. This document is a great sales tool because it solves a big part of the producer’s time problem, and can even be adapted into a screenplay. Screenplay – This...
