Books

Average customer rating:

All the basics of selling and marketing a script
Three-and-a-half stars
Quirky book
Novel Advice Book Review
Highly Recommended Reading!

Screen & Stage Marketing Secrets

Manufacturer: James Russell
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

The Screenwriter's Bible: A Complete Guide to Writing, Formatting, and Selling Your Script

ASIN: 0916367118

Book Description

Here's the ultimate screenwriter's marketing manual to get your screenplay or stageplay sold. No other screenplay book describes exactly how to perform a professional submission to agents, producers and production companies. Here you will learn how to clean up your script to eliminate those dangerous words Story Analyst (readers) see and toss the script aside with a rejection slip. Learn the inside secrets of breaking down the protective firewalls to get your scripts read by those who have the power to buy. You will learn how to obtain an agent and how to submit your scripts to production companies without an agent and be taken seriously. Don't let the firewalls stop you from selling your script. Order this manual, fix the errors in your scripts and you will be breaking in! Softbound, large 8x11 format, 80 pages, with illustrations.

Download Description

This book is 100% dedicated to selling screenplays and stage plays. Contains sample query letters, list of literary agents, resources, valuable advice for writers with over 40 illustrations on how to professionally package your script and query letter to agents, producers, production companies and theatres to get the sale! Many writing tips are given in this book and lists agents willing to give new writers a chance with special consideration, and much more!

Customer Reviews:

All the basics of selling and marketing a script .......2005-12-06

Learn all the basics of selling and marketing a script through the practical marketing guide Screen & Stage Marketing Secrets: Everything You Need To Know To Market Your Screenplay, TV Or Stage Play Script. This goes beyond advice on how to produce a script to focus on the nuts and bolts of how to market and protect one, from contacting production companies and increasing the possibility of a response to accessing the TV market. You don't have to have an agent to do it right - but you do have to have industry savvy, which Screen & Stage Marketing Secrets will provide.

Three-and-a-half stars.......2005-04-07

I understand the criticism of one reviewer below. After all, Russell comes off like more of a salesman tring to make a buck off the hopes and dreams of aspiring screenwriters than a legitimate screenwriter himself. However, the content of the book isn't completely worthless.

Russell's advice on proper screenwriting technique is accurate, but is nothing more than what's covered in the curriculum of a screenwriting 101 class. Thus, it's only useful to those who haven't taken any classes or done some serious self-study.

The marketing of a screenplay is why I bought the book, and I haven't been disappointed. The advice is simple and to the point, if not muddled at times. Russell can also be repetitive. Overall, however, I've managed to pick up some good advice as I mount a query letter campaign for my screenplay. My main criticism is that Russell focuses too strongly on the agent market, and doesn't seem to have an understanding or appreciation of writers looking to do more than sell scripts for a big pay day. Plenty of screenwriters make a good living on assignment work generated on the quality of their samples; many of which are never optioned, sold, or produced.

Pick this up as part of your research into marketing yourself and your script to Hollywood.

Quirky book.......2003-01-30

Some excerpts from the book:

- A selection of remarks about God and quotes from the Bible in the front matter. Not a bad thing, just a bit unexpected in a book about marketing for the screen and stage.

- Half of the next page is about where to buy this book. If you're holding the book, the odds are good you don't need that information by then.

- Under 'Author Biography' on the first page: "No recognition is desired by the author. Displaying credentials serves no purpose." Well, yes it does. It tells you what experience the author has, his level of 'authority' on the subject matter, what point of view he's writing from - a studio exec will have a different point of view than a script reader.

- "No Chapter 13" (yet there's a page number for it)

- "Chapter 14 - Introduction to Trap Shooting" and "Trap Shooting Writing Opportunities." No, I am not kidding. The author is sure that you'll meet people here. You just might, but how many of them are Hollywood types who can or will actually do anything for you is questionable. It doesn't matter because this section isn't about shmoozing; it instead extolls the virtues of trap shooting as an obsession.

The author also names 5 "must-see" movies - which are actually six. Three are classics: "The Terminator" (which he calls "Terminator 1") and "Terminator 2" (which is actually titled "Terminator 2: Judgment Day"), and "It's a Wonderful Life." No, I'm not being picky. If you're going to write about screenwriting, it's lazy not to bother to get the titles right.

He includes "The Cormorant," and "England Made Me," which he "believe[s] were filmed by British prodcos." Shouldn't an author have done his research for a book on this topic? (The sixth one is "The Last Shout," a TV-movie made from a British comedy series. Draw your own conclusions on that one.)

- "The 7-Day Plan To Be A Better Christian!" (Not a chapter, just a page, but not relevant to the subject either.)

I'm not faulting the author for his obsessions, but the book needs better focus on the topic at hand. One doesn't pay [$$$] for a hodge-podge of script marketing, Christian prosletyzing, and how to get into trap shooting.

It's also surprisingly amateurishly formatted for the price. The entire thing is in Courier font with an extra space between chapters. The book has few charts or lists (learn to use bullets!), and no index. It needs better formatting, an index, and someone besides the author to edit it.

The quality of the book overall (poor formatting, mediocre editing, fuzzy focus, lack of credentials, sloppy research, lazy writing, and lack of accuracy in something as ordinary as a film title) make me question the value and credibility of the overall content.

Novel Advice Book Review.......2000-10-31

BOOK REVIEW BY NOVEL ADVICE SCREEN & STAGE MARKETING SECRETS by James Russell What this book is not . . . it is not a how-to-write book and it is not limited just to those who write screen and/or stage plays. Inside the glossy cover lies a treasure trove of information-information about creating a professional manuscript and presentation. On page one the journey begins . . . FADE IN All too often professionalism is missing from many writer's works. And, the absence of that essential facet dooms a writer to the dismay of continued rejection and frustration for those who are looking for well-written, polished works. What follows, then, is a well-written instructional manual meant to give you the tools necessary to polish and present your work. There are rules in the world of writing, rules that need to be kept in order to market and sell any type of writing. James Russell did not make those rules, but in this book he brings them to our attention. He tells us that "these rules are called 'firewalls' designed to keep unprofessional writers out of the money." While he is writing to screen and stage play writers, those words ring true for all writers. Some of the highlights of SCREEN & STAGE MARKETING SECRETS are: * *Developing creativity & 5 basic story tips universal to all fiction writing *Tools for streamlining your writing *Advice from the experts-agents, producers, publishers, and readers *Registering your Copyrights *Rules for mailing scripts/what to do/what not to do *Making multiple submissions *Marketing your product *Agent & Management firm listings One of the most enlightening and important chapters in this book is "Writer Survival Tips." Here you will find the kind of no nonsense things that mark a true professional, things that often spell the difference between acceptance and rejection. This book is so packed with information that I found it difficult to decide just which to write about. Until now I'd never entertained the idea of writing screen or stage plays. However, after reviewing SCREEN & STAGE MARKETING SECRETS, the idea intrigues me. No matter what type of writing I embark on, this book has much information to share with me. The price of this book is not small. But it is a worthwhile investment for those committed to not only writing screen and script plays, but in writing them with excellence. FADE OUT - Lin Mouat e-mail:linmouat@home.com

Highly Recommended Reading!.......2000-10-27

"I have read many books about screenwriting including The Screenwriters Bible. Screen & Stage Marketing Secrets has so much information you need to study it. It's a great tool. Anyone who plans to write screenplays should read this book." - Frank Webb

Writing the script: A practical guide for films and television

Average customer rating:

excellent and different in style to others out there

Writing the script: A practical guide for films and television
Wells Root
Manufacturer: Holt, Rinehart and Winston
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Foreign Languages | Reference | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

The Screenwriter's Bible: A Complete Guide to Writing, Formatting, and Selling Your Script
Writing Screenplays That Sell: The Complete, Step-By-Step Guide for Writing and Selling to
Writing Great Screenplays F/FI (Writing Great Screenplays for Film and TV)
Successful Television Writing
Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting

ASIN: 0030442265

Customer Reviews:

excellent and different in style to others out there.......2006-06-26

Chapters:
Tell me a story - the beginning middle and end
Characterization - playing god, making people
Conflict - the working substance of drama and comedy
supense - romeo and juliet as the cliffhanger
content and emotion - the heart has a mind of its own
beginning your screenplay
ending a dramatic story
what am I going to write about next - story ideas basic plots. there is no such thing as an original story
dialogue
situation comedy
tv
and four other chapters

Read it after recommendation from Dan Calvisi of Act Four Screenplays [...]
One of the original (and best) books on screenwriting, Writing the Script (1980; Holt, Rinehart and Winston), even Romeo and Juliet is a suspense story: "Shakespeare told his love story in a sequence of...suspenseful scenes. And in resolving each crisis, he created another! Thus, the progressive tension increased until the play's resolution, which was the lovers' reunion in death."

Average customer rating:

Writing the Script: A Practical Guide for Films and Television
Wells Root
Manufacturer: Henry Holt & Company, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000O8T5D6

Average customer rating:

Writing the Script : A Practical Guide for Films and Television.
Wells. Root
Manufacturer: Holt, Rinehart and Winston
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000O8XRIK

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