Book review by Charles Deemer
HOW TO SELL YOUR SCREENPLAY
by Lydia Wilen & Joan Wilen
Square One Writers Guides, 2001
309pp, $17.95
ISBN 0-7570-0002-9
THE WRITER'S GUIDE TO SELLING YOUR SCREENPLAY
by Cynthia Whitcomb
The Writer Books, 2002
195pp, $16.95
ISBN 0-87116-192-3
THE SCRIPT SELLING GAME
by Kathie Fong Yoneda
Michael Wiese Productions, 2002
193pp, $14.95
ISBN 0-941188-44-2
Here are three books
on marketing your completed spec script. Two I can recommend without
reservation, one as what I consider to be the best book in the field hands
down. The third has much useful information but should not be the first
marketing book you buy and certainly not the only one.
I have several
problems with the latter, which is Yoneda's book: it is weakly structured,
poorly produced (it has no index), and confusing in defining its audience. In
fact, it is more suited for screenwriters who already have moved to Los Angeles
and already made some contacts and opened some doors. This is not a book for
the beginning screenwriter in Nebraska who wants to know how to market a spec
script. There are excellent sections on live pitching but little on how to make
a pitch happen in the first place. Overall, this book gives a false impression
that selling a screenplay is easier than it is.
The best chapters are
two: "Talkin' the Talk -- Industry-speak aka What the Hell are They
Talking About?" in which Yoneda reviews common communication between
producers and writers and translates it into what really is being said; and
"Beware of the Big Eight -- the Eight Most Common Mistakes Why a Script
Can Be Rejected" (number one, the slow opening; others are the mid-story
sag and the yakkety-yak trap, scripts filled with meaningless speeches). These
chapters are well worth reading by anyone serious about craft and marketing.
But this book is not a good stand-alone marketing text, especially when
compared to the two other books before us.
Cynthia Whitcomb's
book is beautifully structured, personally and passionately written, and full
of solid good advice. Unlike Yoneda's book, this one is aimed specially at
those beginning screenwriters who do not live in Southern California. Whitcomb
divides her book into three parts: Breaking In, Getting Work, and Your
Screenwriting Career, a sensible direction that mirrors most careers. Whitcomb
is always aware of her audience: one chapter is called "Keeping Your
Spirits Up on the Way to Breaking In." A specially strong section is called
"The Green Light: From Script to Film," in which she takes the reader
step-by-step through the process of turning a screenplay into a movie.
Whitcomb's supportive
tone is what many beginning screenwriters will love most about this book. She's
been where you are, and she's on your side. "Above all," she writes,
"as you make your way through the nonsensical, meandering path of a
Hollywood screenwriting career, no matter what you encounter, don't let it kill
off your love of movies. Especially those most private screenings that play
first and best on the movie screen of your mind."
A wonderful bonus in
this book is an Epilogue written by Nicholl winner Mike Rich, author of Finding
Forrester and The Rookie, an inspirational success story if ever there was one.
This book makes you feel anything is possible while never for a moment giving a
false impression of the competitive reality of the Hollywood marketplace.
Our final book by the
Wilens is the best book on marketing a screenplay I have seen. If Whitcomb's
book is like a fine, small independent movie, HOW TO SELL YOUR SCREENPLAY is
like a Hollywood blockbuster. With large design and resource budgets, this book
is filled with features and sidebars that set it aside from everything else on
the market. Moreover, the authors have a very specific marketing strategy in
mind for the beginning screenwriter, which they present in great detail. It's
not the only way to go about marketing a script and building a career but their
method is solid and sensible. Moreover, it gives their book a tone that is
specific and goal-oriented, losing the theoretical tone that is in so many
marketing books. This is like a recipe book -- if follow these steps, you will
greatly improve your chances of selling a script. And if you follow the steps
and still haven't made a sale, they tell you how to trouble shoot the problem.
Two special features
in this book are hugely informative. "Prose from a Pro" are sidebars
written by industry professionals on topics within each chapter. Even more
useful to writers, end-of-chapter sections called "From Script to Screen"
feature screenwriters telling the development story of their own scripts. It's
both inspiration and informative to learn about the hard times established
screenwriters experienced before they became established.
I can't find a single
fault with this book, not one thing that should be included but isn't. This is
a rare gem of a book, comprehensive and easy to read and use, honest and full
of specific examples (including a contract sample for collaborative writers),
an impressive A-to-Z handbook of marketing the spec script today. This book is
an extraordinary achievement and one I will recommend strongly to my serious
students. If you buy only one marketing book, this is the one to get.
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Charles Deemer teaches screenwriting at Portland State University and has optioned six screenplays. He is the author of an electronic screenwriting tutorial, Screenwright. His new book is What Happens Next? An Introduction to Screenwriting.