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Book Publicist Scott Lorenz offers Authors Book Marketing Tips and Techniques on his Blog “The Book Publicist”

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Authors Want Hollywood to Call You? Use These Matchmakers & Turn Your Book Into a MOVIE!

Authors Want Hollywood to Call You? Use These Matchmakers & Turn Your Book Into a MOVIE!

Innovative Services Place Your Script in Front of Hollywood Producers

By Scott Lorenz
Westwind Communications

As a book publicist, I am asked on a regular basis, “Can you get my book turned into a movie?”  With all the streaming outlets like NETFLIX, AMAZON and others who desperately need new content, the demand for creative work has never been higher. Now there are services who can place your book or screenplay in front of Hollywood producers who can, in fact, turn it into a movie.  If you want to turn your book into a movie then check out these ‘matchmakers’ I’ve discovered below.

Greenlight My Movie

If you have a short film, book, screenplay, or true story, you can pitch it to Greenlight My Movie. Once you do, you’ll receive a guaranteed response from Hollywood buyers and representatives. To get started, create a profile, add your synopsis, find companies that may be interested, and submit your project. Warner Brothers states that Greenlight My Movie has a great process and has provided them with some great ideas.

Pros of Greenlight My Movie

  • Optional Video: If you don’t have video, no worries. It’s optional so you can simply submit your synopsis and logline.
  • Guaranteed Response: A Hollywood buyer or rep will get back to you via a written email response. Their response will likely come with detailed feedback that will steer you in the right direction.

Cons of Greenlight My Movie

  • Submission Charge: You’ll have to pay $29.95 to submit your pitch.
  • Will Have to Wait for a Response: While most people receive a response in about 3 to 4 weeks, you may have to wait longer to hear back.

Hollywood Pitch Festival

Attend the 23rd annual Hollywood Pitch Festival and pitch A-list buyers and representatives. This year, the event will be held August 1st through 2nd in the Los Angeles area. It’s the only pitch festival that offers one-on-one pitch meetings in two days with over 200 of Hollywood’s top personnel under one roof. One-on-one pitch coaching via Skype is also available two weeks before the festival.

Pros of Hollywood Pitch Festival

  • No Limits: While you’re at the festival, you can pitch as many companies as you’d like because there are no limits.
  • Pitching Resources: Hollywood Pitch Festival wants you to succeed so they will send you pitching tips and how-to videos right before the event.

Cons of Hollywood Pitch Festival

  • Travel Involved: Since this is a physical event, you’ll have to travel to participate. This can be an issue if you’re limited on time and money. Fortunately, you can buy a virtual pass and submit your pitch online if you prefer.
  • Limited Attendance: The Hollywood Pitch Festival limits attendance to 200 people. So, if you don’t sign up early enough, you may not make the cut.

TaleFlick

Since its debut in 2018, TaleFlick has provided a searchable library of fiction, novels, and short stories. It strives to connect authors with film or TV producers. You can create your own page and match with vetted scriptwriters who can offer tips on how to improve your story. TaleFlick can also help you get discovered by producers looking for new material.

“TaleFlick is an effective, efficient way for your work to be presented directly to those people who may want to make a film out of it. I don’t know why it didn’t exist before but I’m glad it does now,” says Michael Bowker, author of Gods of Our Time.

Pros of TaleFlick

  • Great Exposure: With TaleFlick, you can submit your story online and get in front of the top studios, producers, and production companies.
  • Commitment to Giving Back: TaleFlick has a “1 million Books 1 million Children” initiative where they give one million books to one million children all around the world.

Cons of TaleFlick

  • Must Pay to Submit Stories: TaleFlick is not free for authors as you’ll have to pay $88 to submit your story.
  • Not All Stories Accepted: TaleFlick accepts scripts, screenplays, fiction and nonfiction books, manuscripts and children’s stories. The site doesn’t currently support short stories, comic books, and plays.

InkTip

InkTip began in 2000 to make it easy for producers, directors, agents, managers, and name actors to access quality screenplays and professional authors. Believe it or not, more than 375 feature films have been made from scripts and writers discovered through InkTip. One example of an InkTip success story is Fireball, which was produced by Harvey Kahn with Front Street Pictures and aired on the Sci-Fi channel.

Pros of InkTip

  • Variety of Services: InkTip offers three main services to get your scripts noticed. These include its script listings and script renewals service, InkTip Magazine service, and Preferred Newsletter service.
  • Thousands of Industry Professionals: Over 2,700 producers, agents, managers and other industry professionals use InkTip.
  • Privacy of Scripts: You can’t look at the scripts of other writers as they are reserved for qualified industry professionals.

Cons of InkTip

  • Fees Involved: While you can register an account with InkTip for free, you have to pay for its specific services. Fees range from $30 to $60.

Spec Scout

Spec Scout’s goal is to be the best place to discover and promote the highest-quality screenplays, on and off the market. It hopes to give aspiring writers a way to break into the business. “Spec Scout is my secret weapon. Having the whole spec market in one place, with scores, loglines, and coverage is such a huge advantage. I can’t imagine not having access to this library,” says Stephanie Marin, producer at El Camino Entertainment.

Pros of Spec Scout

  • In-Depth Feedback: Once you submit your script, three readers will provide ratings and a comprehensive analysis of your script. You’ll get 8 to 10 pages of detailed comments that outline its strengths and weaknesses.
  • Script Score: Your “Script Score” will indicate the quality of your script. If you score 75 or above on the 100-point scale, you’ll be listed as a “Scouted” writer for free, forever.

Cons of Spec Scout

  • Pricey: To submit your script, you’ll have to pay $297. Rush service is available for an extra $100.
  • Feedback Takes Time: It’ll take about one month to receive feedback on your script. If you can’t wait that long, the $100 rush service can get it to you in one week.

The Bottom Line: Just like online dating doesn’t guarantee you’ll meet your special someone, there are no guarantees that these services will turn your work into a movie. Just look at them as another opportunity to gain exposure for your book.

Authors Want #Hollywood to Call You? Use These Matchmakers & Turn Your #Book Into a #MOVIE! Click to tweet this article to your friends and followers! 𝕏

About Book Publicist Scott Lorenz

Book publicist Scott Lorenz is President of Westwind Communications, a public relations and marketing firm that has a special knack for working with authors to help them get all the publicity they deserve and more. Lorenz works with bestselling authors and self-published authors promoting all types of books, whether it’s their first book or their 15th book. He’s handled publicity for books by CEOs, CIA Officers, Navy SEALS, Homemakers, Fitness Gurus, Doctors, Lawyers and Adventurers. His clients have been featured by Good Morning America, FOX & Friends, CNN, ABC News, New York Times, Nightline, TIME, PBS, LA Times, USA Today, Washington Post, Woman’s World, & Howard Stern to name a few.

Learn more about Westwind Communications’ book marketing approach at https://www.WestwindBookMarketing.com or contact Lorenz at [email protected] or 734-667-2090 or fill out the form below. Follow Lorenz on Twitter @aBookPublicist. Want help titling a book? Check out Scott Lorenz’s new award winning, bestselling book: Book Title Generator- A Proven System in Naming Your Book www.BookTitleGenerator.net.

Would you like help promoting your book?

If so, tell us a little about your book. What is the title? Do you have a publisher? What is the publish date? How many pages is your book? What is the cost? Do you have web site? What is your specific goal I.E., to make money, raise awareness, get the attention of an agent or publisher, sell the story to a movie or TV studio or something else?

Submit the form below with this information and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible. Thank you!


How a Self Published Author went from 99 cents ebook to Movie Blockbuster THE MARTIAN

How a Self Published Author went from 99 cents ebook to Movie Blockbuster THE MARTIAN

By Scott Lorenz
Westwind Communications Book Marketing

Did you know that Andy Weir author of The Martian first published a series of blog posts, then an ebook? Yes, it’s true. Before The Martian became a Hollywood legend it had humble beginnings… on a blog. Here’s the backstory of this self-published author.

Author Andy Weir wrote The Martian in 2011 and it’s now one of the most popular movies of the day. It is a story about fearless astronaut Mark Watney, played by actor Matt Damon, who overcomes several challenges after being left behind by his team on Mars.

How did Weir get the inspiration to write a bestselling novel and Sci-Fi blockbuster extravaganza? With rejection of course…

“I was sitting around thinking about how to do a human mission to Mars, not for a story but just for the heck of it. I started thinking about how I would do it and all the things that could go wrong, and I realized it would make a great story. So, I made up a protagonist and subjected him to all of it,” said Weir in an interview with SmithsonianMag.com.

“I had tried before to write novels and submitted them to agents, but no one was interested,” said Weir.

Weir grew up with parents who were electronics engineer and a particle physicist and became interested in science, technology, and of course Sci-Fi classics including Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clark, Robert Heinlein, and let’s not forget Dr. Who, according to an article by Micah White on Biography.com.

Weir was a computer programmer at AOL, but when they merged with Netscape he was let go and with his severance package went on to fulfill a dream of his to write fiction.

In 2009 Weir began writing The Martian as a hobby and posted chapters on his website for interested readers. He gained a few thousand followers, many of whom were scientists that provided technical accuracy of the story. From there, The Martian was completed and posted on his website as a free e-book.

“If it wasn’t for the Internet, the story wouldn’t have been possible at all because I wouldn’t have had any medium to tell stories. I wasn’t even trying to break into the industry anymore, I was doing it as a labor of love,” said Weir in his SmithsonianMag.com interview.

“Chemists actually pointed out some problems in early drafts,” said Weir in an interview with Businessinsider.com. With that he was able to go back and correct some of the chemistry that was crucial for Watney’s survival.

This self-publishing author followed his true passion without any additional help from an agent or marketing team and continued to write even though he received many rejection letters.

“I was afraid it was going to read like a Wikipedia article if I didn’t make it really interesting,” said Weir during a discussion of The Martian at the recent Human MARS Summit in Washington D.C.

In September 2012, the book became available on Amazon for $0.99, selling 35,000 copies and moving it up to the top of Amazon’s Sci-Fi Bestseller List. After topping the Bestseller List on Amazon, an agent contacted Weir and he was soon represented by Random House for a book deal. On top of that Fox contacted him for the film rights of his novel.

Within days of each other both deals closed, and the computer programmer had gone from a self-published author to published author (selling nearly 1 million copies) to the creator of Hollywood’s 2015 blockbuster.

Even NASA loved the publicity from The Martian with the following tweets:

  • NASA astronaut and #TheMartian movie actress hope to inspire the next generation of astronauts on our #journeytomars
  • Watching #TheMartian? See how our Deep Space Habitat compares to one in the film: go.nasa.gov/1iUaBKi

“It was such a sudden launch into the big leagues that I literally had a difficult time believing it,” said Weir in an interview on his site. “I was actually warned it could all be an elaborate scam. So, I guess that was my first reaction: ‘Is this really happening?’”

Persistence is key in the self-publishing book business. Almost every writer goes through the struggle, some having an agent, some not. The idea behind The Martian is that similar to Mark Watney, Andy Weir did the best he could with the limited resources that he had, no agent, no marketing team and no publisher. He, like Watney, took the creative spark he harnessed and prevailed in his struggle to find success.

The Bottom Line:  There’s a wealth of brilliant self-published authors striving to succeed. For some authors big success awaits. The difference is often getting just a little exposure. If the New York Times and other publications who routinely dismiss self-published authors would take a look at the fine work created by these talented people, The Martian will indeed leave an indelible imprint on the self-publishing landscape. To the NY Times: See what you are missing!

How a #SelfPublished #Author went from 99 cents #ebook to #Movie #Blockbuster #THEMARTIAN Click to tweet this article to your friends and followers! 𝕏

About Book Publicist Scott Lorenz

Book publicist Scott Lorenz is President of Westwind Communications, a public relations and marketing firm that has a special knack for working with authors to help them get all the publicity they deserve and more. Lorenz works with bestselling authors and self-published authors promoting all types of books, whether it’s their first book or their 15th book. He’s handled publicity for books by CEOs, CIA Officers, Navy SEALS, Homemakers, Fitness Gurus, Doctors, Lawyers and Adventurers. His clients have been featured by Good Morning America, FOX & Friends, CNN, ABC News, New York Times, Nightline, TIME, PBS, LA Times, USA Today, Washington Post, Woman’s World, & Howard Stern to name a few.

Learn more about Westwind Communications’ book marketing approach at https://www.WestwindBookMarketing.com or contact Lorenz at [email protected] or 734-667-2090 or fill out the form below. Follow Lorenz on Twitter @aBookPublicist. Want help titling a book? Check out Scott Lorenz’s new award winning, bestselling book: Book Title Generator- A Proven System in Naming Your Book www.BookTitleGenerator.net.

Would you like help promoting your book?

If so, tell us a little about your book. What is the title? Do you have a publisher? What is the publish date? How many pages is your book? What is the cost? Do you have web site? What is your specific goal I.E., to make money, raise awareness, get the attention of an agent or publisher, sell the story to a movie or TV studio or something else?

Submit the form below with this information and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible. Thank you!