“Your Book Is Your Hook!” Show – #1 New York Times Bestseller Debbie Macomber + Literary Manager Elizabeth Fowler
November 24th, 2010
By Jennifer S. Wilkov, host of the “Your Book Is Your Hook!” Show on WomensRadio
www.yourbookisyourhook.com
Elizabeth Fowler, literary manager and film and television producer with her company, Clear Pictures Entertainment, will talk with radio personality and host Jennifer S. Wilkov about how she works with authors in her role as a literary manager and producer.
Ms Fowler will also discuss how she finds her projects and which authors she likes to work with. She’ll also clarify what types of books and stories translate well to film and television.
One of America’s most wildly popular and beloved women’s fiction authors, #1 NY Times and USA Today bestseller Debbie Macomber will discuss with radio personality and host Jennifer S. Wilkov why she wrote her new holiday novel and original Hallmark movie airing this weekend, Call Me Mrs. Miracle.
Ms. Macomber will also talk about her newest nonfiction book, God’s Guest List, and her own humble beginnings as an author. She’ll also reflect on the importance of leaving her own legacy with her books and how she’s using them as her hook. Plus she’ll share great tips for new writers for getting published and partnering with a terrific literary agent!
Host Jennifer S. Wilkov will discuss how time and again humble beginnings lead to great bestselling writing careers for authors during her Education Corner segment during the show.
Click Here to Listen Now: http://bit.ly/dHQWMw
If you have questions about any of these interviews or the education corner topic included in the show, please put them here in this discussion thread and I’d be happy to answer them.
Secrets for a Great Screenplay That Sells
November 24th, 2010
By Elizabeth Fowler, President, Clear Pictures Entertainment
www.clearpicturesent.com
I have gotten movies set up i.e. sold to all the Studios as well as the Networks and Cable Channels and they are all in various stages of development and production. My first stage of criteria for projects is three questions: 1. Is it a good story? Is it entertaining? 2. Is it about something? and 3. Is there a reason to make this story into a movie? Why should this story get made into a movie vs. another? Is there something fresh and unique to it?
Beyond that and with particular regard to books I am looking for “translatable action.” And by this I don’t just mean car chases and bombs going off –but “action” –do people do things? Or is the majority of the action in the character’s head in the form of an inner dialogue? If so –that’s hard to make into a movie. Film is a visual medium. A lot of the story should be told through images, not words.
If a book passes those tests, my next set of criteria is more classic story analysis i.e. is there a definable Act One, Act Two and Act Three? In a screenplay, the general rule is there must be an “inciting incident” by page 30 which is approximately the end of Act One. The same should hold true for a book. By the end of the first third –some defining incident needs to have occurred. And then beyond that a discernible Act Two and Act Three with a strong finish. And within that strong Act One, Two and Three (beg-middle-end) structure -are there good memorable characters that have an arc? Does the action of the story impact the characters in a way that changes them? If so, that is the character’s “arc” and each major character needs one. If your book possesses all of these criteria – I want to see it! Because the odds are, I will be able to sell it for adaptation to the Big Screen
The Humble Beginnings of Bestselling Authors & Encouragement for Your Writing Dreams
November 24th, 2010
By Jennifer S. Wilkov, host of the “Your Book Is Your Hook!” Show on WomensRadio
www.yourbookisyourhook.com
As authors and writers, we’re always learning about resources and industry tools that we can use to improve our book project performance and the enjoyment of our writing and marketing experiences. Today let’s talk about how time and again humble beginnings lead to great best-selling writing careers for authors.
If you have been writing for a while and sometimes get the feeling like you may never make it as a writer, think again and keep working at it. In the holiday spirit of Thanksgiving and to shed some perspective on this, I’d like to share three stories of authors you will probably recognize who had their own humble beginnings before they had a rock star writing career.
Let’s start with this week’s author guest on the show who these days is one of America’s most wildly popular and beloved women’s fiction authors. But that’s not where she began her career.
Debbie Macomber is dyslexic and didn’t learn to read until she was in the fifth grade. Her dyslexia did not deter the young mother of four from pursuing a lifelong dream of becoming published. She started by writing articles for magazines at her kitchen table on a typewriter after her family had finished breakfast. When she got one of her first checks for one of her articles published in a women’s magazine, she was encouraged and so was her husband. Debbie didn’t get a book published during her first five years as a writer.
Then, she celebrated her first sale in 1982 when Silhouette Books acquired her manuscript, Heartsong. The book became the first category romance ever to be reviewed by Publishers Weekly. She was soon featured in Newsweek—and demand for her books quickly exceeded her wildest dreams. Now Debbie maintains a list of more than 130,000 readers, with whom she regularly corresponds.
Today, with more than 130 million copies of her books in print, Debbie Macomber is one of the world’s most popular authors.
A regular resident on the bestseller lists, two of her novels have scored the #1 slot on the New York Times, USA Today and Publishers Weekly lists the first week on sale. She is the first-ever recipient of the“readers’ choice” Quill Award for Romance Fiction for 44 Cranberry Point, the fourth book in her highly popular Cedar Cove series. Debbie has also been honored with a RITA® for her 2005 holiday hardcover, The Christmas Basket; an RT Book Reviews Career Achievement Award and is a multiple winner of both the Holt Medallion and the B. Dalton Award. In July 2010, the Romance Writers of America presented Debbie with its prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award.
Debbie has also written and been published with a cookbook, a children’s book and three non-fiction inspirational books. Her novel, Mrs. Miracle, was broadcast in 2009 as a made-for-TV movie by Hallmark Channel and was Hallmark Channel’s top-watched movie of the year. Call Me Mrs. Miracle, her new book released for the holiday season this year, will be broadcast on Saturday, November 27, 2010, also by Hallmark Channel as a made-for-TV movie.
Not bad for a woman who is dyslexic and didn’t learn to read until she was in the fifth grade.
Now we’ll turn our attention to Nicholas Sparks who was born in Omaha, Nebraska. After receiving a full track scholarship to the University of Notre Dame, he got injured during his freshman year in college after breaking the Notre Dame record in the 4 x 800 relay (at the Drake relays — a record that still stands). He spent the summer icing his Achilles tendon and moping around the house until his mother said, “Don’t just pout, do something.” When Nicholas, sulking, asked “What?” – his mother replied, “I don’t know. Write a book.” He looked at her and said, “Okay.”
Eight weeks later, he was the proud author of his first novel — “The Passing,” a book that was never published. In 1989, he wrote his second novel, “The Royal Murders.” It’s in his attic, together with countless rejection slips, alongside his first novel. He decided to concentrate on another career. In addition to being rejected from law school, Nicholas appraised real estate, bought and restored houses, waited tables, sold dental products by phone and finally started his own business (manufacturing orthopedic products). He then proceeded to run up thirty- thousand dollars in credit-card debt. After two and a half long, long years, he broke even.
During this time, he wrote yet another book, Wokini with Billy Mills, a long-time friend and Olympic Gold Medalist. It was published by Feather Publishing, a small outfit in Sacramento. It did well regionally (sales of about 50,000 copies) and was picked up by Random House in 1994. The success, Sparks confesses, was primarily due to the name recognition of Billy Mills. (Newer editions have been published by Hay House Books.)
In early 1992, he sold his business and looked around for something to do. He became a pharmaceutical salesman. In May 1994, he decided to give writing another shot. He decided to give himself three chances — three more novels — and if none of those was published, he’d be able to accept that he wasn’t meant to be a writer.
He wrote The Notebook over a six-month period, from June of 1994 until January of 1995, writing in the evenings from nine until midnight, and working one day on the weekends. In July 1995, he started soliciting agents. He found one and the book was presented to publishers in October 1995. At the time, he was earning about $40,000 a year.
Warner Books bought the rights for $1,000,000.
Film rights to the novel were sold later that week to New Line Cinema and foreign rights were sold (eventually into more than 45 languages). The novel was also made a Main Selection of the Literary Guild.
In October 1996, the book launched with 56 events in over 45 cities crammed into three months. It was the longest book tour in Warner Books’s history — one of the longest ever, period — but it was important for Sparks to do, despite the fact that only one person showed up in Miami and one person showed up in San Francisco for events in those cities. The Notebook steadily grew in popularity through word-of-mouth. It ended up spending 56 weeks on the New York Times hardcover best-seller list, and another 54 weeks on the paperback list. It was only the third novel in the previous thirty years that had lasted over a year on the hardcover list, and the only novel to last over a year on both hardcover and paperback lists, until J.K. Rowling came along with Harry Potter. To this point, it has sold over 10,000,000 copies worldwide.
Six of his books have been optioned and produced as films including The Notebook, Message In A Bottle, Nights in Rodanthe, A Walk to Remember, The Last Song, and Dear John.
Fast forward to September 2010 when his 16th novel was released. Talk about a career best-selling author!
Finally, let’s look at the humble beginnings of Dan Brown, a New Hampshire native, who taught English and creative writing at Phillips Exeter Academy until 1998 when he became a full time writer and his first novel, Digital Fortress, was published. That first book was followed by Angels and Demons in 2001 and Deception Point in 2002.
But it wasn’t until his fourth novel that Dan Brown’s career as a writer and best-selling author took off. In fact, his first three novels were virtually unknown until he broke out with the runaway hit, The Da Vinci Code, that went on to sell more than 25 million copies in 44 languages and was made into a feature film starring Tom Hanks. Time magazine in its 2005 article, “The Novel That Ate The World,” stated that during the two years prior to its article, one of the very few books to sell more copies than The Da Vinci Code was the Bible.
As reported in Slate.com’s article “The Dan Brown Code” dated March 22, 2006, by Bryan Curtis and SILive.com’s article “Dan Brown Returns With the ‘Lost Symbol’ dated September 15th, 2009 by James Yates and others, Brown resolved to become a writer when he read Sidney Sheldon’s The Doomsday Conspiracy while vacationing in Tahiti. After reading Sheldon’s book which he found swift and merciless, he began to suspect that maybe he could write a ‘thriller’ of this type one day. He’d read almost no commercial fiction at all since the Hardy Boys as a child. After his first two novels, his sales were poor and by 2001 he was in the same rut as so many authors — handling his own publicity and even selling books out of his car, a process that would now require a convoy of trucks.
Brown changed agents, changed publishers (from Simon & Schuster to Doubleday, a Random House imprint), changed his luck and then – he changed the industry.
He wrote the outline for The Da Vinci Code in a laundry room, himself planted in a lawn chair and his manuscript balanced on an ironing board. It was published in March 2003 and was an immediate hit that remained on best-seller lists for more than three years.
So you see, my fellow writers, don’t give up. A career of writing begins and ends with your decision to keep writing. Imagine if Debbie let the dyslexia beat her or if Nicholas gave up after he got rejection slip after rejection slip for his second novel or if Dan Brown decided to stop writing after his first two novels weren’t selling well. If he hadn’t sat down in that laundry room and written The Da Vinci Code, well, the history of the book publishing industry just wouldn’t be the same, now would it?
Keep writing. Keep the faith. It will happen to you. All you have to do is keep doing it.
After all, you can’t use your book as your hook – until you have a book.
For more information on this Education Corner topic and others, please refer to www.YourBookIsYourHook.com/blog for more articles and resources to help you with your books.
“Your Book Is Your Hook!” Show – NY Times Bestseller Carla Neggers & The Writer’s Loft
November 18th, 2010
By Jennifer S. Wilkov, host of the “Your Book Is Your Hook!” Show on WomensRadio
www.yourbookisyourhook.com
Jerry Cleaver, teacher, writing coach, and creator of The Writer’s Loft, Chicago’s most successful writers’ workshop for the last twenty years, will talk with radio personality and host Jennifer S. Wilkov about how the creative process works when writing a fiction book.
Mr. Cleaver will also talk about who is really poised to write fiction and whether authors need to know how the story ends before they begin writing it. He’ll also share tips for novelists and talk about what stops them from finishing their books.
New York Times bestselling author Carla Neggers will discuss with radio personality and host Jennifer S. Wilkov her new book, Cold Dawn, in her bestselling Black Falls series and why she wrote this book.
Ms. Neggers will also talk about how she writes her novels, how she first got published, her great relationship with her literary agent and how she’s using her books as her hook. She’ll also reveal how she comes up with her plot twists and share advice for new novelists that she wish she had known when she wrote her first book.
Host Jennifer S. Wilkov will discuss why fiction is so popular during her Education Corner segment during the show.
Click Here to Listen Now: http://bit.ly/9cCzpc
If you have questions about any of these interviews or the education corner topic included in the show, please put them here in this discussion thread and I’d be happy to answer them.
Who Writes and How It Works
November 18th, 2010
By Guest Blogger, Jerry Cleaver, The Writer’s Loft
www.thewritersloft.com
www.writeyournovelnow.com
Who writes? Anyone and everyone who has the urge.
Successful writers have come from cab drivers, waitresses, firemen, carpenters, teachers, lawyers, stockbrokers, doctors. Who is capable of succeeding? Every one of them. Story telling is a natural activity. Some of us just have the urge to get more deeply into it by putting it down on the page. Why? Because it takes us more deeply into ourselves. We experience ourselves in a deeper way than we can otherwise. It’s not for everyone, of course. But for those of us who have the bug, there’s nothing better.
What do you need? The nice thing is you have almost all of it already. It’s not like learning to play the piano or tap dance where you may not have had any experience with them before starting. With writing, you’re using what you already have, who you are, your imagination, your emotions and your experiences to create fictional characters or partially fictional characters and experiences. You’re ready-made for this because you experience yourself every minute, hour, day, and year of your life. That personal experience is what you use to write exciting, dramatic stories – even if you’re not writing about yourself.
What I’m saying is: Life experience is writing experience. After all, we’re creating real life on the page – even if it never happened. Even if a story has never and will never happen, if it’s written well, we live it and feel it along with the characters. If you jump in a scary movie or cry in a sad movie, you feel it’s happening to you. In your head, you know it’s a movie, but in your heart it’s absolutely real. You feel it’s real and feeling it is what every story is about.
Believe it or not, it’s that simple. And it’s important to keep it simple. The story craft is simple, direct, and easily understood. After all, we had stories long before we had the written word and maybe even before we had language. That caveman drawing pictures on his cave wasn’t doing interior decorating. He was creating and living an experience. And he wasn’t worried that he might not have enough imagination or enough talent or if his idea was good enough or what other people will think of it. He was carried away by something inside him. He was doing it for himself. Doing it for yourself, pleasing yourself, having the experience yourself is the best and only way to ensure that the person who reads you story will have the experience also.
So you have everything you need already. The catch is: You don’t need everything you have. To be successful you need to learn what to use and what to ignore. How do you do that? You simply practice and master the story craft. That will take you where you need to go in the most exciting and satisfying way.
Jerry Cleaver is author, ghostwriter, writing coach, creativity specialist, creator of Chicago’s famed Writers’ Loft, and author of Immediate Fiction – A Complete Writing Course (St. Martin’s Press). Before creating his workshops, he taught Professional Fiction at Northwestern University for ten years. Besides coaching writers to become successful authors one of his missions is helping beginning writers find the right agent and avoid being taken advantage of by unscrupulous agents, editors and publishers.
Why Fiction Is So Popular
November 18th, 2010
By Jennifer S. Wilkov, host of the “Your Book Is Your Hook!” Show on WomensRadio
www.yourbookisyourhook.com
As authors and writers, we’re always learning about resources and industry tools that we can use to improve our book project performance and the enjoyment of our writing and marketing experiences. Today let’s talk about why fiction is so popular.
Fiction is centuries old. It has been a constant form of entertainment for us as human beings. From the stories told way back when before television, before the New York Times Best-Seller List, before Publishers Weekly magazine and before anybody even knew what a book was, adults were telling stories to entertain and enlighten others in their community, tribe and region.
Today, fiction is a business. Writing a novel is something you work at and work on. It requires discipline and commitment. More than anything, it demands your desire to do it.
Wikipedia defines “fiction” as “any form of narrative which deals, in part or in whole, with events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary and invented by its author(s). Although fiction often describes a major branch of literary work, it is also applied to theatrical, cinematic, documental, and musical work.”
There is even a magazine solely dedicated to fiction – aptly entitled Fiction – which was started in the 1970s and continues to publish today. Even with its meager start, it is still continuing its desire to bring fiction to the forefront nearly 40 years later.
And to the forefront fiction has continued to hold fast!
Fiction is a genre many love to write in and even more love to read. With the millions of copies sold by bestsellers as well as those not so well-known, we as writers are still creating stories to tell and penning them more prolifically than ever in more 
genres than you can imagine.
The nice part of this business is that there are plenty of readers who are hungry for that next romance suspense novel from today’s guest, Carla Neggers, or that heartwarming story from Debbie Macomber (whom we’ll be talking with on next week’s show), and that new sci-fi thriller or mystery from Clive Cussler or the next legal thriller from John Grisham.
That’s why we write fiction…because we use our imaginations to tantalize and indulge the imaginations of others. With so much stimulation these days online and off, it’s still comforting to know that people everywhere look forward to curling up with a great book and feeling compelled to stay up all night just to find out what happens at the end.
Fiction continues to delight our every sense and subsequently those of our readers. As a business, fiction has expanded into websites, podcasts, ways to follow a reader’s favorite author, opportunities to tweet with you, post on your Facebook page and even meet you in person at conferences and events. Interacting with you as an author has never been easier for a reader.
Cheers to those who continue to write fiction and those who venture forth as new writers into the genre of your choice. It is a mighty craft that yields incredible benefits for you and every life you touch – for it is your imagination that inspires others to open up and use theirs.
What a wonderful way to use your book as your hook!
For more information on this Education Corner topic and others, please refer to www.YourBookIsYourHook.com/blog for more articles and resources to help you with your books.
“Your Book Is Your Hook” Show – All About eBooks Symposium & eBook Author of 60 Books
November 9th, 2010
By Jennifer S. Wilkov, host of the “Your Book Is Your Hook!” Show on WomensRadio
www.yourbookisyourhook.com
Laurie McLean, a literary agent at Larsen-Pomada Literary Agents in San Francisco and the dean of the new All About eBooks Symposium sponsored by the new San Francisco Writers University, will talk with radio personality and host Jennifer S. Wilkov about the rise of ebook publishing and why she became a driving force behind the new All About eBooks Symposium.
Ms. McLean will also discuss her own experience with e-publishing and top tips for authors to understand about ebooks. She’ll also share her perspective of the role of digital publishing for the future of the book publishing industry.
eBook author Sherry Derr-Wille discuss with radio personality and host Jennifer S. Wilkov about how she has been writing her books for the past 50 years and how she finally got her first book published seven years ago in 2003. She’ll also talk about how she has gotten e-publishing contracts for her now 60 books.
Ms. Derr-Wille will also talk about how she has not only e-published but how she has also published each book in hardcopy. She’ll reveal how she uses her books as her hook and the variety of creative ways she makes them available to her loyal readers.
Host Jennifer S. Wilkov will discuss e-publishing and the constantly changing face of the digital publishing world during her Education Corner segment during the show.
Click Here to Listen Now: http://bit.ly/cCHxIg
If you have questions about any of these interviews or the education corner topic included in the show, please put them here in this discussion thread and I’d be happy to answer them.
