Lesson 50

Writing Class 101 by Rick Kurtis Books
 
Lesson 50
Shopping
 
I don’t remember if I ever gave you the titles of some books that may help your career. I am also too lazy to go back through the lessons, so maybe you already know. If not, here you go.
Maybe you have your book done, and you are too scared to take on the publishing hat on your own. I hear yah. I tried all these things out too.

There is a book that is updated every two years, and if you want to find an agent or publisher to send your manuscript off to, then wait six months for a response, here you go. The book is called Writer’s Market Deluxe Edition. They provide a lot of good and useful information. But who has the time? They show you the best way to set up a query letter, how to follow step by steps, and give you agents and publishers names and addresses and emails. It explains what they want, and how they want it before they will even look at it. They also show places that have writing contests that you can enter, and possibly win money. Also lists of magazines that may pay or at least post your short story. This puts your name out there. To top it off, they give you a webinar, and one year online access to a publisher database. I never even had a chance to go there, or watch the webinar. Some contests had entry fees, and magazines wanted you to subscribe. After picking magazines and sending out hundreds of short stories, had some rejections, and many no responses.
My trouble is that I am an impatient person, and out of over hundred and fifty mailings, spending money on paper, ink, boxes, and postage, along with email submissions to agents and publishers, only a few sent a rejection reply. The others left me hanging, so my book sat doing nothing for over a year. Did they even get past the Query letter? Did they read the synopsis? That we will never know. They say if the query has one typo, they will toss the whole thing, because they receive 7,000 every month. If they make it to the first chapter, it better catch their eye, and grab them with the first sentence, or out it goes, in the trash.
The other book has to deal with setting up your book as a screenplay. It is called, The Complete Screenwriter’s Manual by Steven E. Bowles, Ronald Mangravite, and Pete A. Zorn, Jr.  It gives you the step by step on a format to use, and how to submit. I was told by a Hollywood producer that if you have a screenplay they will pay you for it. After it is in their hands, they may change it twenty times and rewrite at their leisure, even while filming. That is why the book is better, but they may be too lazy to read, or just do not have the time. Then they will pay someone else big bucks to change your book into a screenplay and do the same, rewriting it on the fly. So Have One Ready. $3,000 to 5,000 is a good place to start.
The third book gives you a whole bunch of sites and places to submit your screenplay to. It is called, Hollywood Screenwriting Directory / which I guess comes out with updates a lot. Mine says fall / winter > volume 7. It is a very thick book, and supplies over 4,000 listings, what they are looking for, how to, and legal information for screenwriters. This too includes query set up, and subscription to online sites. If we could only sit here and read, mail, and send all day long in HOPES of a yes, but I have to work, and I love to write, and have plenty to write. It is up to you what you want to venture into. You may be the lucky one. I will be pleased if any of my classes helped you make it.
There are a lot of other books out there that may give you help, and there is soooo much on the Internet that you may never find the time to write again. It is a vicious market where everyone wants to help, so they can make money off of your written work. I paid double on copyrights going through the vanity publishers, and wasted thousands by believing in them, only to start over after the end of my contracts.
Also it ticks me off that no one markets the author. They will market EACH BOOK for a price, but not an author who has fourteen books published. Am I ranting, Again?
 Ask your family to support you and give you a Christmas gift of three books, or buy them for yourself. It is not a waste of money in my opinion. And if you give presents, give from the heart and write short stories for them as individuals. It is the thought that counts.
Here is a little poem I thought up over forty years ago. I placed it into a tiny little chiclet box and handed them out. I thought it cute.
 
With all the people in the world today, this is all I can carry on my little sleigh. 
In order to give each person a gift, they have to be small to make them all fit.
You all snuggled, content in your beds, while I ride the country with a cold in my head.
My reindeer are hungry, my workers on strike, who knows of the ride that I get this night.
So remember this gift that you have received, for I may not return for next Christmas Eve.
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night. It cost me a bundle to charter this flight.
Love, Santa Claus
 
If you want to use it, go for it, and if it hits the market, give me rights and 50 percent.
Two more classes to go, so enjoy the holidays no matter what you believe. Just show kindness and love to everyone you meet and know. Forgive if possible, and move forward in life with everything that you pursue.
Until next week, happy writing.
Bye from rickkurtisbooks.com