Authoring & Playwriting

Amanda Michel Thank you. I am digitizing, because, you know. At least if there is a fire, flood, or whatever, I can still have it in the cloud. Also, clearing space.

That's exactly what happened to me with my memoir, Cinema. I started putting it together and thought it was a nice short memoir of my cinema-going and movie experiences coming in at around 10,000-15,000 words. It's now more than TREBLE that! I found a mountain of stuff I'd forgotten about. And then I just kept finding more and more and adding more and more to it.

David E. Gates It has to be done, doesn't it? :) Otherwise, knowing it's there makes you not sleep at night.

Absolutely. The Roots of Evil came about from having "found" an old story I'd part-written but never finished. I revised it, expanded it, added to it... and now it has a sequel and will be part of a trilogy!

I believe that all methods that activate creativity and take us out of comfort, are welcome. Thank you for sharing your experiences.

I'm working on fiction book

Nicole F. Burney, we have similar lives lol! I do have a lot of little plants in pots, just not in the ground yet. Dang allergies.

Irish screenplay. Brigid of Dingle.

Thank you Daisy, I appreciate your reply. I will pass all that on to my client :)

I'm doing the final polish on a mystery novel for a May 1 deadline. Then it's off to the publisher. I need to whip out a short story for an anthology, then get started on the third in the mystery series.

Hey Marian Betts! I have never heard of them and looking at their site, it doesn't seem to be they option projects themselves so much as they create a platform for you to be discovered and helping be the representative for you if someone reaches out want to adapt your work.

Personally, you can have more control without that middleman, and if you have a book that you think would make for a great adaptation, I would check out our Adaptation Revew -->> https://www.stage32.com/scriptservices/coverage/buy?id=66&affid=ejlounge

If you want to know more about it, shoot me an email at success@stage32.com

Aye, a net scrape and whois is all it takes to confirm it's a scam. Or just another self pubber looking to make rent.

Thanks to both of you. Emily I sent you a private message. Morgan thanks for mentioning those. I had missed them!

Hi John! We have some great resources that can help you. Lee Shargel wrote about his process in today's blog post and Mickey Levy taught a great webinar on this topic. ALSO, we have Adaptation Review consultations where you submit an overview of your story that you want to adapt to the executive of your choice, and then have a phone call with them to discuss how you can adapt the project.

Blog Post --> https://www.stage32.com/blog/using-musical-composition-to-craft-your-ada...

Mickey Levy Webinar --> https://www.stage32.com/webinars/The-Adaptation-Journey-Adapting-an-exis...

Adaptation Review -- > https://www.stage32.com/scriptservices/coverage/buy?id=66&affid=ejlounge

John, why do you want to adapt your story for film?

Lol love this! I use the socials and PR for advertising but I would certainly consider Facebook or Amazon ads in the future. Or a Book Bub promo.

Congratulations Daisy, that’s great. I’m curious, too, what do you contribute the success to?

Daisy, that's fantastic! When lining up your press, did you include critics in there too? Or only media outlets?

Haha The Grey Zone is apparently where you dwell when you are trad x self pub. I only just learnt this, so I'm waaaay behind lol. Press comes from a brilliant Facebook group called Lightbulb, and I have booked blog tour for Feb 16th - a 30 stop tour with Instabooktours. I'm happy it looks professional, fits with my brand and gets the book out there. Re platform... hmmmm... I've been struggling along since 2012, so I have made a lot of reader and blogger friends, and tbh I think they are the people who matter. People power! I also have a lovely and very supportive agent.

Interestingly, and I have no idea if this could be related, but my agent also just heard back from a TV production company regarding one of my other books so fingers crossed.

Oh, also the categories! If you self pub with KDP you get offered 3 categories but if you email support you can pick up to 8 more, so I researched my target market before I picked, but it's like having another 8 shop windows the book is now displayed in (virtually obvs).

Sharing your work here on Stage 32 in any ways that you can is a great tool to always have in your toolkit.

On my own website, and bookstore. www.davidegates.com and on Smashwords and Draft2Digital (which are now merged). Draft2Digital is very good and gets your book effortlessly into a lot of online stores and libraries.

Sam Sokolow You need to open a Stage 32 bookshop ;-)

Try reaching out to blogs and websites that host giveaways - there's a few on Facebook that share information and links about giveaways, one is actually just called Book Blog Giveaways (https://www.facebook.com/groups/210796142343549/) and I believe there may be others. With blogs it's worth checking what their reach is first, how many subscribers, and what sort of genre they follow.

Hi Souvik Chakraborty of course Amazon. I would suggest promoting your book/s for free on here, your own social media platforms and a blog or website. Personally, I’m on Instagram, Facebook, Linkedln and all are great to promote. For me twitter has been #1 and authors/readers are fully supportive. My blog is one of my best why to promote my books etc, with over 910k views. If you’re on twitter, let’s connect. Everyday on twitter, there’s a hashtag #ShamelessSelfPromo (add day) and it’s a great way to get the word out of your books. Hope that helps. Good luck, David!

Hey Christina, this is Karen from the Stage 32 team. I just wanted to let you know I moved your post from Distribution to Authoring & Playwriting, as it fits much better there. Let me know if you have any questions, and all the best to you!

Hey Karen! Thanks for your help. As there's not much interest for the link I've put down I'm asking myself if it would be better to copy and paste the whole article in the respective lounges? Let me know your thoughts. Best, Christina

Geoff Hall Thanks Geoff - it hasn't been an easy ride. A lot of time spent, at high cost, both financial and mental/emotional and it has yet to make any kind of significant sales. But the fact is, I finished it, I told the story the way I wanted to, and it's out there

Debbie Elicksen I've learned the hard way not to compete with - the Canadian capacity for alcohol consumption! Especially at sports fixtures

Daniel Lyddon and that is a great measure of success. You had a story to tell. You told it and you got the book out there. Promotion is difficult with and project, as we have to figure out how to cut across a noisy marketplace.

Geoff Hall Definitely - I've done the leg work in creating the book (my second book is out next month) and now it's about cutting through the noise. It's also been a HUGE learning curve for me - about making myself accountable for my mistakes, giving myself credit for my achievements, taking charge of how I work and so on.

I'm pleased now that the Amazon exclusivity period is over that the book will soon be available through Barnes & Noble, indie bookstores and also potentially through libraries. I've learned so much in the last eighteen months - not only about the publishing process and how the industry works, but also a lot about myself.

Daniel Lyddon Lol. True that. Especially if they are Ukrainian Canadian. (Whistling and looking away, innocently)

Congratulations. Keep up the good work.

Confingo 18 - it's a literary journal based in Manchester, UK

Joanne, congratulations! What a lovely validation. If you're interested in screen adaptions, you should post this in the Screenwriting lounge as well. You can check out our webinars, there are several on adaptations. You can even book a call with an executive specifically about adapting material! Here are a few links to help.

https://www.stage32.com/scriptservices/coverage/buy?id=66

https://www.stage32.com/webinars/The-Adaptation-Journey-Adapting-an-exis...

https://www.stage32.com/webinars/How-to-Adapt-a-Novel-Into-a-Film-or-Series

Register a copyright at copyright.gov, and get an agent.

Congratulations! I also find adapting my stories really hard. I wish someone could do the heavy lifting for me!

Brilliant!

I have it in my calendar.

Bring the heat!