Posts from — August 2008

In WordHustler’s never-ending quest to equip our writers with all the tools necessary to succeed, we are always looking for tips from the experts. Today’s helpful interview is with a seasoned screenplay competition judge (and seasoned film producer) from a very established Hollywood script contest! Our judge, fair and unbiased industry player that he is, prefers to remain anonymous but his insights into the world of screenplay competitions are too important to keep secret.

Thusly, we present our interview. Read it and then get crackin’ on your own screenplay!

WordHustler: Alright, spill it. What are the top three things that make you put a script down?

Screenplay Judge: I can tell you that from my judging experience on every level, from the guy who sorts through huge stacks of scripts to the guy who reads the top five and picks the winner, that the number one, most important thing is to have something right up front that GRABS the reader and makes us want to keep going. The first round readers in most competitions read two hundred to three hundred scripts and approve maybe five. It’s a daunting task and judges are looking for ANY reason to put your screenplay down. You need to grab them right away and keep them interested in continuing the read. A big thing to remember when you’re writing for a contest is that you can’t save all the good stuff for the end of your screenplay, because chances are the reader might not get there.

WH: How many scripts would you say you read per contest? How many do you START and how many do you FINISH?

SJ: Out of the two to three hundred I would read as a first round judge, I’d maybe get through 20-25% of them completely. I’ve conferred with other readers and they say that’s a “nice guy” reader percentage. As a finalist judge you usually read all of them (which is better since there are less of them and the ones that make it to you have already survived the first cut).

WH: What happens when co-judges disagree?

SJ: We’ve always had a scoring system that makes deadlocks damn near impossible. We also use an odd number of judges so if you have a tie at the top, you can vote in such a way that a clear winner will present itself.

WH: What’s the best script you’ve read in the last year (not necessarily in a contest setting) and why?

SJ: The last script I really remember being jaw-dropped by was “The Brigands of Rattleborge” by Craig Zahler. The way it was written was so different than what I’m used to. It was dense, thick and long. But it was so amazingly written it almost seemed like literature. Amazing characters, great story and a truly great mix of horrific yet beautiful. I highly recommend that you beg, borrow, or steal to get your hands on a copy of it.

WH: What happens when you get a…how shall I say this…not so good script?

SJ: Hmmmmmm….I’ve read a lot of bad submissions. I would just say that the thing they usually have common is a story that we’ve already seen. You know the kind: a script where the characters are completely un-authentic and say things that are laughable when not meant to be. But since there are literally one hundred times as many bad scripts as good ones, so you tend to remember the great ones more vividly than the poor ones.

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The Washington Post has written a fantastic article about the plight of author Sherry Jones, a Montana journalist-turned-novelist whose novel, “The Jewel of Medina,” caused so much mayhem before it was even published that Random House decided to pull the book from the press. The historical fiction, centered around of one of Muhammed’s wives, was already inciting major drama between Muslims, Christians, intellectuals, publishers, even writers, so the publisher canceled it. Did they do the right thing or buckle under the pressure?

Read the whole article HERE.

Do you have a religious tale burning in your soul? Why not submit a query letter to Moody Publishers or an inspired short story to PanGaia Magazine? WordHustler wants to help answer your writing prayers. Hallelujah!

Eli Jackson is the owner and founder of Griffyn Ink, a small publishing company with heart. As their website says, “Griffyn Ink is an independent publishing company, dedicated to helping authors.” Griffyn Ink publishes fiction books with an emphasis on suspense and thrillers. The Texas-based publisher is also the first company in the world to create what they’re calling an AudioMovie, “an unabridged audio recording of a novel, enhanced 
by soundtrack, sound effects, and unique actors for each part.” Sounds exciting!

WordHustler sat down with Eli to get the skinny on what publishers want…and how YOU can give it to them.

WordHustler: How did you get into publishing? What route did you take to set up your own publishing company?

Eli Jackson: I watched author friends of mine wait for months to get a reply. I had heard about places that requested the manuscript, but they were still slow to respond and not forthcoming with information. I saw how frustrating it was, and more importantly what a wealth of good material there was that wasn’t getting published. So I designed my company to really help out new authors. So many places want you to be published before they will publish you, which makes no sense to me. Other publishers take anything and everything and throw it all up against a wall to see what sticks. That leaves a lot of people with a failed book on their hands.

Griffyn Ink publishing was started out of respect for what authors go through to get published. We are very small and only publish a few books a year because of the amount of work we do with each author. Authors want to write, not create e-mail campaigns and sign up for Amazon. While some marketing is essential for the author to do personally, a lot of can be done by someone behind the scenes, and that is what we provide.

WH: What books are on your nightstand right now?

EJ: I’m a big fan of Michael Crichton. I also really enjoy business and marketing books, so 1001 Ways to Market Your Books by John Kremer is there, too. It’s phenomenal and I recommend it for authors who decide to self-publish as well as for those who use “traditional” publishing. Currently, I’m listening to audio by Ron White to learn about increasing my memory.

WH: What’s the last truly great book you’ve read?

EJ: If I’m being honest, I’d have to say Vengeance by AJ Scudiere. This is clearly why I picked up AJ as a Griffyn Ink client in the first place. The action is described so vividly and I wanted to root for all the characters even though they had opposing views. [EDITOR’S NOTE: Griffyn Ink is offering WordHustlers a special discount on AJ’s first book, Resonance. Wordhustler readers who go to AJ’s website save $2 on the paperback or EBook by using coupon code “Wordhustler.” You can pre-order AJ’s new book, Vengeance, on the site as well.]

The last great book I read that I didn’t publish would have to be You Don’t Know What Love Is – A Toast to my Dead Ex-Husband by Sandy Wilson. Sandy is a friend of mine who self-published. This riveting story of her life with an abusive husband is a rough-around-the-edges book that has a wonderful real-life charm to it.

WH: What was the first truly great book you read?

EJ: I didn’t really get interested in reading until junior high. The first thing a read purely for pleasure was Sphere by Michael Crichton. The suspense kept me turning pages and staying up all night to find out what happened next. This has stayed with me all along. Although Griffyn Ink is open to publishing other genres of books, we always have our eyes open for the next great thriller novel.

WH: What are the three things that make you want to read more when you receive a great submission?

EJ: 1) There has to be something in the first couple of pages that draws you in. This is not to say that every story must start with a car chase or something exploding. It could be as simple as an intriguing writing style or a unique point of view, even just a great opening sentence. There has to be something that makes me want to turn every page.

2) If you can make me connect with the characters, I’m interested. The summary is somewhat helpful in a submission, but it won’t be what I base my final decision on. Try summarizing your favorite book into three or four sentences and see if it doesn’t sound a little bizarre. Would you have invested in a synopsis that involved a hobbit on an adventure with a schizophrenic guide to destroy a ring?

3) A well-written query letter always makes me want to read more. There is no magic formula for a query letter, so be creative! If someone isn’t willing to put in the effort to write one page that will make me interested, then they aren’t going to be willing to put in the effort that it takes to sell a book. Publishers know that writing a query letter is very different than writing a book, but your personality will show through.

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This new wave of thinking means that Hollywood development deals would now be included in the publishing deal, instead of waiting until after the book has been published. Who knows if this film-oriented end goal will muddy the publication process, or bring it to a higher level? Only time (and some well-paid marketing/PR gurus) will be able to tell….

Read the entire article HERE.

Do you have a YA book that’s ripe for publishing (and the cineplex)? Why not send a query letter to Farrar, Straus & Giroux Books for Young Readers? The sooner you send your work out, the sooner you’ll be going straight from your book signing to your premiere. WordHustler wants to help you get a big ol’ piece of the success pie.

The Wall Street Journal has got the scoop on a paperboy, er, man, who’s been taking the New York Times for a ride. Michael Holtet, a 50-year-old Wisconsin man, has been arrested in connection with a scheme he concocted in which he embezzled over $220,000 from the New York Times. It seems Holtet, a newspaper deliveryman, decided to invent thousands of alleged NY Times subscribers, pocketing the money the paper paid him to deliver it each day and recycling all of the superfluous newspapers. Holtet faces up to 20 years in prison.

But hey, at least he recycled the papers…

Read the full story HERE.

Do you have a tale of a conniving bandit that would entertain the masses (though not actually defraud them)? Why not use WordHustler to submit your well-plotted short story to the Southern California Review Fiction Prize? Keep the espionage on the page and it may pay off well in real life.

From the WordHustler human interest department: a woman in a small Kansas town got a “Return to Sender” letter in her mail one day. But the funny part was that it was a letter written by a prior resident on November 11, 1948. Xan Wendel, current resident of a large old house at 700 Ohio Street, received Gertrude Gilmore’s letter, which discussed the Dewey/Truman election and other timely matters, in her mailbox with a “Sorry this took so long!” note from the USPS. Evidently, Gilmore was trying to send a letter to someone named Sally in Connecticut but the letter got returned…sixty years later.

Here’s the envelope, which isn’t actually in bad shape considering it’s been kicking around the USPS (or somewhere) for the last six decades:

Kinda makes waiting three months to hear back from a submission not seem so bad, huh?

To read the full story, go HERE.

Do you want to push the US Postal Service to the limit by sending out some glorious query letters, short story submissions, and screenplay contest entries? We thought so! Why not use WordHustler to submit a poetry chapbook to the Camber Press Poetry Award or a short story to the Katherine Anne Porter Prize? Deadlines are quickly approaching. Come on, teach the USPS the definition of the word HUSTLE.