About |
“Be That One In A Hundred” is the first and only screenwriting guidebook of its kind. Based on hard, factual research, it tells how to avoid the mistakes many aspiring screenwriters make, as told by movie and TV producers, agents, readers, and contest judges and managers in surveys and interviews.
This book reveals what industry people view as the worst and most common mistakes aspiring screenwriters make – mistakes which can impair, and can even destroy, aspiring screenwriting careers. It covers mistakes in both the content of screenplays and self-defeating actions and behaviors of aspiring screenwriters.
This book reveals most of the reasons many aspiring screenwriters, even major contest winners, fail to make it past the movie and TV industry’s gatekeepers, and why some others fail miserably soon afterward. It offers insider secrets on how to stand out and succeed in the highly competitive business of screenwriting.
The author also surveyed aspiring screenwriters for their beliefs and views, and shows how self-defeating many of these views are, in light of how the industry reacts to them. It offers aspiring screenwriters a different – difficult to accept, but more realistic – way of seeing one’s place as a newcomer trying to break in.
It will answer these and many other questions -- not with just the author's opinions, but in the collective views of the movie and TV industry:
“They have people to fix spelling and grammar mistakes, right?
“Is querying a complete waste of time? If not, how do I...”
“I placed well in a contest, but nobody called me. Why? And now what?”
“Are screenwriting contests just a money-making ripoff?”
“Are pitchfests just a money-making ripoff?”
“They agreed to read my script, and then I heard nothing back. What is that all about? And what do I do now?”
“My feature screenplay is finished. Now, how do I get an agent?” (You can’t. The book tells you what to do instead.)
“How can I make an independent producer pay me for rewrites?” (In most cases, you can’t. But there are ways to make up for that.)
“Why are producers looking for nothing but big-budget fluff, franchises, and movies based on comic strips?” (They’re not. The book offers some very good news on what is actually being made, and sobering news on how much pay to expect early in your career.)
“Why don’t they reach out to my (age group, gender, ethnic group)?”
“I don’t dare copyright my screenplay because then, it will be public and anyone can steal it. So I should just register it with the Writers Guild, right?”
“I have the greatest blockbuster screenplay ever written. Hollywood will soon come crawling to me, so I don’t need your book.”
If you think that way, start reading at the top of chapter 1 and study every word.
“I don’t want so many details. Is there one single, most important tip in the book in one sentence?”
Let me offer two:
One, I can’t say what shortcomings you might or might not have in your approach, so the answer depends on what you might be doing wrong.
Two, in my opinion, the single best inside tip in the entire book is at the bottom of chapter 5. It’s amazingly simple. However, you probably won’t believe it unless you come to understand it in the context of the rest of the book. – Bill Donovan, researcher and author