Author! Screenwriter!: How to Succeed as a Writer in New York and Hollywood

by Peter Miller

Book Overview

'Author Screenwriter ' provides specific writing dos and don'ts, sample inquiries and examples of success stories for all wannabe authors. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1593375530
• ISBN13: 9781593375539
• Release Date: March 2006
• Publisher: Adams Media Corporation
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

If you want to get published or produced, this is the book for you!

There are many books about writing and publishing but none like Author! Screenwriter!, which is worth its weight in gold for the book or screenwriter who is ready to get published/produced. Author Peter Miller, "The Literary Lion," is a top New-York-based manager who specializes not only in getting the best book and movie deals for his clients but also in guiding their whole careers. Navigating the publishing and entertainment industries through Miller's eyes is incredibly illuminating. He paints a very clear and provocative picture of how both work, and he orients the author within that framework, showing him/her how to make his/her work more saleable. What I particularly appreciate is Miller's combined publishing and TV/film producing know-how. He shows how to adapt the same story idea to both media, which is clever, lucrative, and creatively fulfilling, pushing an author's career far beyond his or her expectations. Miller also has a large section on book proposals, schooling authors on how to most savvily present their ideas to potential agents and publishers. I've read literally hundreds of books on writing and publishing, but few are even in the same league with Miller's wise, no-nonsense, practical manual. Read this book!

contemporary insights for authors

Surgeons who teach trainees how to do various procedures have a favorite anecdote: "See one, do one, teach one." Author-Manager Peter Miller has 'seen' query letters too numerous to count; 'done' more than a thousand book and screen deals; and has decidedly 'taught one' in this book, Author! Screenwriter! Several sections of Author! Screenwriter! are fresh after several re-reads. Why? Miller deals with contemporary insights and experiences; writes tight; and the contents have utility. Learn and live what he says, and you will succeed.

Information is knowledge!

Peter Miller's accounts of the inner-workings of Hollywood will make you even more knowledgeable about how to get your work seen. I now understand the process and know that finding the right agent is a key ingredient if you want to swim with the sharks. I enjoyed this and if anything it made me want it that much more! It's a must read for novelists as well as screenwriters and those of us somewhere in between. Thanks Peter!

I READ THIS BOOK COVER TO COVER AND LOVED IT!!

Peter Miller's book Author! Screenwriter! is a must-read for those who are serious about their writing careers and interested in adopting their work for the big screen. I have read A LOT of books on writing and publishing but none have provided such great insights as those available from a true industry insider. Peter's book is filled with personal examples from his thirty years in the publishing business which add a greater dimension and depth to his book, setting it aside from all the others out there flooding market. Although ALL the chapters contain powerful, pertinent information, the chapters I found particularly valuable were: Chapter Four, Find a good agent/manager to represent you, Chapter Five, Working with your representative, and Chapter Seven The Worlds of Fiction. I would highly recommend this book to ANY writer, beginners and seasoned veterans alike.

Miller's Tale

When you go into any major bookstore, among the most crowded of the shelves are the ones in the Writers section. Writers who aspire to become published authors (like me!) are always on a quest for the keys to the kingdom. Author! Screenwriter by literary and film agent/manager Peter Miller, is a recent addition to the writer's how-to inventory. What sets Author!Screenwriter apart from so many of its shelf-neighbors, is its robust style and its authenticity. It also happens to be a very comprehensive primer on not only the publishing world, but on the world of film, TV and other media as well. The book examines and explains how the two worlds relate to each other, and how the hopeful author can navigate his way through them with the very necessary help of a dedicated and savvy agent/manager. Take his word for it, it's a jungle out there, folks. This is a book that seems as much directed at literary agents, who often seem to take a too narrow approach to their profession, as it is to writers. From the very first page you realize that Miller, who refers to himself as the Literary Lion, is passionate about what he does, and the authors and works he represents. More than that, he is passionate about the written and cinematic arts in general. Beginning with the page of kudos and praises from Miller's loyal clients and associates, to the handy glossary of publishing and movie biz terms in the back of the book. you get it that he knows what he's talking about, so listen up! The dominant theme of the book is stated in Step #5 in the introductory chapter: The Five Steps To Success As A Writer: Realize that your script could be a book and Vice Versa. As he himself states, his strongest piece of advice is to turn that screenplay into a novel, and though he refrains from treating this idea as a mantra, he builds chapter by chapter, a case for the concept. Miller soft peddles nothing, emphasizing just how difficult a task is the road to publication, and hopefully to cinema; how important it is to know the game and follow its rules. In forceful and highly readable anecdotal fashion, Miller walks you through the jungle. When you come across a paragraph that begins: "In my experience, as in: "In my experience, the key to success in the film industry is packaging...", your attention ratchets up a notch, and you read a bit slower to absorb the benefit of all that experience he's sharing with you.