The Creative Writer's Companion: Selling Your Ideas for Movies, Books, Electronic Media, and More [Paperback]

Stanley J. Corwin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 9, 2001 | ISBN-10: 0312252765 | ISBN-13: 978-0312252762 | Edition: 1st

The 21st century yields more outlets than ever for creative ideas -- magazines, books, web sites, games, movies, and more. Corwin updates the classic "how to sell your writing" book by encouraging readers to be broader and more flexible in their thinking. He demonstrates how to get ideas in the hands of decision makers in a variety of industries and describes how one idea can be parlayed into success in many outlets. Readers will learn how a book can turn into a screenplay, a comic book into an action figure, a magazine piece into website content. They will also be given specific advice on how to package ideas that will get noticed in the publishing, film. television, and internet content industries.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

One would be wise to focus not on this book's title, but on its subtitle. The book has little to do with creative writing. It has everything to do with creative marketing, for people who write--for people who, like Stan Corwin, see the word exploit and its derivatives as having positive connotations. Not that we have anything against milking an idea for all it's worth ... we just don't want anyone to be misled. What Corwin is interested in here is creating a product "that can be marketed in several different areas." Forget the old "if you loved the book, see the movie" cliché, says Corwin. "If you loved the book," he says, "see the cable special, listen to the tape, play the electronic game, and put the calendar on your desk."

"Your expertise in the field you are writing about is a tangible asset in your book presentation," says Corwin, and indeed, he is unusually qualified to have written this book. In the late 1980s, he published a book-tape combo called Is Elvis Alive? that became a New York Times bestseller. That segued into a television special, an is-Elvis-dead toll-call poll (1 million people paid $1 each to make that call), and a toll-free Elvis-product line, which featured yet another book and a video. Corwin was there at the beginning for Dr. Stillman's Quick Weight Loss Diet, Al Secunda's The 15 Second Principle, Elaine Partnow's Quotable Woman, and Helen Santmyer's And Ladies of the Club. "There is a whole new media world out there ready to be exploited for the right commercial media or book property," says Corwin. You just have to hit upon next year's "trendy topical subjects" and know how to market them. Corwin's primer, 172 pages though type size and white space are both generous, discusses the creation and protection of your idea, the media marketplace, the publishing world, and the various spin-off markets: movies, television, audio and video, the Internet, and merchandising. --Jane Steinberg

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 1st edition (April 9, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312252765
• ISBN-13: 978-0312252762
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,962,817 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, March 4, 2002

By 

Jesus A. Alvarado (Pasadena, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Creative Writer's Companion: Selling Your Ideas for Movies, Books, Electronic Media, and More (Paperback)

The book falls short speciallly because of the foreword by Syd Field. The author just kept repeating the the same imformation throughout the whole book. On each chapter he tells about the different ideas he came up with, but there is a lack of information on how to get started, and resources that could guide you even further. There isn't even a bibliography of websites and other books. Beyond the idea, you won't know where to go, or how to make it roll. I think that these days a book should include resources specially from the internet since we are living in a digital era.