Spring has sprung!
May it bring a glorious bouquet of good luck to all!
It’s Spring!
Guest Post #1
My first guest post is from Albert Robbins III, host of Free Book Reviews.
And here it is:
Amazon Calls for Submissions from Script Writers
Amazon Studios invites film script writers for submissions.
They will have a chance to earn either $10 000 or $200,000 with their scripts.
Amazon Movie Studios?
Yes, Amazon is accepting scripts and full-length movies from amateur filmmakers, with Amazon intending on producing theatrical films from the winning ideas.
By submitting a script to the program, the writer grants Amazon Studios a free 45 days option on the script (down from 18 months, a steep reduction). If the script is deemed interesting by Amazon, they might then buy an 18 months option for $10 000. If they then decide to turn it into a movie, they buy the rights to a movie for $200 000. All money resulting from prizes won by the movie goes to the writer and if the movie makes over $60 million in US box office, the writer gets an additional $400 000.
If a revised script is selected, the writer keeps the initial $10 000 or $200 000 fee for his script and shares any prize money with the reviser on a 50-50 basis.
For scripts passing the first hurdle, Amazon Studios will run tests with the public to find out it the script generates interest. Based on the feedback from the public, Amazon Studios will decide whether or not to turn it into a movie. The rational behind their system is to create a crowd base selection system for script as opposed to the current selection system through agents and production companies.
For a book writer, this means that they retain all rights on the book and are only selling the rights to the script. When looking for a publisher, being in a position to say that the script based on the book has been shortlisted by Amazon Studios catapults the chances for a lucrative book contract to the top.
But that’s not all: Amazon is calling film-makers too!
If you can direct, edit, produce or pretty much do anything with a script you can jockey for a position on a film. This is not only a chance to showcase your skills but it is also a chance to make a name in the business.
About the Author:
Free Book Reviews is a blog that reviews indie books, interviews indie authors and generally talks about whatever amuses them in the literary world. If you are an author please feel free to submit your book for review and/or an author interview. If you are a reader feel free to check out any book listed on our blog. In any case please share this blog with as many people as you can!
You can find us at the following:
more thrills
A friend’s husband let me view one of my books on his iPad, via the Apple iBooks store, a few days ago.
After hearing some of the challenges other writers have experienced getting their books to translate well through Smashwords, I wasn’t sure what to expect. But mine translated out looking even better than I’d hoped.
Needless to say, I was thrilled and delighted. And inspired!
And then!
Free Book Reviews posted my very first blog interview!
So, one could say that February was a thrill-month of “firsts” for me. I’m still giddy and blushing.
And next!
The host will be guest-posting, here, as my very first guest.
This blog business is still a brand spanking new animal for me. I’m not convinced I’ll ever get the hang of it. But it sure would be nice, if the pegs started to fall into place. (pun intended)
And now I’m off to put a book on sale for Smashwords’ Read an eBook Week promotion. Think I’ll offer up To Touch Ice. –And keep my fingers crossed.
wishes
Valentine’s Day is fast approaching. And. As a writer of Love Stories, I’m wishing I could think of something profound to say. But all I wanna do is hug my pillow and go to sleep.
There’s a chill in the air. Rain’s tapping on my roof and dripping through the ceiling in my hall. But I’m warm, dry, and cozy.
I like a little chill and love rain — good sleeping weather — but not leaks. So, I’m also wishing I could afford to fix my roof. But, for now, a bucket or two will just have to do.
Still. Life is good. So I guess that’s as profound as anyone can expect.
~ Hope everyone had a Fun Fat Tuesday! ~
Hope everyone will have a Happy Valentine’s Day
&
A Pleasantly Productive Lent!
feeling brave
I must be feeling especially brave today. I actually gave my writer-info card to 3 people, 2 of them perfect strangers.
Considering that for most of my life I was a closet writer, too embarrassed to admit having a life aspiration to be a trashy love-story novelist (of paperback originals), handing over these cards was a momentous accomplishment.
I’ve also noticed that I’m running into more and more people who would like to join the Indie Writing world. So, I’m mentioning my favorite Facebook group (a writer’s group — Indie Writer’s Unite!) a good bit these days.
Life is good.
still a thrill
My third novel, Sapphire Wolf, published to Amazon December 15th. And to Smashwords December 21st. Transport Tales, Volume 1: Novan also went up on Smashwords on December 21st. Both have distributed out to Barnes and Noble, and to Kobo, so I’m quite excited.
Surprising that it’s still such a thrill to see a book appear as an author-page listing for the first time.
And. While checking for distribution, I discovered this anonymous 4-star review for Assorted Shorts on Barnes and Noble:
“The short stories are good. About half the book has stories and the rest are previews of other books. I didn’t read the previews, so I can’t say anything about them. If nothing else, read the stories, they are worth the time.”
So, double excitement. YaY!
a year gone by
Well. This year sure did fly past.
A lot of work, a lot of sad, and a lot of happy.
And now it’s time once more for
Happy Holiday Wishes.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Note to self: keep up with blog!
holidays
Well, it’s now officially Winter!
And the Holiday Season.
so:
Happy Hanukkah
Merry Christmas
Happy Kwanzaa
and may everyone’s New Year be especially blessed
tribute to friends
Last April, a dear friend gave me an article about a North Carolina (USA) author who was self-publishing, and doing well, through Kindle Direct Publishing.
I’d never heard of it. Didn’t even know what a “Kindle” might be. But — heart in hand — promptly “binged” more info and proceeded to get really excited … and then really busy.
While still reading the info-manual, I stumbled across a thread hosted by Robert W Walker called “What Moives Kindle Books Off The Shelf?” (now well into thread 2) — nice info-sharing folks.
Sampling more threads, I next stumbled onto mention of a Facebook Group called “Indie Writers Unite!” — fun, informative, supportive bunch.
From the folks in those two groups, I learned (among a host of other things) about an all-Indie publishing platform called Smashwords … which led to more excitement, more info-manuals, and more busy hours in pursuit of a previousy-allusive life-long writer’s dream. That dream even had a name: Indie Publishing.
And now it’s December. WoW!
This being the Holiday Season … seems only appropriate to stop and pay tribute to the friends and friendly folks who’ve made this such a life-expanding year.
Many thanks, much well wishing, and lots of good cheer to them ALL!!!
Anne McCaffrey ~ a legend in her own time
My favorite author died Monday. “Sad day in Mudville.”
(Ironically, the same day I started up this blog.)
She began publishing short stories in 1952, before I was even born, but published her first novel, Restoree, in 1967. I started 6th grade that year, and changed schools when my father came home from Vietnam.
Both teachers were remarkable women, but the second was an amazing lady named Ms. Glenn who read a few pages of The Jungle Book to us each day after lunch. My biggest challenge in life, back then, was learning fractions.
Funny what sticks in the mind with the passing of years. I still love The Jungle Book.
My first “adult” novels were Gone With The Wind and The Love Machine — because that’s what a neighbor-lady handed me to read — during the summer of 1970. Anna Karenina came next, bought from a school book fair. Little did I know my favorites would be romantic sci-fi. And that some of them were in the process of being penned.
Dragonflight, the first Dragonriders of Pern book, was published in 1968 (Dragonquest in 1971). According to Wikipedia, the third, The White Dragon, was the first sci-fi title to make The New York Times Best Seller List — in 1978. Major wow!
That was the year my son was born. It was also the year my brother came home from school and tossed a copy of Dragonflight at me. I promptly fell in love with Anne McCaffrey. (And promptly scrapped a story I had going that would’ve sounded like a cheap attempt at imitation.)
I’d become an avid reader of sci-fi, by then, but Arthur Conan Doyle reigned as my favorite author. I still love Sherlock Holmes. But McCaffrey wrote novels that hit more buttons: mystery, fantastical science, romance … with mind-bending intricate imagination. A master world-builder, that lady:
Lothar, Brain-Ships, Pern, Ballybran, Doona, Ireta,
Demeathorn, Towers, Petaybee, Botany, Vhiliinyar, …
She will be missed.
Anne McCaffrey, 1926-2011
holder of a lengthy list of awards and points of distinction:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_McCaffrey
a true legend in her own time
may she dance on rainbows … as the rain
and laugh in the sun … as stardust on the wind
