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Writer's Access File Drawer #5

Ref 89. In movies' title credits, what does it mean "written by"? How different is that from the screen play and in what format(If there is any)is it written. I'll appreciate as much details about it as
possible. Thank you...

Ref 90. Response to ref 89: Sorry, you have the wrong department. you might be able to get an answer from the screenwriting section of the Hollywood network. Sorry, Meg.

Ref 91. Do you happen to have an e-mail address for George E. Berkley. I'm hoping that he knows of a source
for his book Vienna and Its Jews. I've given away my own copy three times
now, and my bookstore tells me that the publisher says it is out of stock and
has given no date for a new printing. Thanks.

Ref 92. Response to ref 91. Sorry, I don't have any kind of address for George E. Berkley. You might try writing to him in care of his publisher. Or you might look for the book in used book stores. Or you could check if he's listed in Infoseek's e-mail list. The URL for that is http://guide.infoseek.com/Reference?pg=email.html&sv=IS&lk=noframes
Hope some of this was helpful. Meg

Ref 93. How many pages should a treatment have? How long the agents expect a treatment to be? (rule of thumb)

Ref 94. what doe sit mean when a publishers says that they are *pricing out* your book proposal? Thanks

Ref 95. Response to Ref 93. Sorry, You need to try the Internet Screenwriters network with this question. Scroll to the top of this page and you'll see a link to it. Meg

Ref 96. Response to Ref94. Good question. I'm not really sure of the answer, but I would imagine it means they are working out a profit and loss statement, deciding what it would cost to publish the book you have proposed, and how much profit they can reasonably expect to realize from it. I can't think what else it would mean. Good luck, Meg

Ref 98. I love writing since I was a child. I have a thousand things on a thousand papers, but I never found a complete long story to write on with a beginning and an end. People use to love the things I write and that is my favourite way to communicate all of me. I just feel so full when I write, It is so intense... I have a million stories going around my thoughts but I never started something seriously, and working on it night and day. I just write when I am in the mood and after a few days when I take a second look to it, I think: How the hell could I write all this? Have i done this all by myself? Where did it came from? And then I feel like writing and reading all the time... I think writing is the best thing I could develope about myself, but I don't know, there is something there that doesn't let me fly yet... By the way, I never liked to show what I was writing before, I felt so naked, embarrased, so shy about people reading what I wrote, but lately I am showing my staff now and then, and I am starting to feel good about it... Do I really need a whole story to write a book? How can I tie up all the things in my mind together and communicate to the world all I feel? When I start writing a story is like a hundred different ways in front of me, and I cannot stay walking-writing on just one, I jump from one way to another, and then I get lost... happily lost I may say. I know I want to write, I know I can do that, I know what to write about and then... Why am I saying all this? I guess this is just that I need a path to follow. I am missing so much my literature teacher giving me a theme for my homework. Well, I guess it sounds silly and confussing, but it probably express I am confussed, with all these thoughts and hopes flying around my mind. Sometimes I get exhausted of living by myself with my imagination working full-time. I would rather share as I cannot get ride of it. Don't you think? I think I need some help. Would you help me? Any suggestions? Sorry about my spelling and all that related to the language. I am from Europe and English is just my second language, and as you can see, I am still "improving". Thank you for taking your time to read all this. (Well, I hope you do). Bye now.

Ref 99. I don't know if you can help with this sort of question or not, since it is about a magazine article.
Last May I submitted an article to a magazine (my first!) because I noticed in one of their sections was a letter from a reader asking how to cope with a problem from which I had a true experience with. I decided to send in my article because I definitely saw a market for my story. I had not heard any response and was getting ready to resubmit or ask if they had received my article, when in my November issue of this magazine I saw that they had a response from other readers to help this lady cope with her problem. In those responses was a snippet of my submitted article. I was flabbergasted! and a little happy I guess to know my article didn't end up in a slush pile and was at least read. However, my dilemma is now what do I do! I wrote them a letter asking if they had plans to do anything further with my article, because if not I would like to submit to other magazines. Do you think this was the right step and don't I have rights, since I clearly stated in my cover letter that this was an article I was submitting based on my experience and that I felt there was a reader's market at that time. How can they just take a bit and use it like that?

S.H.

Ref 100.
Response to ref 98: I'm going to try to answer your questions as best I can, but it's not easy! I recently published a book titled "How To Write YOUR Novel," and it took me 26 years of writing to learn everything that's in there and almost a year to write it. So you can see it's hard to condense an answer. I don't like to sound as if I'm pushing my own work here, but if you think such a book would be helpful to you, you can obtain it from www.Amazon.com. One of the most important things I ever learned about writing a novel was that you don't need to have the whole thing all mapped out in your head before you start preparing to write. However, I also found out that I need to have the whole thing mapped out on paper before I begin the actual writing. What you need to do is to take one of the things you have written and see what you can do to develop it. Ask it questions. What kind of book is this? Is it a mystery, a romance, a science fiction story or what? Who is the main character? Who has the mgain or lose in this book? That person would be the main character. Where is this book set? Write down your answers. Look at the books you most enjoy reading. How are they put together? How are the characters presented? How does the story develop.

One of the mistakes most beginning writers make is to think that they have to get the story right the first time. We are not carving in granite here. Everything that is written can be and should be and usually must be rewritten. Nobody gets it right the first time.

Choose your favorite piece of the things you are writing and try to impose some kind of order on it. Keep working on it. Don't lose patience and start writing something else or you will never finish anything. Just keep working on that one piece until you get it into book form. Don't try to write it into book form at first. Write it in summary form as though you were telling the story to a good friend.

I've found it's best not to show things to friends and relatives. Their judgment is usually clouded by their feelings for you. Especially people who work for you. How can they tell you if they don't like it?

Good luck. If you have any "specific" questions as you go, feel free to post them here. Meg.

Ref 101. Response to Ref 99: Of course you have rights. You don't even need to state them on the manuscript. According to the law, copyright is secured automatically when a work is created in tangible form. In this particular case, a lot depends on what kind of magazine this is and what their policies are. Here are some questions you might ponder and answer to your own satisfaction. Have you read the submissions requirements in the magazine? Do they offer to pay for submissions? Which editor was your manuscript sent to? If it went to the letters to the editor person, then I guess s/he could use it in the letters section. If, on the other hand it was sent to the articles editor or the features editor I don't see that they had any right to take a bit out and print it without letting you know.

I think I'd call up the editor you sent the manuscript to and try to get an answer. If you cannot get any satisfaction, drop the magazine a note telling them you are withdrawing the article and then submit it elsewhere. I hope some of this helps. Meg.

Ref 79. Hi. I am Adite from New Delhi, India. I am writing a romance and I was wondering whether Mills & Boon or Harlequin Romances would be int- erested in my novel? Since the Literary Marketplace or the Pink Pages are not on the Internet, would you be able to help me with some names and addresses of editors? Many thanks

Ref 81. Response to Ref 79. Senior Editor Tessa Shapcott, Mills & Boon, Editorial Dept. Eton House, 18-24 Paradise Rd. Richmond Surrey TW9 1SR United Kingdom. Mills & Boon prefers to see a synopsis and three chapters (first three chapters) or the complete manuscript. Enclose stamped self-addressed envelope and international reply coupons for return of manuscript. Harlequin Romances are at the same address now. Check out Harlequin's Homepage on the web at http://www.romance.net Good luck, Meg

Ref 82. What a magnificent service! This is Al Newman in Sacramento wanting to get out of the selling morass and back to writing. I've written a scientific -- not science fiction -- novel that fundamentally has to remain at over 200,000 words in length. Disaster: a volcanic cinder cone arises in the channel outside the Golden Gate Bridge. Intrigue: the US Government apparently wanted to hush up the impending threat. Those who have read it have judged, "A book? Yeah. But a movie? A sure winner." So, I'm dipping my toe in the waters of motion pictures. Could you advise me as to how I might proceed to present my work to producers, directors, or other motion picture potentates? Is there a book or article on the subject? Many thanks. Al Newman (gobelize@inreach.com)

Ref 83. Well Al, after being referred to as magnificent (I'm taking all the credit) I hate to disappoint, but you've really gone outside my area of expertise, such as it is. I deal only with novels here because that's what I know about. I will say that 200,000 words would be a very hard sell in the novel world, though perhaps not impossible. When it comes to movies, you'll need to consult someone else, I'm afraid. You might scroll down this page to the box at the bottom and click on screenwriting. Good luck! Meg

Ref 84. Response to Ref 82: Oops, sorry, I forgot to note on my answer that it was a response. Please check ref 83. (I"ve been talking nonstop at a writers conference for two days and I'm mildly brain dead! Cheers, Meg.

Ref 85. Hi Meg, I could use your viewpoint: I've managed to sell YA novels but I can't get publishers to take on my adult ms. My agent does even want to push my adult manuscripts because he feels they're "too literary" (his term) and it would not be worthwhile for him to invest his time/energy. I thought about getting another agent but I'm beginning to think that my changing agents might not be the answer. Any suggestions? Thanks, Jim

Ref 86. Response to Ref.85. Well,Jim. I guess tough questions are a challenge. First of all, I would never tell you to change your agent, but I must say that usually a good agent will handle all of a writer's work. For example, my agent would not normally handle short stories, but she handles mine because I also write books. Secondly, it seems rare to me that an agent would dismiss a book as being too literary. Literary is good, as far as I'm concerned. It may not be commercial of course, which means your agent is looking for the bottom line. As are most agents. And who can blame them. Being a literary agent is a business after all, and businesses have to show a profit. Evidently your agent doesn't think this is a profitable project. So only you can decide how dear this project is to your heart. If this is really what you want to write and you are convinced it is good, then perhaps you have a decision to make regarding your current representative. You might ask your agent to level with you and tell you if he feels the book is really too literary, or if he has some other reason for refusing to handle it. Apart from that suggestion, I don't have much to offer. You could try to market it yourself, but many publishers don't want to look at unsolicited unagented work so it would take a lot of patience.. Worth a try though. I hope some of this is of some help. Good luck, Meg.

Ref 87. I'm not sure how to do this, but I have a question. I'm fifteen, I know HOW to write, but I don't know how to make a story. Do you know of any books I should read about writing fiction? I need to know how to develop chatactors and make a solid storyline.

Ref 88. Response to Ref 87: There are a lot of books on how to write fiction. You might check at your local library or school library. If you look at the copyright date inside the front cover you can see which books are the most recent. Writer's Digest --a monthly magazine--also publishes books on writing. So does The Writer Inc. My own book on How to Write YOUR Novel came out last November. It is available from The Writer Inc. Also, if you look back on the previous questions and answers on this bulletin board, including those in the archives, you will find quite a few hints. You might also check with your local community college to see if there is a course on creative writing. That's how I got started. We studied non-fiction as well as fiction and the techniques of both were very useful to me. I hope some of this will be helpful. If you come up with any specific questions, I'll be pleased to try to answer them. Good luck, Meg.

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